It is one of the fundamental ones in the field of economics and accounting. In order to correctly determine what belongs to this category, you need to clearly understand which tangible and intangible concepts relate to assets and which to liabilities.

So what is included in the assets of the enterprise? The fundamental document that reflects the list of assets is. Ideally, the sum of all the company's assets should be equal to the total value of the liabilities - in the jargon of specialists this is called “the balance has converged”. At its core, this form is very simple, it has only two columns into which all tangible and intangible items owned by the enterprise are distributed.

Net assets

Net assets are the difference between the sum of all assets and the total volume of its debt obligations to creditors, executors, public utilities, etc. The procedure for determining this value is the same for LLCs, state unitary companies, municipal enterprises, cooperatives and business associations.

The sum of all assets in the calculation process includes any property that can be used to generate profit from the activity. However, the following are not included here:

1. Receivable obligations to founders and shareholders.
2. Debts on contributions.
3. Enterprise transfers.

An important point: this category includes only income items that the company currently has - assets that can bring profit in the future are not taken into account in the formula. That is, this does not include government assistance to an enterprise (cooperative, farm), as well as gratuitous receipt of property - their procedure for inclusion in accounting reports is of a general nature.

If you have in your hands a financial report of an enterprise for a certain period (most often a quarter), then the procedure for calculating the assets of the enterprise looks like this:

1. We take data from line 1600 of the accounting report.
2. We subtract from it the debt of the founders for contributions to the authorized capital.
3. We get a certain number.
4. From it we subtract the sum of data from lines 1400 and 1500.
5. We add to the resulting value the future periods described in the paragraph above (state assistance and gratuitous receipt of property).

At the same time, in the professional environment, document flow and theory, the concepts of “net assets” and “equity capital” for an enterprise are equivalent values. This is also enshrined in the federal law regulating authorized capital.

Financial asset

A financial asset is the totality of all property of an individual entrepreneur, enterprise or other type of legal entity. These include:

• cash reserves
• before the company
• available funds

There is also a division of this category into two subtypes: current and non-current assets. They are indicated separately in all forms of accounting documentation.

There are several key characteristics that distinguish property and funds on the balance sheet from others:

• an asset gives an enterprise or entrepreneur an opportunity in the future to use it
• the company or individual entrepreneur has the legal right to receive this profit
• an agreement or procedure for the transfer of an asset to the use of an enterprise has already occurred and is a fait accompli

Intangible or intangible assets

In addition to tangible assets, an enterprise may also have other, intangible forms. Their key feature is the lack of measurability and tangibility. However, such assets still provide the opportunity to make a profit from business activities in the future, which still classifies them in this category and requires them to be accounted for. These include:

1. Intangible resources in the field of management and organization.
2. Unrealized technologies owned by the enterprise.
3. Reputation of the entrepreneur or joint stock company.
4. Capitalized rights.
5. Privileges (for example, to carry out work on orders, etc.).
6. Advantages of the enterprise over competitors.
7. Tools for control over the sale of goods and services.
8. Insurance guarantees.
9. Intellectual property of any kind (patents, ).
10. Rights to use property.

Non-current production assets

It is well known that the activity of a company is possible only if it has financial resources or property that can be exploited for business or other economic activities. That is, any used object that is related to the activities of the organization is classified as the company’s property. The primary array of non-current assets is created through a mandatory contribution procedure, the purpose of which is to create the authorized capital.

The Civil Code classifies the following objects as division of property:

• land plots
• subsoil areas
• buildings of any type
• forested areas
• transport (sea, river, air, land)

The remaining values ​​are classified as movable property by law. This should include securities, money, financial obligations. It is the sum of fixed assets and intangible objects that are non-current assets of production. In fact, they fit into a triad that ensures the start of a company’s activities (labor resources, objects and, in fact, labor itself).

Current (operating) assets

Current assets, often called operating assets, include all tangible and intangible objects that have currently (or in the current reporting period) been used to generate profit. It is immediately worth noting that the inclusion of long-term financial liabilities here is erroneous - this inaccuracy can often be found in poorly prepared accounting reports. The following assets are also not included in the current assets:

• accounts receivable
• unfinished construction projects
• faulty equipment
• means of labor that have not yet been brought into working condition (for example, purchased machines that are not installed in the workshop)

In accounting, the operating assets ratio plays a significant role - this is the sum of all operating assets that are currently used to generate profit. In fact, the ratio of assets operated to total provides useful information about the enterprise. Based on it, government agencies assess the ability of production to operate uninterruptedly and generate profits.

Non-core assets

There is one more column in the accounting and financial statements, which is also required to be filled out and can provide certain information about the current activities of the enterprise - the volume of non-core assets. Essentially, this concept describes any property of a company or business association that is not currently used to generate income. These may even include facilities such as kindergartens and clinics - this is an echo of the first wave of privatization that occurred in the decade before last.

