Читать книгу Reading Financial Reports For Dummies - Lita Epstein - Страница 34

Financial reporting requirements don't exist for sole proprietors unless they seek funding from outside sources, such as a bank loan or a loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration. When a business seeks outside funding, the funding source likely provides guidelines for how the business should present financial information.

When sole proprietors apply for a business loan, they fill out a form that shows their assets and liabilities. In addition, they're usually required to provide a basic profit and loss statement. Depending on the size of the loan, they may even have to submit a formal business plan stating their goals, objectives, and implementation plans.

Even though financial reports aren't required for a sole proprietorship that isn't seeking outside funding, it makes good business sense to complete periodic profit and loss statements to keep tabs on how well the business is doing and to find any problems before they become too huge to fix. These reports don't have to adhere to formal generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP; see Chapter 17), but honesty is the best policy. You're fooling only yourself if you decide to make your financial condition look better on paper than it really is.