What are company assets for dummies. Assets and liabilities - what are they? Easy and simple. Difference between liability and asset

Trading on the stock market (as well as on any other market) requires a certain preliminary analysis of the financial instruments being traded. For example, purchasing shares requires, at a minimum, an assessment of the issuing company based on such basic criteria as profit for the last reporting year, the ratio of real value to market capitalization of the company, etc. You don’t want to face another soap bubble or invest your money in another financial pyramid?

When starting to analyze the issuing company of shares being considered for purchase, a trader inevitably encounters such concepts as its assets and liabilities. These terms, which are very familiar to any accountant, are sometimes incomprehensible to many, especially novice traders trading in the stock market. Meanwhile, without these concepts it is impossible to conduct a high-quality fundamental analysis and assess the attractiveness of the shares of a particular company as an investment object. I suggest you now spend 5 minutes of your time to fill this annoying gap in your knowledge.

Let's start briefly. In simple terms, assets include everything material (premises, equipment, working capital etc.) and intangible ( trademark, intellectual property, etc.) company property. And liabilities include all the company’s obligations (debt on a loan or overdraft, etc.).

Assets and liabilities represent the two halves of a company's balance sheet, and ideally they should balance each other out to form a balance sheet.

And now more details. Let's look at each of these concepts separately, take them apart, and then put them back together.

Company assets

This is the left side of the company's balance sheet. This is where everything that it actually possesses and from which it can derive economic benefit is displayed.

According to the interpretation International standards financial statements (IFRS), assets include all those resources of the company over which it has gained control in the past and economic benefits from which are expected in the future.

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) identify three essential characteristics of assets:

1. The company's assets allow it to receive, in the long term, economic benefits due to its potential (both each asset separately and their combination with each other). And this, in turn, leads to an increase in net cash flows;
2. The company can not only benefit from the use of a particular asset, but also control it;
3. The event (transaction) that led to the company's control over the benefit from the asset has already occurred.

The company's assets can be classified into the following categories:

1. By nature of use in the current activities of the company:

• Negotiable;
• Non-negotiable.

1. By form:

• Material;
• Intangible;
• Financial.

1. By degree of liquidity:

• Highly liquid;
• Low liquidity;
• Illiquid.

1. By source of formation:

• Gross;
• Clean.

In addition, the following categories of assets can be distinguished separately:

1. Hidden assets;
2. Imaginary assets.

Current assets include those that are used to maintain the daily functionality of the company. These include that part of material reserves that is consumed in current production, accounts receivable, and also just cash, used for current mutual settlements.

Non-current assets do not participate in the current activities of the company; they are withdrawn from circulation, but are reflected in the company’s balance sheet. These include long-term financial investments(the payback period of which is in the relatively distant future), various intangible assets etc.

All assets that have a material form are called tangible. This is all that you can literally touch with your hands: office furniture, production premises, equipment, tools, computers, etc., etc..

Intangible assets, accordingly, are called everything that, although it exists in fact (and costs some money), but does not have any material form. This is, for example, a trademark or company brand, patents, objects intellectual property.

Financial assets include, first of all, the money itself held in company accounts or invested in various types of financial instruments (stocks, bonds, etc.). Accounts receivable also fall into this category.

The degree of liquidity implies the speed with which a particular asset can be converted into cash (at a price close to the market price). Money itself, a priori, is an asset with the highest degree of liquidity. Further, according to the degree of liquidity there are different securities(stocks, bonds). Buildings and equipment are mostly low-liquid assets, i.e. Of course, they can be turned into money if desired, but this will either take too much time, or the transaction will be completed at a deliberately unfavorable price (assets will be sold at a price much lower than their market value). Well, illiquid assets include those that are either fundamentally impossible to sell, or it would be very difficult to do so even at a known low price.

Net assets include only those that were formed solely at the expense of own funds companies. Whereas, gross assets are those in the formation of which, in addition to their own, borrowed funds were also used.

Hidden assets are assets that are not reflected in the company’s balance sheet, but nevertheless provide it with certain advantages and economic benefits. Their absence from the balance sheet may be explained, for example, by write-off or by the fact that, according to current legislation, they cannot be subject to accounting. This kind of non-accounting leads to an understatement of the book value of the enterprise relative to the real value of its assets.

Imaginary assets are those that, on the contrary, are reflected in the company’s balance sheet, but in fact they are absent or do not provide it with any economic benefit (or this benefit is very small compared to the value of the asset itself). The existence of this type of asset is explained by untimely write-off or even outright fraudulent activity with the aim of artificially inflating the book value of the company.

