Balance Sheet

What is a Balance Sheet?

A balance sheet reports a company's assets, liabilities and shareholders' equity at a specific point in time, and provides a basis for computing rates of return and evaluating its capital structure. Balance sheet includes assets on one side, and liabilities on the other. For the balance sheet to reflect the true picture, both heads (liabilities & assets) should tally. It is a financial statement that provides a snapshot of what a company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by shareholders.

Formula for Balance Sheet

The balance sheet adheres to the following equation, where assets on one side, and liabilities plus shareholders' equity on the other, balance out:

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity

As you might expect from its name, a balance sheet has to balance. The sum of all the assets a company has must be equal to the sum of all liabilities plus capital and reserves. The format of a Balance Sheet varies – sometimes assets are placed in one column and liabilities & equity in the other – but in KashFlow (known as capital and reserves in KashFlow), everything is shown in a single column.

Example of Balance Sheet