The balance sheet is a report that summarizes all of an entity’s assets, liabilities, and equity as of a given point in time. It is typically used by lenders, investors, and creditors to estimate the liquidity of a business.
Typical line items included in the balance sheet (by general category) are:
Assets:
Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, and Property, Plant and Equipment
Liabilities:
Accounts payable, short-term debt, and long-term debt
Shareholders’ equity:
Stock, Paid-In-Capital and Retained earnings.
Below is the raw data regarding the financial position that was collected for the study expressed as percentages:
| DESCRIPTION | %AGE |
| Cash & Marketable Securities | 11% |
| Accounts Receivable | 11% |
| Cash + AR | 22% |
| Inventory | 1% |
| Other Current Assets | 2% |
| Total Current Assets | 25% |
| Net Fixed Asset | 71% |
| Other Assets | 4% |
| Total Assets | 100% |
| Accounts Payable | 7% |
| Other Payables – Due in less than 1 year | 5% |
| Custom Deposits (Prepaids) | 2% |
| Total Current Liabilities | 14% |
| Long Term – Notes Payable | 72% |
| Loans from Shareholders | 3% |
| Total Liabilities | 89% |
| Owner Equity | 11% |
| Total Liabilities & Equity | 100% |
Important Distinction:
A balance Sheet is not a statement of net worth as assets are recorded at historic costs and may have appreciated or depreciated since being recorded. In addition, intangibles such as the value of customer relationships, which can be significant for the most part will not be on the balance sheet.
It should be emphasized that every respondent provided services in multiple service lines, but balance sheets were reported on an entire entity basis. This means the ratios calculated from balance sheet results should be interpreted on a company wide basis as opposed to a particular service segment.
