Annual Financial Statements as a Financial Communication Support

Abstract

Economic entities, irrespective of their legal status, show a permanent concern forcommunicating the financial information useful to their environment. Financial communication isachieved through a variety of means, but the most relevant and credible instruments are the annualfinancial statements. Annual financial statements are synthetic documents used to provide information on thefinancial position and performance of an economic entity. The balance sheet is an important component of the annual financial statements and is used asan accounting instrument that reflects the entity's patrimony and the results of its activity during afinancial year. The new accounting regulations consider the balance sheet a synthetic instrument thatsynthesizes the financial position of an economic entity, that is to say the balance sheet gives a trueimage of the entity’s entire patrimony at a given moment.

Keywords

• financial communication
• economic entities
• annual financial statements
• communication support