Company liabilities

This right side company balance sheet. As opposed to assets, this category refers to all the liabilities assumed by the enterprise.

Otherwise, liabilities are also called the source of formation of enterprise assets. To illustrate this clearly, let's look at a simple example. Let’s assume that an enterprise took out a hundred million rubles on credit for its development. The accountant wrote down in the “liabilities” column - the obligation to the bank to repay the loan taken. After this, the funds were used for the turnover of the enterprise (for the purchase of raw materials, expansion of the equipment fleet, etc.) and the accountant recorded the purchased raw materials and equipment as assets of the enterprise. So liabilities became the source of assets.

All liabilities can be divided into:

1. Current liabilities;
2. Long-term debts;
3. Long-term liabilities.

Current liabilities are those obligations that must be repaid in the next year.

Long-term debts are obligations whose maturity exceeds one year. These include the company’s obligations on long-term bonds issued to it, as well as, for example, on the return of loans taken from a third party. financial organization long-term loan.

Long-term liabilities include what the company will have to pay to the government (in the form of deferred taxes), its employees and landlords (if leased property is used).

A liability is a company's debt arising as a result of its administrative and economic activities and existing at the reporting date, the repayment of which should lead to an outflow of assets.

Excerpt from “The Concept of Accounting in the Russian Market Economy”

In addition, all the company’s liabilities can be divided into:

• Imaginary obligations;
• Hidden obligations.

Imaginary obligations are those that, although they appear in accounting, but in fact, there is no longer any debt on them. That is, they do not lead to an outflow of company assets. The presence of such obligations is usually due to the fact that the fact of their repayment was not reflected on time in the company's balance sheet. Their accounting leads to an overestimation of the value of liabilities, and, consequently, to an underestimation of the value of the enterprise’s net assets.

Hidden are those obligations of a company that, on the contrary, for some reason were not reflected in the company’s accounting records, despite the fact of their existence. Accounting for such liabilities can lead to an underestimation of the amount of liabilities and an overestimation of the amount of the enterprise's net assets.

0 In our speech, in works, films and the Internet, various Anglicisms are quite often found, and the meaning of some of them is quite vague, and not everyone can interpret it. Lately, people have been faced with this " trouble"more and more often, lost in conjecture, and flipping through hundreds of pages explanatory dictionaries in search of an answer to the question you are looking for. Therefore, we decided to create this online dictionary in order to collect in one place the decoding of the most commonly used words, both from professional argot and from youth jargon. Add our resource site to your bookmarks to always stay up to date with the most popular concepts and expressions. Today we will talk about a rather ambiguous word, this Assets, which means you can read a little lower.
However, before I continue, I would like to recommend you a couple of other interesting publications on random topics. For example, what does Trigger mean, what are Lanits, how to understand the word Jitters, what Bonus means, etc.
So let's continue What does Active mean?? This term was borrowed from the Latin language" activus", and is translated into Russian as " active", which in turn comes from the word " actus"what does it mean" act". This term has several meanings, and we will consider only the most popular of them.

Assets- this is someone who always tries to take the dominant role in sexual relationships, which is different from a passive person who tries to get more than he gives

Assets- this is the name given to the most active part of any community, team, etc.

Assets- these are resources that are controlled by a firm or company, and from which it expects certain dividends in the future

Assets- is any thing, intangible or tangible, that represents a certain value to the owner

This means either cash, as we mentioned above, or something that can be quickly and easily converted into cash. Exceptions include payments of car tax, local tax, as well as premature rent payments, that is, all payments made before the approved date.
Tangible assets mean real estate ( buildings, houses, apartments, land, any inventory, various professional equipment), and intangibles include various trademarks, patents, copyrights, “goodwill” (intangible assets that are expressed in the excess of the value of a business over the value of its tangible assets).

After reading this informative article, you learned what is an asset, and now you won't find yourself in a difficult situation when you discover this difficult term again.

The concepts of asset and liability are the main components of the balance sheet of an organization, which summarizes materials about the activities and economic situation of the enterprise. Let us consider in more detail what the sections and items of the balance sheet show, as well as what is reflected in the assets and liabilities of the balance sheet.

The sections of the enterprise's balance sheet are shown in tabular form: the left side is Asset, the right side is Liability.

To submit Form 1 of the financial statements to the Federal Tax Service, according to Order of the Ministry of Finance dated July 2, 2016 N 66n, the balance sheet of the enterprise is detailed by item. Detailing by item allows you to highlight the main types of property and liabilities of the enterprise.

