Understanding Basic Accounting
A simple article on the basic understanding of accounting, this article, Understanding Basic Accounting, gives a brief overview on the financial statements that are seen in the business world as well as the questions that one should ask while reading through those statements. The main financial information that a company provides is called a balance sheet. This array of documents provides limited information and enables one to compare it to the company’s past results and see how the company is doing financially within and as compared to other businesses.
San Joaquin County was my former employer. I worked at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp. I was not in any way involved with balance sheets, in reading the article, I can start to understand the cash flow statements and how they may pertain to the hospital’s financial business. The employer must present and/or make available the cash flow statements to the Board of Directors and the public. The cash flow statements from operating activities show the underlying cash performance of the company’s operations.
The cash flow from investing activities shows the money that the company spends on investments, including capital expenditure and investments. (Understanding basic acct) The only investments that the county would possibly make on behalf of the hospital would be to purchase or lease equipment to further the services that could be offered, i.e. an MRI machine. The new structure at the hospital that was built in 1997 was a true investment. This was done to update the old structure as well as attempt to bring in a new clientele.
The cas ...