There is also a scenario in which non-core assets arose due to a change in the orientation of the enterprise: due to the closure of production lines, choice in favor of another market segment, re-profiling. As practice shows, the most appropriate is the transfer or sale of non-core assets, but the law does not oblige joint stock companies and companies to do this. The fact is that long-term maintenance of such objects increases the number of expense items.

As a result, the company's assets are those objects that are used to generate profit from business activities. Also included here is property that can be used for these purposes, but has not been exploited until now.

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Trading on the stock market (as well as on any other market) requires a certain preliminary analysis of the financial instruments being traded. For example, purchasing shares requires, at a minimum, an assessment of the issuing company based on such basic criteria as profit for the last reporting year, the ratio of real value to market capitalization of the company, etc. You don’t want to face another soap bubble or invest your money in another financial pyramid?

When starting to analyze the issuing company of shares being considered for purchase, a trader inevitably encounters such concepts as its assets and liabilities. These terms, which are very familiar to any accountant, are sometimes incomprehensible to many, especially novice traders trading in the stock market. Meanwhile, without these concepts it is impossible to conduct a high-quality fundamental analysis and assess the attractiveness of the shares of a particular company as an investment object. I suggest you now spend 5 minutes of your time to fill this annoying gap in your knowledge.

Let's start briefly. In simple terms, assets include all tangible (premises, equipment, working capital, etc.) and intangible (trademark, intellectual property, etc.) property of the company. And liabilities include all the company’s obligations (debt on a loan or overdraft, etc.).

Assets and liabilities represent the two halves of a company's balance sheet, and ideally they should balance each other out to form a balance sheet.

And now more details. Let's look at each of these concepts separately, take them apart, and then put them back together.

Company assets

This is the left side of the company's balance sheet. This is where everything that it actually possesses and from which it can derive economic benefit is displayed.

According to the interpretation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), assets include all those resources of a company over which control was obtained in the past, and economic benefits from them are expected in the future.

Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) identify three essential characteristics of assets:

1. The company's assets allow it to receive, in the long term, economic benefits due to its potential (both each asset separately and their combination with each other). And this, in turn, leads to an increase in net cash flows;
2. The company can not only benefit from the use of a particular asset, but also control it;
3. The event (transaction) that led to the company's control over the benefit from the asset has already occurred.

Excerpt from Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

The company's assets can be classified into the following categories:

1. By nature of use in the current activities of the company:

• Negotiable;
• Non-negotiable.

1. By form:

• Material;
• Intangible;
• Financial.

1. By degree of liquidity:

• Highly liquid;
• Low liquidity;
• Illiquid.

1. By source of formation:

• Gross;
• Clean.

In addition, the following categories of assets can be distinguished separately:

1. Hidden assets;
2. Imaginary assets.

Current assets include those that are used to maintain the daily functionality of the company. These include that part of inventory that is consumed in current production, accounts receivable, as well as simply cash used for current mutual settlements.

Non-current assets do not participate in the current activities of the company; they are withdrawn from circulation, but are reflected in the company’s balance sheet. These include long-term financial investments (the payback period of which is in the relatively distant future), various intangible assets, etc.

All assets that have a material form are called tangible. This is everything that you can literally touch with your hands: office furniture, production facilities, equipment, tools, computers, etc., etc.

Intangible assets, accordingly, are called everything that, although it exists in fact (and costs some money), but does not have any material form. This is, for example, a trademark or company brand, patents, intellectual property.

Financial assets include, first of all, the money itself held in company accounts or invested in various types of financial instruments (stocks, bonds, etc.). Accounts receivable also fall into this category.

The degree of liquidity implies the speed with which a particular asset can be converted into cash (at a price close to the market price). Money itself, a priori, is an asset with the highest degree of liquidity. Next, according to the degree of liquidity, there are various securities (stocks, bonds). Buildings and equipment are mostly low-liquid assets, i.e. Of course, they can be turned into money if desired, but this will either take too much time, or the transaction will be completed at a deliberately unfavorable price (assets will be sold at a price much lower than their market value). Well, illiquid assets include those that are either fundamentally impossible to sell, or it would be very difficult to do so even at a known low price.

Net assets include only those that were formed exclusively from the company’s own funds. Whereas, gross assets are those in the formation of which, in addition to their own, borrowed funds were also used.

Hidden assets are assets that are not reflected in the company’s balance sheet, but nevertheless provide it with certain advantages and economic benefits. Their absence from the balance sheet may be explained, for example, by write-off or by the fact that, according to current legislation, they cannot be subject to accounting. This kind of non-accounting leads to an understatement of the book value of the enterprise relative to the real value of its assets.

Imaginary assets are those that, on the contrary, are reflected in the company’s balance sheet, but in fact they are absent or do not provide it with any economic benefit (or this benefit is very small compared to the value of the asset itself). The existence of this type of asset is explained by untimely write-off or even outright fraudulent activity with the aim of artificially inflating the book value of the company.

