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The format of a statement of financial position is not specified by any authoritative pronouncement. Instead, formats and titles have developed as a matter of tradition and, in some cases, through industry practice.

Two basic formats are used:

1 The balanced format, in which the sum of the amounts for liabilities and equity are added together on the face of the statement to illustrate that assets equal liabilities plus equity.

2 The less frequently presented equity format, which shows totals for assets, liabilities, and equity, but no sums illustrating that assets less liabilities equal equity.

Those two formats can take one of two forms:

1 The account form, presenting assets on the left‐hand side of the page and liabilities and equity on the right‐hand side.

2 The report form, which is a top‐to‐bottom or running presentation.

The three elements customarily displayed in the heading of a statement of financial position are:

1 The legal name of the entity whose financial position is being presented.

2 The title of the statement (e.g., statement of financial position or balance sheet).

3 The date of the statement (or statements, if multiple dates are presented for comparative purposes).

The entity's legal name appears in the heading exactly as specified in the document that created it (e.g., the certificate of incorporation, partnership agreement, LLC operating agreement, etc.). The legal form of the entity is often evident from its name when the name includes such designations as “incorporated,” “LLP,” or “LLC.” Otherwise, the legal form is either captioned as part of the heading or disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. A few examples are as follows:

 ABC Company

 (a general partnership)

 ABC Company

 (a sole proprietorship)

 ABC Company

 (a division of DEF, Inc.)

The use of the titles “statement of financial position,” “balance sheet,” or “statement of financial condition” infers that the statement is presented using generally accepted accounting principles. If, instead, some other comprehensive basis of accounting, such as income tax basis or cash basis is used, the financial statement title must be revised to reflect this variation. The use of a title such as “Statements of Assets and Liabilities—Income Tax Basis” is necessary to differentiate the financial statement being presented from a GAAP statement of financial position.

The last day of the fiscal period is used as the statement date. Usually, this is a month‐end date unless the entity uses a fiscal reporting period always ending on a particular day of the week such as Friday or Sunday. In these cases, the statement of financial position would be dated accordingly (i.e., December 26, October 1, etc.).

Statements of financial position generally are uniform in appearance from one period to the next with consistently followed form, terminology, captions, and patterns of combining insignificant items. If changes in the manner of presentation are made when comparative statements are presented, the prior year's information must be restated to conform to the current year's presentation.

The classification and presentation of information in a statement of financial position may be highly aggregated, highly detailed, or anywhere in between. In general, highly aggregated statements of financial position are used in annual reports and other presentations provided to the public. Highly detailed statements of financial position are used internally by the entity. The following highly aggregated statement of financial position includes only a few line items. The additional details required by GAAP are found in the notes to the financial statements.