What are the Different Types of Balance Sheets?

The assets, equity and liabilities of a person or company are presented in a balance sheet at a certain point of time.

The balance sheets prepared for small companies or a person are simple balance sheets. But the balance sheets of huge companies are complicated and dense. If the large business has many sections or parts, they may prepare different balance sheets for every section.

The balance sheets are submitted in annual reports. Generally for evaluation or comparison, the balance sheet is offered with another balance sheet of a different point in time which is normally the previous year.

Types of Balance Sheets
Personal Balance Sheet

Following are the components that a personal balance sheet consists-

a. Current assets – for example cash in checking accounts and savings accounts.
b. Long term assets – for example common stock, real estate.
c. Current liabilities - for example loan debt, mortgage debt due, overdue.
d. Long term liabilities – for example other loan debt and mortgage.

Instead of using earlier costs, the present market costs of securities and real estate are used in balance sheet.

The difference between a person’s total assets and total liabilities is nothing but the personal net worth.

Small Business Balance Sheet

The components of the small business balance sheet are as follows -

a. Current assets – for example cash, accounts receivable and inventory.
b. Fixed assets – for example buildings, land, equipments.
c. Intangible assets – for example patents.
d. Liabilities – for example accounts payable, accrued expenses and long term debt.
e. Contingent liabilities – for example warranties. These are recorded in the balance sheet’s footnotes or appendix.

The equity of small business is equivalent to the difference between total assets and total liabilities.