What do stakeholders look for in financial statements?
Sarah Martinez
Updated on January 03, 2026
The main users (stakeholders) of financial statements are commonly grouped as follows: Investors and potential investors are interested in their potential profits and the security of their investment. Future profits may be estimated from the target company’s past performance as shown in the income statement.
Who are the main stakeholders surround financial statements analysis?
The analysis of financial statements can be undertaken by any stakeholder who include; owners of the business, trade creditors, lenders, investors, labor unions, employees, analysts and others who might have interest in the business.
Why are financial statements important to stakeholders?
Financial statements are important to investors because they can provide enormous information about a company’s revenue, expenses, profitability, debt load, and the ability to meet its short-term and long-term financial obligations.
Is an accountant a stakeholder?
These people are all stakeholders in the business, which is to say they’re interested in its activities because they’re affected by them. In fact, the purpose of accounting is to help stakeholders make better business decisions by providing them with financial information.
What do financial statements tell you?
They show you the money. They show you where a company’s money came from, where it went, and where it is now. There are four main financial statements. They are: (1) balance sheets; (2) income statements; (3) cash flow statements; and (4) statements of shareholders’ equity.
What are the three stakeholders?
The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers, and suppliers. However, with the increasing attention on corporate social responsibility, the concept has been extended to include communities, governments, and trade associations.
How annual report is helpful for stakeholders?
The intent of the required annual report is to provide public disclosure of a company’s operating and financial activities over the past year. The report is typically issued to shareholders and other stakeholders who use it to evaluate the firm’s financial performance and to make investment decisions.
Which financial statement is most important to creditors?
In that case, the best selection is the income statement and balance sheet, since the statement of cash flows can be constructed from these two documents….The key points favoring each of these financial statements as being the most important are:
- Income statement.
- Balance sheet.
- Statement of cash flows.
What financial statements do managers use?
3 Financial Statements Used by Managers There are three key financial statements managers should know how to read and analyze: the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. The balance sheet provides a snapshot of a company’s financial health for a given period.
Who is not a stakeholder in accounts?
However, employees and the local community have not invested in the business, so they are stakeholders but not shareholders. Shareholders are the most likely to lose all of their money in the event of a business shutdown, since they are last in priority to be paid from any remaining funds.
What types of stakeholders do they work with most?
Types of stakeholders
- Customers. Customers are some of the largest stakeholders of a business because they are directly impacted by the quality and availability of a company’s products or services.
- Investors.
- Employees.
- Local community.
- Suppliers and partners.
- Government.
- Consider expectations.
- Manage expectations.
How is financial information reported to stakeholders?
Financial information contain in annual reports that the companies are published in periodically. That period is identified as reporting period. Company obligates to provide financial information to their various stakeholders during the past reporting period.