A balance sheet of a company is a financial statement that depicts the assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity of the company at a point of time, usually at the end of the accounting year. A balance sheet of a company is reported in a vertical format which is different from that of a partnershiRead more
A balance sheet of a company is a financial statement that depicts the assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity of the company at a point of time, usually at the end of the accounting year. A balance sheet of a company is reported in a vertical format which is different from that of a partnership where the horizontal format is used.
COMPONENTS OF A BALANCE SHEET
The three main components of a balance sheet are Assets, Liabilities and Shareholders’ equity.
- Assets: They are divided into two main categories that are current assets and non-current assets. If an asset is expected to be realised within 12 months or is primarily held for being traded, or is cash or cash equivalent, then those assets are termed as current assets. All assets that are not current assets are grouped under non-current assets. They are normally realised after 12 months.
- Liabilities: They are categorised as current liabilities and non-current liabilities. If the amount owed by the company to an outside party is due to be settled in 12 months, then it can be termed as a current liability. The rest of the liabilities are referred to as non-current liability.
- Shareholders’ Equity: This is the money owed to the owners of the company, that is shareholders. It is also called net assets since it is equal to the difference between total assets and total liabilities. Their main categories are Shareholders’ Capital and Reserves and Surplus.
FORMAT OF BALANCE SHEET
As per the Companies Act 2013, the following format should be used for preparing a balance sheet.

From the above Balance sheet, we should get:
Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity
Relevant notes for each component should also be prepared when necessary.
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A Profit and Loss (P&L) statement is a financial statement that records a summary of all expenses and incomes of a business during a period of time. It helps in determining the financial performance of the business. After recording all transactions in an account, if the debit side is greater thaRead more
A Profit and Loss (P&L) statement is a financial statement that records a summary of all expenses and incomes of a business during a period of time. It helps in determining the financial performance of the business.
After recording all transactions in an account, if the debit side is greater than the credit side, then the account is said to have a debit balance. Similarly, if the credit side is greater than the debit side, then the account has a credit balance.
In a P&L account, when the expenses (debit) are greater than the incomes (credit), the business is said to be in a net loss. This loss is what we call the debit balance of a Profit and Loss account. A P&L account with a debit balance can be subtracted from Capital or be shown on the asset side of the Balance Sheet.
As you can see above, the net loss is shown on the right side of the P&L account. This represents the debit balance of P&L. Once it is transferred to the balance sheet, it is either subtracted from capital or shown on the asset side as shown in the second image. However, they cannot be shown on both sides of the balance sheet at the same time.
However, if the credit side is greater, that is if income is greater than expenses, then the P&L account shows a credit balance which is also known as net profit. This profit is added with Capital to show the final balance in the Balance Sheet.
Debit balance of Profit & Loss account is not preferable for a business. Hence they should put in efforts to either reduce costs or increase their income to gain profits.
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