Updated: Sep 2, 2019
The Statement of Financial Position (a.k.a Balance Sheet using Canadian ASPE accounting standards) presents the company's total assets, liabilities and the netted amount - called shareholder's equity.
Assets are resources that the entity owns (or effectively owns), to generate future economic benefit. Examples of assets are: cash, accounts receivable, inventories, properties, equipment, investments, etc..
Liabilities are financial or legal obligations that an entity may accrue over the course of doing business. Examples of liabilities include: accounts payable, bank loans outstanding and mortgages.
Shareholder's Equity represents how much the company's shareholders own, if assets were sold off to pay the company's liabilities.
Assets - Liabilities = Shareholder's Equity
In North America items are usually presented in order of liquidity, with the most liquid elements first. A sample statement of Financial Position/Balance Sheet, can be found, below.
* In ASPE standards, there is no concept of Accumulated and Other Comprehensive Income, so this category will not exist.
If there are assets that fall under both “current” and “non-current” (for example, certain inventory may be expected to be sold after 12 months, while others are expected to be sold within 12 months), the non-current portion should be disclosed in the Notes to the financial statements.
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