Different Types of Financial Reports That a Business Needs

Prabhat Nigam

10 Sep, 2022

There are several types of financial reports that provide an insight into the past, present and future financial status of your business. Every business owner ought to have these financial reports prepared as it allows them to run their business more effectively, enable them to analyse their business operations and help in making informed decisions. There are many reports which can be prepared by the company, but the following financial reports must be prepared by every business owner to run his/her business optimally.   

This piece of writing discusses the different types of financial reports that every business owner needs to prepare to run his business operations smoothly.

Types of Financial Reports for a Business  

The following list contains the major financial reports that are required by every business to monitor, track and audit the financial transactions of an enterprise.  

• Income Statement: The income statement of a business entity is the financial statement which contains information about three main financial components of the enterprise, which include the revenues, profit and loss and the record of the expenses incurred by the enterprise during a specific accounting period. Revenues refer to the sales made after the sale of goods and services for a given accounting period. Profit and loss is the net income derived after deducting the expenses from the revenues made. Expenses refer to the cost incurred for running the day-to-day operations of the business.

• Balance sheet: A balance sheet is another financial statement which shows the financial position of the assets, liabilities and equity at the end of a specific accounting period. It helps to determine the net worth of the business by deducting the liabilities from the assets. Here, assets represent the resources that an enterprise owns. The two main classes of assets are current and non-current assets. Liabilities reflect the obligations which the enterprise owes other businesses and individuals and include the interests payable, taxes, loans etc. liabilities are divided into current liabilities and non-current liabilities. Equity, on the other hand, is the difference between assets and liabilities.    

• Cash flow statement: The statement of cash flow^[1] gives the picture of the movement of capital within the business organisation. It comprises both cash inflows and outflows. Cash flow can be put under three broad heads of activities such as operating activities, financing activities and investing activities. 

• Notes to accounts: They are also known as notes to financial statements. They are the supporting pieces of information that are provided along with the final accounts of a company. They are required to be provided under law and include details regarding the reserves, depreciation, inventory, share capital, provisions etc. The notes to accounts help the users of the accounting information to understand the existing financial position of the business and estimate its future performance. It also helps the auditors to determine whether the accounting policies have been properly implemented and reflected in the financial statements.    

• Bank reconciliation report: Bank Reconciliation Report is the record book of financial transactions from a bank account. This financial statement helps the account holder to check and keep a track record of their funds. It indicates the difference in specified data between the bank balance in the entity’s bank supplied by the bank and the corresponding amount shown in the entity’s own records, i.e. cash book.     

• Payroll Register: The payroll register is the financial statement which contains the record of the wage payment information of each employee of the organisation. It also shows the gross pay, tax withholding, deductions, net payment and other payroll-related information for every period and pay date. It gives the information in alphabetical order about all the employees paid during a particular time period.   

• Check Register: A check register, also known as a cash disbursements journal, is a record of all the checks and cash transactions that have been done by a business during a particular accounting period. The check register is maintained by the entity to calculate the balance of the entity of their checking account. Depending on the nature of your business number of verticals within the business, an entity can maintain more than one check register for each checking point, such as payroll check register, operating account check register etc.

• General Ledger Report: A general ledger report is the comprehensive summary of different parts of the accounting taking place in a business entity. It is the source through which other financial reports of a business entity are prepared, such as the balance sheet, profit and loss account report etc.   

• Business Analysis Report: A business analysis report draws financial information from financial statements like balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement. Such information is taken into account to calculate the performance metrics of the business. This report also helps in analysing the financial information of the organisation.

• Financial Analysis Report: A financial analysis report highlights the financial strengths and weaknesses of your business. It is a representation of the financial health of the enterprise to the investors. It talks about the investment essentials, valuation, risk analysis, detailed results etc.  

• Operations Analysis Report: An operations analysis report depicts the costs, expenses and sales made by the business enterprise. The report presents the monthly figures and comparisons can also be made between the figures of the previous years and current years. The operations analysis report also includes management reporting services, sales reports, purchase reports etc.

Conclusion 

The above discussion mentions different types of reports that every business owner needs to prepare to properly monitor the progress and gauge the financial status of the company. It is not mandatory by law to prepare all the above-mentioned reports; however, it is financially wiser to get these reports prepared so that decision-making is done after taking into consideration maximum possible financial metrics. This minimises the possibility of making false ill-informed decisions, and business is likely to move in the right direction.

Read our Article: What is Financial Reporting Services?