A financial report is one of the most important pieces of information that a business can offer, not only for legal reasons but for consumer confidence in the business itself. However, they can be tricky if one does not know what they are doing. Here, then, is a step-by-step guide on how to write a financial report.
1. Ascertain what dates shall be written about. Some companies choose to release their report on an annual basis while others release their report on a quarterly schedule. Some companies even choose to release them monthly.
2. Check the company ledgers to make sure that all transactions have been accounted for. All of the accounting data needs to be correct or the financial report will be rendered completely useless. If any information is found to be missing, make sure to track down the pertinent documents.
3. The first page that should be drawn up is the balance sheet page. This will consist of any assets, liabilities, and equity accounts that the business holds. The balance sheet should be dated as valid for a specific date.
4. Next it is time to produce the income statement. This form will show all the money that a business has received and spent for the time period being reported. Make sure to break the income sources down so that each revenue stream can be looked at individually.
5. The costs of good sold need to be reported. This is the amount of money spent on developing or manufacturing the products.
6. Next up, operating expenses need to be reported. This category would include expenses that are required keep the business running such as employee pay, rent, utilities, etcetera.
7. Next in the process is the cash flows statement. This form reports both the sources and the uses of the cash that the company possesses. This should correspond with the income statement that was previously prepared.
8. Finally, the last report should entail all of the money created from the activity of financing. This will relate to the section of the report that dealt with equity.
9. If any special notes or addendum need to be included, they can be added at the end of the report.
Of course, if any of this sounds too confusing, a very simple way to get a financial report is to hire a financial report writer to perform the task for you.