In essence, balance sheet items are indicators of assets and liabilities of the balance sheet, which characterize certain species economic means and sources of formation. Using the list of balance sheet items, you can always obtain summary indicators for the statements for analyzing the financial activities of the enterprise.

To fill out data on balance sheet items, enterprises use account balances accounting as of the reporting date, according to PBU 4/99.

An important rule when drawing up a balance sheet for an enterprise is that the amount of an asset should always be equal to the amount of a liability.

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The assets of the enterprise's balance sheet reflect the following economic assets:

• fixed assets on account 01;
• intangible assets on account 04;
• investments in non-current assets on accounts 07 and 08;
• accounts receivable on accounts 62; 76; 73, etc.;
• financial investments on account 08;
• inventories on accounts 10; 26; 41; 43, etc.;
• cash in accounts 50; 51; 52; 55, etc.

The liability side of the enterprise’s balance sheet shows the sources of formation of economic assets:

• profit on accounts 84 and 99;
• authorized capital on account 80;
• reserve capital on account 82;
• additional capital on account 83;
• long-term loans and borrowings on account 67;
• short-term loans on account 66;
• accounts payable on accounts 60; 76; 70; 68 and 69.

It is important to note that the assets and liabilities of the balance sheet reflect different aspects of accounting for economic assets; they are interrelated. That is, when an asset increases by a certain amount, it is necessary to increase the liability by the same amount. This principle of increasing amounts also applies to liabilities.

How are the assets and liabilities of the balance sheet formed?

Let's look at it in more detail using an example.

Example 1. Let's say an enterprise purchased a fixed asset worth 500,000 rubles. for the production of semi-finished products.

Fixed assets are reflected in the asset, that is, the amount of the enterprise’s asset increased by 500,000 rubles. The other side is that you need to pay the supplier 500,000 rubles for the fixed asset. The debt to the supplier is reflected in the liability, that is, the company's liability also increased by 500,000 rubles. Therefore, the main condition is met: Active = Passive

Example 2. Let’s say an enterprise has taken out a loan from a bank in the amount of 750,000 rubles.

The enterprise's debt to the bank is reflected in the liability, that is, the enterprise's liability increased by 750,000 rubles. The other side is that after transferring the received loan, the amount in the current account increased by 750,000 rubles. Cash in the company's current account is reflected in the asset, that is, the company's asset increased by 750,000 rubles. Therefore, the main condition is met: Active = Passive

Conclusion: Assets participate in economic activity enterprises to make a profit, and liabilities are sources of increasing assets, and must always be equal.

Accounting is perhaps the most complex topic, which an entrepreneur has to deal with. Of course, almost every organization employs a special employee for such calculations. However, in order to carry out the most successful activities, the director of the company himself must understand fundamental financial terms. For example: enterprise assets – what are they? What are they? And what is the formula for calculating them?

Business assets - all physical and monetary property of the company

Company assets: what they are and why they are important

The assets of an organization are the value of all the property that the company has that is used for the purposes of production and making a profit from the services provided.

There are three sources of enterprise resources based on the form of functioning:

1. Material(material) are felt by the literal touch of the hand: apartment and garage, buildings and factories, tools and equipment, land, transport, raw materials, final product, jewelry.
2. Intangible(immaterial) cannot be touched, but only the copyright holder can use them for nothing, the rest will have to pay: intellectual development, patent, computer program, trademark, logo, business reputation, technologies, organizational ideas, privileges.
3. Financial(monetary) mean all non-cash and cash resources: money, currency, insurance policy, securities, shares, bonds, issued loans, deposits, cash.

The assets of an enterprise are characterized by three main parameters:

• they make a profit in any case: sooner or later, a lot or a little,
• increase their value over time,
• the company has the ability to control the use of resources,
• the asset already legally, on paper, and not in words, belongs to the company.

Liquidity of the enterprise

Liquidity is the ability to quickly turn any property into “real” money if it is urgently needed.

The resources themselves can be classified according to the degree of their liquidity:

• illiquid (transport, equipment, buildings),
• low-liquidity (raw materials, goods, materials),
• medium liquid (deposits up to six months, loans),
• highly liquid (own money in cash, cash on hand, currency, current accounts).

How to determine the most liquid, that is, convertible into money, resource of the company? Make a comparison: the one that will bring the maximum income in the shortest period of time will become the most liquid.

Let us note that the most highly liquid resources are at the same time the most short-term and circulating, and the illiquid ones are non-current assets.

The degree to which an organization’s liabilities are covered by its assets is the liquidity of balance sheet indicators, according to which we can conclude: how much the company’s income keeps pace with its expenses.

