English Reader. Мишустина В.Д. - 36 стр.

     If a simple coconut juice stand on a Samoan island beach were treated as a
company, its balance sheet would consist of the following: its assets would be made
up of the coconuts and the materials necessary to make and sell juice plus any cash
on hand. If anything had been borrowed to set up the operation, these debts would
have to be listed as liabilities. Whatever was left over after subtracting the debts
from the assets would become the budding young entrepreneur’s stockholder’s
equity.

                               BALANCE SHEET
                        GILLIGAN’S COCONUT JUICE LTD.
                           (SAMOAN ISLAND BRANCH)

        Assets                                   Liabilities
        Cash:                                      Debts:
     $10 in coins             $10             Borrowed Knife:              $10
      Inventory:
     10 coconuts              $10
     Fixed assets:
     Knife, Table:            $80              Stockholders’               $90
                                                  Equity:
     Total Assets:            $100            Total Liabilities:           $100

      All of the assets and liabilities of a company - even one as small as a coconut
stand in the South Pacific - can be added up to see what the company owes and what
it owns. A balance sheet is this summary, a snapshot of a company’s position at a
given point in time.
      A balance sheet is made up of two lists, placed side by side. On the left the
company lists everything it owns, such as cash and «fixed assets» called property,
plant, and equipment, which include everything from buildings and trucks to tools,
pencils, and copy machines. This list is labeled assets. On the other side, the
company lists its liabilities, consisting of all claims to the company’s assets, from
creditors and from the company’s owners. The lists end up being exactly equal-
whatever assets are not claimed by the company’s creditors belong to the owners.
      When the company’s shareholders sit down to see what they really own, they
look at the lists on both sides of the balance sheet. By subtracting a company’s
liabilities from its assets, shareholders calculate the stockholders’ equity to see what
belongs to them after all of the company’s debts have been paid off. This is
commonly called book value.
      When liabilities, such as loans from banks, start to exceed the level of a
company’s assets, the shareholders may become nervous and sell their shares. They
don’t want to be around on the day when the company can no longer pay its debts and
is forced to declare bankruptcy, reducing the shareholders’ equity to nothing.
      The purpose of accounting is to provide the company’s shareholders with a clear
picture of the company’s financial health. This «photograph,» which is usually

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