Financial Statements

Par value is a per-share value arbitrarily assigned to an issue of common stock for accounting and financial statement purposes. Par Value is the face or nominal value of a security. A dollar amount is assigned to a share of common stock by the corporation's charter. Many corporations do not assign a par value to new issues. For preferred shares or bonds, par value has importance because it signifies the dollar value on which the dividend/interest is figured and the amount to be repaid upon redemption. Preferred dividends are usually expressed as a percentage of the stock's par value. The interest on bonds is expressed as a percentage of the bond's par value.

Paid-in capital in excess of par as it relates to financial statements is the amount of proceeds in excess of par value received from the original sale of common stock.

A stockholder's report is an annual report required of publically held corporations that summarizes and documents the company's financial activities during the past year for stockholders.

http://www.freeindustryreports.net/ http://www.bizstats.com/ http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu/studyguides/business.htm#FSSB

Financial statements provide a starting point for understanding a company. Ratio analysis is another tool to monitor a company's condition. It involves the methods of calculating and interpreting financial ratios to assess the company's performance and status. Each industry has its own different acceptable levels for its ratios. It is hard to interpret ratios properly without using industry averages.

There are basically three levels of financial statement services a CPA can provide. They are a Compilation, a Review and an Audit(sometimes referred to as an examination). The least expensive service is the Compilation and is generally accepted by banks for small personal loans, mortgages and small business loans, where an individual is required to guarantee the loan personally.