{"id":10263,"date":"2019-03-21T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=10263"},"modified":"2026-02-12T05:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:16:52","slug":"5-financial-reports-every-business-should-be-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/5-financial-reports-every-business-should-be-running\/","title":{"rendered":"5 financial reports every business should be running"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMoney Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t5 financial reports every business should be running\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tAvi Sucharevski<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Can financial reporting<\/a> analysis really help your business grow? Absolutely! To employ a data-driven finance approach, CFOs need to move finance functions up the analytic value chain to offer more detailed analyses, better forecasting, and increasingly granular information on products, suppliers, customers, and more. In turn, their analyses inform the business, increase corporate agility, and point the way to cost savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the 5 Financial Reports businesses can start analyzing to make better business decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Income Statement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The income statement indicates the profit and loss of a company over a period of time. It essentially takes all your income, revenue, or sales, and subtracts your expenses. In standard practice, you would want to see actuals for the month, quarter-to-date, year-to-date versus the budgeted or forecasted values or amounts from the prior two years. For best practice, you can have a rolling 12 month income statement, which would give you a stronger indication of how your company\u2019s sales and expenses<\/a> are changing over the past year. While it is often delivered as a quarterly statement, the income statement should ideally be issued monthly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having your income statement available on a daily basis will allow your CEO to know what your results are overall before month-end. Generally speaking, most expenses are in the same ballpark range, so reviewing the income statement two to three days before month-end should give your CEO and CFO a good idea of your company\u2019s profit. Key indicators to analyze within the income statement include margins, expenses as a percentage of sales and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about income statement check out our article with a free template for income statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Balance Sheet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The balance sheet shows your company\u2019s assets, liabilities, and equity at a point in time. By comparing your balance sheet year-over-year, you can see how these key aspects have changed, indicating whether or not the financial health of your company has improved or declined during this time frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More specifically, the level of liquidity of an item impacts where it is placed in the balance sheet, with more liquid assets (for example, trade debtors, inventory cash) called current assets, being classified separately from less liquid assets in the assets section. Similarly, current liabilities are also classified separately from long term liabilities in the liabilities section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The balance sheet provides key financial ratios that analysts and banks use to assess the health of your company, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n