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Finance is something that touches on the lives and activities of everyone.

Having a basic knowledge of financial concepts can come in handy not just in daily life, but also in career.

Finance and accounting are closely related and should be taken together. The later takes are of recording and reporting on the economic condition of various entities.

On the other hand, finance is the function which makes use of the recorded information from accounting so as to make decisions such as hoe to utilize available resources most effectively or even raise additional funds.

So, in at least one sense of the word, finance can be said to be a future-looking concept which makes use of past data in order to make decisions.
There are three major financial statements in finance, a balance sheet, the income statement and statement of cash flows.

The income statement is used to describe the results of activities which are related to the development, production, sales and marketing of the products or services offered by a company.

It communicates the net income of a company which is defined as revenues less expenses for a certain period of time.

It has various components such as gross margin, operating earnings, earnings before income tax, net income and significance to investors.
Another concept is the balance sheet which summarizes what a financial entity owns and owes.

It can be used as a measure of net worth and describes a figment of the financial position of a company at a certain point in time.

The components of the balance sheet are assets, liabilities and the equities of shareholders.
Last but not least is the statement of cash flows which simply outlines the flow of cash into and out of a business over a given period of time.

It reflects the liquidity of a firm or its ability to use cash in order to settle outstanding liabilities.The components of this statement are cash from operating activities, investments, financing activities and its significance to investors.

All of the above financial statements are usually made available to the public via annual reports, 10-Qs and 10-Ks. The annual report is an obligation for public companies to provide to their shareholders including information on their financial conditions, operations and management.

Now you have it, a simple beginner introduction to finance which can be a basis for further reading, research and development.

Hopefully, the information provided here will be enough to give you a glimpse into the world of financing and how big companies make and use their funds.

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