There is typically a separation between ownership and management in public co~gorations.
Financial statements serve as the vehicle through which owners keep track of their fir11-15'
financial situation. On a periodic basis, firms typically produce four financial reports:
1 An income statement that describes the operating perfonnance during a time period.
2 A balance sheet that states the firm's assets and how they are financed.
3 A cash flow statement that sum~nar-izes the cash flows of the firnl.
4 A statement of compr.eliensive income that outlines the sources of non-owner changes
in equity during the period between two consecutive balance sheets.'
These statements are acconipanied by notes that provide additional details on the financial
statement line items, as well as by management's narrative discussion of the firm's
performance in the Management Report sectio11.~
To evaluate effectively the quality of a firm's financial statement data, the analyst needs
to first understand the basic features of financial reporting and the institutional framework
that go.el-ns them, ns discussed in the folloving sections.