Build a Successful Business: The Entrepreneurship Collection (10 Items)

9

Assets

More Estimates and Assumptions (Except for Cash)

Assets are what the company owns: cash and securities, machinery and equipment, buildings and land, whatever. Current assets, which usually come first on the balance sheet, include anything that can be turned into cash in less than a year. Long-term assets are those that have a useful life of more than a year.

TYPES OF ASSETS

Within those broad categories, of course, are many line items. We’ll list the most common ones—those that appear on nearly every company’s balance sheet.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents are the hard stuff. Money in the bank. Money in money-market accounts. Also publicly traded stocks and bonds that are owned by the company—the kind you can turn ...