BEC综合素材：Balance Sheet 资产负债表

A financial statement that summarizes a company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time. These three balance sheet segments give investors an idea as to what the company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by the shareholders.

The balance sheet must follow the following formula:

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity 

It’s called a balance sheet because the two sides balance out. This makes sense: a company has to pay for all the things it has (assets) by either borrowing money (liabilities) or getting it from shareholders (shareholders’ equity). 

The balance sheet is one of the most important pieces of financial information issued by a company. It is a snapshot of what a company owns and owes at that point in time. The income statement, on the other hand, shows how much revenue and profit a company has generated over a certain period. Neither statement is better than the other — rather, the financial statements are built to be used together to present a complete picture of a company’s finances.