#financial-statements
Understand and prepare balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports
COGS equals beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory — two careful counts decide your gross profit, pricing, and tax.
Assets minus liabilities equals equity — and three ratios (current, quick, debt-to-equity) tell you in five minutes whether your business is solvent.
Operating cash flow, not net income, shows whether your business generates cash — read all three sections in five minutes a month.
Total debits must equal total credits before you close — the trial balance proves it, then feeds your balance sheet.
Book profit and IRS taxable income differ by design — meals at 50%, fines at zero, MACRS timing gaps. Reconcile both before setting estimated payments.
A contra account offsets its parent without erasing it: accumulated depreciation, allowance for doubtful accounts, and sales returns show gross and net.
HPE's record $12.2B quarter (+33.7%) came from Juniper networking and memory-driven server prices, with inventory at $11.8B and a $444M one-time gain.
MongoDB's Q2 FY2027: $771.8M revenue (+30.5%), $40.9M GAAP net income, and $148.9M of stock-based compensation inside it, read line by line from the 10-Q.
Cal-Maine's conventional egg price fell 59.3% in Q1 FY2027, turning $199.3M of profit into a $58.6M loss. Five years of filings show the full commodity cycle.
Cintas Q1 FY2027 revenue rose 10.9% to $3.01B with a record 51.5% gross margin; five years of filings show which cost lines moved it.
Stitch Fix grew FY2026 revenue 6.4% to $1,348.1M on 1.4% fewer clients and cut its net loss to $12.6M, but FY2027 guidance implies a decline.
Delaware's high court upheld SB 21: shareholder inspections now cover only formal records — minutes, board materials, financials. What founders must do.
