Comparative statements can be helpful in both decision-making and planning. Click an Account Name to view General Ledger report data for the account. The data in the General Ledger Balance column may vary from data in the Comparative Income Statement Amount column.

The percentage of revenue tells how much profit you keep from every sales dollar you earn. Whether you do a horizontal analysis quarterly or yearly, it’s worth the time and effort to perform this calculation regularly. Horizontal, or trend, analysis is used to spot and evaluate trends over a specific period of which financial statement is the most important time. Business owners use the comparative report to make strategic business decisions. The College Shop was doing fine in year 1 (relative to the industry), but something happened in year 2 to break your stride. Holding onto inventory for an extra 9 days (67 days for year 2 minus 58 days for year 1) is costly.

Comparative Income Statement defined

Horizontal analysis uses a line-by-line comparison to compare the totals. Comparative financial statements are special because they allow users to compare the financial performance of a company over time. This is possible because the statements show the same items for different periods side by side.

• The fundamental goal of creating financial statements is to gain an understanding of the organisation’s financial health.
• As a courtesy to the reader, the amounts from the most recent period are in the column closest to the titles.
• Thus, this entire scenario indicates that it was quite challenging to sell the goods during 2018.
• You see the outcomes of all the work you put into your business and gain insight into which decisions will help you succeed.

Comparative financial
statements present the same company’s financial
statements for one or two successive periods in side-by-side
columns. The calculation of dollar changes or percentage changes in
the statement items or totals is horizontal analysis. This
analysis detects changes in a company’s performance and highlights
trends. As a result, this analysis assists the business owner in comparing his company’s performance to that of other companies in the industry.

What Are Comparative Financial Statements?

These statements aid in establishing a company’s profitability by comparing financial data from two or more accounting periods. A comparative income statement presents the results of multiple accounting periods in separate columns. The intent of this format is to allow the reader to compare the results of multiple historical periods, thereby giving a view of how a business is performing over time. The two most common types of comparative financial statements are the balance sheet and the income statement. A comparative income statement provides information on the financial state of assets and liabilities of a company for different time periods.

• But if the second-year decline in profitability continues, it will run into financial difficulty in the next few years.
• It uses this information to make difficult decisions, such
  as which employees to lay off and when to expand operations.
• Using accounting software standard reports or report writing modules to prepare a comparative income statement is a much more efficient and accurate method.
• The analyses help you make sense of your comparative profit and loss statement and see patterns.
• Are there relationships on this statement that also warrant investigation?

A comparative income statement displays an income statement with figures from multiple accounting periods. Financial statement analysis consists
of applying analytical tools and techniques to financial statements
and other relevant data to obtain useful information. This
information reveals significant relationships between data and
trends in those data that assess the company’s past performance and
current financial position. The information shows the results or
consequences of prior management decisions. In addition, analysts
use the information to make predictions that may have a direct
effect on decisions made by users of financial statements. Investors, creditors, and regulatory
agencies generally focus their analysis of financial statements on
the company as a whole.

What are Comparative Financial Statements?

Preparing Comparative Financial Statements is the most commonly used technique for analyzing financial statements. This technique determines the profitability and financial position of a business by comparing financial statements for two or more time periods. Typically, the income statements and balance sheets are prepared in a comparative form to undertake such an analysis. To begin, provide absolute figures for items such as cost of goods sold, net sales, selling expenses, office expenses, and so on for the accounting periods under consideration for analysis. These figures are shown in Columns I and II of the comparative income statement. Firstly, specify absolute figures of items such as cost of goods sold, net sales, selling expenses, office expenses, etc. relating to the accounting periods considered for analysis.

Comparative income statements are used by business investors to compare different firms. The comparison assists them in determining whether a firm is a good investment or not. Comparative income statements may also show you whether your expenditures and revenues are constant. Assume your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) increases from 25% to 40% of sales in three years. As we can see in the comparative balance sheet above, the current assets of Kapoor and Co. have decreased by Rs 35,200 in the year 2018 over 2017.

Steps to Make a Comparative Income Statement.

These statements help to check the amount spent in chasing revenues from one period to another with the various movements of cash over time. To make a comparative income statement, simply list the accounts https://online-accounting.net/ in the left column. Then, make a column for each accounting period, with the most recent at the top. A comparative income statement summarises the operational outcomes over many fiscal quarters.

One popular comparative income statement technique depicts the change in an amount in both absolute and percentage terms over time. It facilitates trend analysis and is thus also known as Trend Analysis. The horizontal analysis technique makes it simple to observe growth patterns and seasonality. A business owner can compare the operating results of its competitors in addition to comparing the income statements of its own company over different time periods.

How to Use a Comparative Income Statement for Your Small Business

Firstly, a higher increase in the cost of goods sold can be on account of either increased sales volume or higher input cost. Furthermore, it is evident that the cost of goods sold for the company improved as an outcome of increased sales volume. Next, the long-term debt of M/s Kapoor and Co. has increased by 62.5%. This indicates that the company is way too dependent on the external lenders thus leading to a great financial risk for the firm. I know—accounting is not the most exciting part of owning a business.

This makes it easy to see how a company’s financial performance has changed over time. Next, study Column (4), which
expresses as a percentage the dollar change in Column (3). Frequently, these percentage increases are more informative than
absolute amounts, as illustrated by the current asset changes. The
percentages reveal that current assets increased .5% which if we
compared this to current liabilities would give us an idea if the
company could pay their debt in the future.