Got to Love That Accounting Equation

A company’s financial position indicates theincrease and decrease in a stock are known as
amount of resources that they have, and also therevenues and expenses respectively and these
claims against those precious resources at anycome from operating a business whether online or
time. Claims can also be referred as equities. So, aoffline. If you’re online than an operating
company can be known as a combination ofexpense that you will have if you have your own
economic resources and equities. Economicwebsite is your domain name and hosting service.
Resource=Equities. No mater what type ofAnother example is if a customer agrees to pay
business your in, every type of company has twoyou in the near future for a service that the
different types of equities. They arecompany will perform.
creditor’s equity and owner’s equity. InThe money is recorded in the accounts receivable
another way Economic Resources= Creditors(asset account) which increase the asset value
Equities +Owners Equity. When using accountingbut decrease the stock holder’s equity
language, the economic resources a company hasamount which is an example of revenue.
at a particular time is called their assets? On theHowever, if a company promises to provide a
other hand the amount of creditor’s equity aservice in the future than this is known as an
company has is known as their liabilities.expense. When this happens the assets decrease
So here is the standard equation of accounting or(accounts receivable) and the liabilities (accounts
better known as the accounting equation:payable) is increased, which makes pretty good
Assets=Liabilities + Owner’s Equity. Similar tosense right? When the revenues exceed the
an algebraic equation, both sides of the equationexpenses this is known as the net income which
has to be equal. This equation comes in handyis good, and on the other hand when expenses
when analyzing the financial effects of yourare greater than revenues than this is known as
everyday business activities. Let’s talk aboutnet loss which means that you’re losing
a very important concept of any business. Assetsbusiness or your business costs more to operate
are known as the economic resources that athan what you make. Dividends are the
business has that are expected to generatedistribution of assets to stockholders which refer
money for them in the future. Some examplesto the past earnings.
are real estate and any other property that aDo not confuse expenses with dividends, because
business own so that they can rent out to people.they both are reducing the retained earnings
If a business is owed money than it goes intoamount. Retained earnings are the collected net
what is known as accounts receivable which areincome or revenues minus expenses. The financial
monetary items. However, there are somestatements are the main way for communicating
assets that are not physical. Some examples areinformation about a business to those who have
copyrights, trademarks, and patents, but they aresome type of interest in it. What helps me is to
still extremely valuable to a business.think of these statements as a type of model for
Next, liabilities are the obligations that a businessbusiness because they show how a business is
has such as paying cash, provide future servicesdoing in financial terms. However, like a variety of
to individuals, or transferring assets to anothermethods and models, financial statements are not
entity. These are known as the debt of aperfect and have their flaws. There are four main
business or the money that they have to owe infinancial statements, and they are income
the near future. All of these are recorded in thestatement, the statement of retained earnings,
accounts payable. As I’m sure you know,the balance sheet, and the statement of cash
having a lot of debt is not fun and liabilities/debtflows. What the income statement does is
are claims that are seen by the law. The lawsummarize the revenues earned or the money
gives creditor (People that money is owed to) themade, and the expenses or the money that is
right to push the sale of a company’s assetsdeducted from a business. Many accountants
if they don’t pay their debt on time. Creditorsconsider it the most important financial report
have a ton of rights over owners and they havebecause it makes it clear whether a business has
to be paid in full even before the owners receivemet its profitability goal.
anything. It is very possible for a debt toThe next one is the statement of retained
consume up all a company’s resources. Next,earnings, and it displays the retained earnings over
owner’s equity refers to the claim thata period of time. The time that the retained
owners of a business make in regards to theearnings will be zero is when a company first
assets they have. It is the residual interest or thestarted out in their accounting period. A lot of
remaining assets of a company after deductingcompanies use the statement of stockholder
the amount of entity liabilities.equity as a substitute of retained earnings. This is
Here is the equation for owner’s equity.a more detailed statement because it displays not
Owner equity=Assets-Liabilities. The owner’sonly the aspects of retained earnings but it also
equity within a particular corporation is referred asshows the changes in the stockholders equity
stockholders equity, so the equation then looksaccounts. Next, the financial situation of a business
like this. Assets=Liabilities +Stockholder’son a particular date, usually on the end of the
Equity. The stockholders equity has two distinctmonth or the year is the balance sheet. The
parts which are the contributed capital andbalance sheet displays the value of a business
retained earnings. Stockholder’saccording to their assets and the claims against
Equity=Contributed Capital + Retained Earnings.those assets which are the liabilities and the
The amount than an individual stockholder putsstockholders equity.
into a business is known as the contributed capital.Last, the statement of cash flows is geared
Contributed capital is usually divided into twotowards a company’s liquidity measures.
separate parts known as par value and “parThey are basically the flow and outflow of cash in
value” and “additional paid in capital.”a company. The net cash flow is the subtraction
The retained earnings are the amount of equitybetween the inflow and outflow of money. The
that is earned by stockholders from the incomestatement of cash flows also display the money
generating activities of a business that are keptgenerated by simply operating a business, and it
for future uses by a business. Retained earningsalso displays the investing and financing
are affected by three types of transactionstransactions that occurs during a particular
which are revenues, expenses, and dividends. Theaccounting period.