Balance sheet liquidity symbols for assets and liabilities

Assets and liabilities

To understand what a company's assets are, you need to understand the concept of liabilities. Assets and liabilities in balance sheet always go together.

If assets are property (things or finances) that always generate and increase income (stocks, deposits), then liabilities are property that, although it satisfies daily needs, still requires expenses for repairs and depreciation (apartment, car) .

Let's give an example of how an asset and a liability work. You have 2 million rubles, which you plan to use as you wish. There are two available options for implementing these funds. (All figures are conditional and selected for ease of calculation.)

Option #1. You deposit 2 million rubles at an annual interest rate of 10. Then, after a year, your 2 million will become 2,200 million rubles. In other words, your source of 2 million brought you 200 thousand in additional income.

Option No. 2. For 2 million you buy a one-room apartment in a new building and move into it. You spend 200 thousand rubles on repairs, and another 200 thousand rubles on arrangement and furnishings. The monthly payment for housing and communal services will be about 4 thousand rubles, which means that 48 thousand rubles will be spent on utility needs per year. That is, buying an apartment brought you an expense equal to 448 thousand rubles.

Results: the asset increases itself (if 2,200 million rubles are put back at the same interest rate, in a year the amount will be 2,420 million rubles, and so on), and the liability spends money irrevocably (no one will return the costs of repairs and utility bills)..

However, it should be said about liabilities that they are inevitable, since they satisfy our current needs and generally accompany human or industrial activity.

Liabilities of the enterprise- these are 1) obligations towards other persons that a businessman must fulfill (pay a bank loan, buy raw materials from a supplier, pay salaries to employees, make contributions to government agencies) and 2) contributions to one's own authorized capital for the further work of the company.

Examples of assets and liabilities

Ideally, indicators for resources at the end of the billing period should exceed indicators for liabilities or at least be equal to them. In this case, we can talk about successful business development. Otherwise, it is worth taking care to analyze the effectiveness of the strategy being pursued, since when the income from active resources remains negative over a long period of time, the company may sooner or later go bankrupt.

Current and non-current assets

An organization's assets are used in the course of its activities. Based on involvement in the process of production itself, financial statements allocates working and non-current resources.

Non-current assets of an enterprise are property and financial resources who indirectly support the process of production of goods, but are not fully involved in it. In other words, they are outside the company's circulation, or production cycle: they do not "wear out" and therefore can serve in the long term. If we take one calendar year as a conditional calculation period, as is usually done, then non-current long-term resources will last more than 12 months.

Non-current (or basic) resources include both tangible and intangible resources, as well as financial resources:

• land plots,
• private reservoirs and subsoil,
• forests,
• structures and buildings,
• transport,
• equipment,
• trademarks,
• patents,
• securities,
• financial obligations.

That is, non-current resources are the very solid foundation thanks to which it was possible to create a company (authorized capital, property owned, workers) and organize its production activities.

When the organization already exists and is ready to start working, working resources come into play.

The current assets of an enterprise are property and finances, thanks to which the current production process is implemented. Because of their full involvement in the operations of creating a product, they are often called operational and short-term, because they are consumed within one year.

What is included in current assets

Current (or current) resources include tangible and intangible property:

• machines,
• equipment,
• transport,
• technologies,
• organizational ideas.

Financial assets among current assets are found only of a short-term nature, that is, those that can be quickly withdrawn and spent on production needs: for example, inventories, cash on hand, securities, loans. But all long-term financial resources (stocks, bonds, deposits) cannot be considered among current assets.

Core and non-core assets

Depending on the direction of business and the type of activity of the enterprise, core and non-core resources are distinguished.

Core assets are those property and finances that are directly used to implement production and marketing activities. These are almost all the savings of an enterprise, since they correspond to the type of activity, and therefore without them it will be impossible to develop and make a profit.

Non-core assets are any property and finances that are at the moment are not used by the organization and bring only expenses. A similar situation exists as consequences:

• privatization,
• re-profiling, transition to a new market segment,
• buying property at a low price from a bankrupt entrepreneur.

Most often, non-core resources are property (buildings and premises of former factories, kindergartens and camps, schools, clinics, sanatoriums, recreational facilities).

The best example of a non-core resource is the property of debtors, which the bank seizes in order to pay off debts on financial obligations. Often banks strive to sell newly acquired property as quickly as possible, but sometimes it is difficult to do this in a short time, so banks are forced to maintain ballast for some time.

