Читать книгу Entrepreneurial Finance - Robert D. Hisrich - Страница 38

The basic accounting equation must always be maintained; total assets must equal total liabilities plus total shareholders’ equity. With some effort and interpretation, assets, liabilities, and equity can be used to generate a picture of the company's health at a particular moment in time. In the real world, the venture's balance sheet will undoubtedly be composed of more items than have been described here, but the format of the balance sheet will be similar to the one presented.

All entrepreneurs need to develop a clear understanding of accounting principles. The first accounting concept should be the balance sheet. The balance sheet represents a view of the firm at a particular point in time.

In Chapter 4, we will explore the balance sheet using ratio analysis. Analysis of the balance sheet can be very helpful in generating insights into management's capabilities, trends in the firm's performance over time, and the firm's performance vis-à-vis peer groups at a point in time.