Thursday, May 14, 2015

Why the Balance Sheet Balances

Interesting name, “Balance Sheet.”  It quite literally means that the two sides of the sheet must balance.  There’s that non-marketing, highly-practical and no-nonsense financial and accounting approach you can and should expect from your financial partners. 

This is one of the most simple equations you will encounter in your business life, and it is ALWAYS solvable.  Let’s take a look at most basic construct:

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity

What makes this equation so eminently and easily solvable is that “Shareholders’ Equity is a “plug figure.”  That’s right – you just need to make Shareholders’ Equity the number that balances (with the liabilities) against the Assets side of the ledger. 


Since Shareholders’ Equity is a plug figure, you might question whether or not it is “real.”  In most accounting, little is “real.”  Accounting is a convention used to reconcile the financial performance of a company with a set of rules and guidelines that allow investors and owners the ability to compare it’s performance not only on a period-to-period basis, but as importantly, to alternative investments in other companies. 

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