Although the state reserves the right of further actions for the owners of such property, the long-term maintenance of non-core assets that do not work for the company and do not generate income can be costly for the entrepreneur: they have to pay property taxes, as well as make payments to housing and communal services.

Thus, the most rational solution would be to sell or transfer ownership of the object. But owners of non-core property should be prepared for the lowest price to be offered for them.

Net assets

Based on the source of formation, gross and net resources are distinguished.

The gross asset consists of equity and loans that were taken out at interest (on credit). Typically, such resources are not taken into account when final accounting is made.

Net assets are the total amount of cash that could be obtained if the entire production was sold. In simple words, by net resource we mean the bottom line value of the entire company, minus all debts.

It is by the indicators of net resources that the degree of well-being of the company is assessed.

To calculate the net asset balance, the amount of liabilities is subtracted from the amount of assets.

Calculation of an enterprise's net assets on the balance sheet

Every entrepreneur knows that it is impossible to successfully develop in the chosen market segment if you do not analyze key financial indicators, which include net resources, from time to time.

When calculating your net savings, you need to check your balance for the following:

• quarterly (optional) and annually (required),
• display in the annual financial report.

The calculation of the net resources of an enterprise, given by the Ministry of Finance in order No. 84n of 2014, can be used by:

• State Unitary Enterprise, Municipal Unitary Enterprise,
• cooperatives,
• business partners.

What are the company's net assets on the balance sheet? A separate special indicator, with line code 3600, according to Order of the Ministry of Finance No. 66n dated July 2, 2010. To calculate them, the amount of liabilities and future income should be subtracted from the value of assets (current, non-current).

The formula for calculating net assets on the balance sheet looks like this:

(Ak – Duch – Zva) – (P – Db) = CHA, Where

Ak– assets,

Duch– debt of the founders to the authorized capital (if any),

Zva– costs of purchasing shares of the company from co-owners (if any),

P– liabilities,

db- future income,

CHA– net assets.

Evaluation of the results of calculating net assets

The result of calculations of net assets on the balance sheet can be an indicator that will largely determine the company’s future development strategy. If the analysis reveals negative net resources, then this indicates the possible bankruptcy of the enterprise, because income does not keep up with expenses.

The exception is a recently opened organization that requires a longer period to stabilize its economic indicators.

The authorized capital also plays an important role in the assessment. Compare the result obtained from calculating net resources: if it is greater than the authorized capital, then the enterprise can continue to exist, making a profit; if less, then the company will face inevitable collapse and should be closed voluntarily, because in the future it will make its owners bankrupt.

Enterprise assets is a set of property rights that are the property of an organization in the form of financial claims to individuals or legal entities, fixed assets or existing inventories. In a more simplified interpretation, this will be the name given to the investments made or the set of requirements.

This term is used to refer to any property or property owned by a business.

Description of the company's assets in simple words

In other words, it is property. Those. everything that an enterprise has in stock, which can be felt with the touch of a hand: cash savings, securities, buildings, premises, cars, instruments, machines, goods, finished products and other tangible and intangible assets.

It should be noted that assets can be tangible or intangible.

• In the first case, we are talking about the reserve of funds, as well as other financial instruments, which can be made deposits in monetary equivalent, cash, shares (securities), insurance policy and, directly, monetary assets, which can be represented in any currency.
• Regarding intangible assets, these include primarily non-monetary assets that do not have a physical form. This category includes the company's intellectual property (logo, registered trademark, invention patents) and even the company's general business reputation.

According to the degree of direct participation of assets in a particular production cycle, they can be divided into current and.

• The first applies to the tendency according to which assets diverge completely within one cycle. At the same time, they are able to ensure all operational activities of the company.
• Non-current assets, in turn, are sold gradually. This happens over several separate production cycles. The cycle of non-current assets ends when their full value is transferred to manufactured products.

The assets of an enterprise can also be classified according to the source of formation, as well as the level of liquidity. The process of forming net assets is carried out exclusively at the expense of equity capital, while gross assets are also carried out with the help of borrowed funds. The available capital also takes a direct part in the formative process.

As for grouping by liquidity level, in this case assets can be illiquid, low-liquid, medium-liquid and highly liquid.

This is necessary in order to obtain high profits. Assets with a high level of liquidity will be considered funds that, at a specific period of time, are in the current accounts of the organization or in the cash register of the enterprise.

The assets and liabilities of an individual organization, through interaction with each other, can have a direct impact on the overall financial condition of the enterprise and determine the level of its solvency. This leads to a conclusion about the competitiveness of the company and its ability to maintain its position in the market for a specific period of time.