{"id":634,"date":"2021-07-14T23:59:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T23:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agilisbooks.com.au\/?p=634"},"modified":"2021-07-15T00:00:22","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T00:00:22","slug":"demystifying-your-balance-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/?p=634","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying your Balance Sheet"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><b>Unclear on the story your Balance Sheet tells? Not sure how to calculate key ratios to measure the strength of your business? Agilis Books can help! The stronger your Balance Sheet is, the stronger your business will be.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-635 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Agilis-Books-JULY-Blog-Image-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"445\" height=\"296\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you understand the story your Balance Sheet conveys about your business? It is important you understand the components of your Balance Sheet and the key ratios that measure the health of your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Why is the Balance Sheet Important?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here, we have 4 reasons why as a business owner, it is important to understand your Balance Sheet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><b>1. It measures the net worth of your business.<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Balance Sheet is made up of all of your assets and liabilities; your net worth is your total assets less total liabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current assets are assets which are expected to be converted into cash within 12 months; current liabilities are expected to be paid within 12 months.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Non-current assets are not expected to be converted into cash in the short-term; non-current liabilities are long-term liabilities which are not expected to be paid within 12 months.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your net worth is the owners\u2019 interest in the business. In other words, if your business were to be wound up this is how much you would be left with as the owner of the business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><b>2. It tells you if your business is solvent.<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Solvency is the acid test for survival. If your business is insolvent, without immediate action to remedy this, it is unlikely to survive for long. There are two components to solvency:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Current ratio greater than 1 (current assets \/ current liabilities)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Positive net assets (total assets &#8211; total liabilities)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your business is insolvent, you will struggle to pay bills on time, and you may be personally at risk. It is imperative you seek help immediately if your business is insolvent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><b>3. It allows you track the strength of your business.<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By comparing your Balance Sheet to previous periods, you can track whether your net worth is increasing or decreasing. The stronger your Balance Sheet, the easier it will be for your business to survive a downturn. For example, if your retained earnings are diminishing over time, it is clear that you need to take action to strengthen your Balance Sheet to ensure you\u2019ll receive value upon the wind up or sale of your business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #99cc00;\"><b>4. You can calculate key ratios.<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key ratios not only allow you to compare your results year on year or to industry benchmarks, but they also highlight areas for improvement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, calculating your debtor days may show that it takes on average 35 days for customers to pay you. If your payment terms are within 7 days of invoice, it is clear that your debtor processes need to be strengthened.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps you calculate how long it takes inventory to sell and see it is taking twice as long to sell this year than it did last year, or maybe a specific product is taking a lot longer to sell than others, which may indicate you should discontinue it. Key ratios calculated using your Balance Sheet can tell you a multitude of things.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Talk to us about understanding your Balance Sheet.<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every business owner should be able to read their Balance Sheet and understand what it is telling them. If you need help demystifying your Balance Sheet and identifying key areas for improvement, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">contact Agilis Books<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> today!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>This blog was originally published by The Gap, but has had edits made by Agilis Books for the benefit of our readers.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unclear on the story your Balance Sheet tells? Not sure how to calculate key ratios to measure the strength of your business? Agilis Books can help! The stronger your Balance Sheet is, the stronger your business will be.\u00a0 &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-financial","category-small-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agilisbooks.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}