Financial reports are essential to keeping stakeholders informed and ensuring transparency in your company’s finances. However, creating these reports can quickly become a time-consuming task due to manual data entry and disorganized systems. Fortunately, integrated FP&A tools can streamline this process and automate calculations, making it easier to create financial reports, track cash flow, budgets, and performance.
Whether you’re looking to make strategic decisions or stay in compliance with regulations, timely financial data is critical. That’s why companies rely on quarterly, yearly, or even monthly financial statements. However, the length of your reporting period should depend on the goals you set. For example, if you’re trying to compare revenue against forecasts or evaluate cost center performance, it might be better to produce a monthly report.
The balance sheet provides a snapshot of what your business owns (assets), owes (liabilities) and comprises (shareholder equity) at a given point in time, such as the end of a quarter or year. It should also clearly outline how these values change over the reporting period, including details like retained earnings, dividend distributions and stock issuances.
The income statement reveals your company’s total revenues and expenses over the reporting period, including sales and service revenue, inventory costs, and operational expenditures. It should use accrual accounting to match your revenue and expense amounts regardless of when cash comes in or goes out, displaying gross profit and net income as the result. An additional section can include a break down of non-operating income and investments.