Financial Statements

See: Income Statement. See: Balance Sheet. See: Cash Flow Statement.

"I made money." "I lost money." Those are financial statements.

"I have lots of cash." "I have lots of debt." "I generated a lot of cash this quarter." More financial statements.

The actual numeric rendition of these verbal statements represent the actual financial statements, which are filed with all kinds of accountants and lawyers looking over shoulders for companies reporting results to their shareholders and/or owners.

In publicly traded companies, three key financial statements are required in order to comply with disclosure laws. Those are: income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement reports, each of which have their own peculiar little format demands.

If you end up being a high-end accountant or investment banker, for better or worse, your financial statement will be "Wow, these got really boring after college."