Company liabilities

This is the right side of the company's balance sheet. As opposed to assets, this category refers to all the liabilities assumed by the enterprise.

Otherwise, liabilities are also called the source of formation of enterprise assets. To illustrate this clearly, let's look at a simple example. Let’s assume that an enterprise took out a hundred million rubles on credit for its development. The accountant wrote down in the “liabilities” column - the obligation to the bank to repay the loan taken. After this, the funds were used for the turnover of the enterprise (for the purchase of raw materials, expansion of the equipment fleet, etc.) and the accountant recorded the purchased raw materials and equipment as assets of the enterprise. So liabilities became the source of assets.

All liabilities can be divided into:

1. Current liabilities;
2. Long-term debts;
3. Long-term liabilities.

Current liabilities are those obligations that must be repaid in the next year.

Long-term debts are obligations whose maturity exceeds one year. These include the company’s obligations on long-term bonds issued to it, as well as, for example, on the repayment of a long-term loan taken from a third-party financial institution.

Long-term liabilities include what the company will have to pay to the government (in the form of deferred taxes), its employees and landlords (if leased property is used).

A liability is a company's debt arising as a result of its administrative and economic activities and existing at the reporting date, the repayment of which should lead to an outflow of assets.

Excerpt from “The Concept of Accounting in the Russian Market Economy”

In addition, all the company’s liabilities can be divided into:

• Imaginary obligations;
• Hidden obligations.

Imaginary obligations are those that, although they appear in the accounting records, in fact, there is no longer any debt on them. That is, they do not lead to an outflow of company assets. The presence of such obligations is usually due to the fact that the fact of their repayment was not reflected on time in the company's balance sheet. Their accounting leads to an overestimation of the value of liabilities, and, consequently, to an underestimation of the value of the enterprise’s net assets.

Hidden obligations are those obligations of a company that, on the contrary, for some reason were not reflected in the company’s accounting records, despite the fact of their existence. Accounting for such liabilities may lead to an underestimation of the amount of liabilities and an overestimation of the amount of the enterprise's net assets.

the property of an enterprise that it disposes of to carry out its activities and make a profit. Characteristics and composition assets in accounting - these You will learn the nuances when you read this article.

Accounting of enterprise assets

Assets in accounting are owned real estate, goods, raw materials, products, money and monetary claims to counterparties, other accounting items that are reflected on the left side of the enterprise’s balance sheet. For accounting of the assets of the enterprise and operations carried out with them, data from the following main accounting accounts is used: 01-26, 29, 40, 41, 44, 45, 50-58, 60, 62, 68-73, 75, 76, 97.

Assets are divided into:

• negotiable and non-current;
• tangible and intangible (hereinafter referred to as intangible assets);
• high-, medium-, low-liquid and illiquid.

Current assets are those items that are consumed in the course of business activities (for example, inventories, cash, etc.). And non-current assets do not directly participate in the business turnover of the enterprise (for example, fixed assets, long-term investments, etc.), but are capable of generating profit for it. A complete list of those objects that are included in current and non-current assets is reflected in paragraph 20 of PBU 4/99:

1. Non-negotiable:

• Intangible assets (business reputation, patents, know-how, licenses, etc.);
• OS (land, buildings/structures, machinery/equipment, unfinished capital investments, etc.);
• investments in assets that generate income (property for rental/leasing);
• deferred tax assets;
• financial investments (long-term loans issued, investments).

1. Negotiable:

• inventories (raw materials/materials, work in progress costs, deferred costs, goods, finished products);
• VAT on acquisitions;
• debts of debtors (debts, bills receivable, advances issued, debts of founders on deposits in the management company);
• financial investments (short-term loans to companies; company shares purchased from its own shareholders);
• money (cash and non-cash, in domestic and foreign currency).

Assets can be tangible or intangible. Unlike tangible assets, intangible assets include those objects that do not have a tangible form (for example, property rights, business reputation of an enterprise, intellectual property). Despite the fact that intangible assets do not have a form, they can be easily identified (distinguished from other types of property). Moreover, the rights to such assets are confirmed exclusively in documentary form.

Accounting for intangible assets

In accounting, the unit for accounting for intangible assets is an object with an assigned inventory number, and an object is understood as the entire scope of rights that one object gives a company: a patent, certificate and other similar documents (letter of the Ministry of Finance dated October 21, 2014 No. 07-06/53102) .

The rules for the formation in accounting of information about the state and movement of intangible assets are prescribed in PBU 14/2007. In accordance with this provision, intangible assets are accepted for accounting at the original cost formed on the date of their receipt by the enterprise.

Moreover, this cost includes all costs for the acquisition/creation of intangible assets and bringing it to a usable state. Clause 10 of PBU 14/2007 specifies those costs by the amount of which the cost of intangible assets accepted for accounting cannot be increased. If the intangible asset was transferred as a gift, then such an asset is accounted for at the current market (expert) price.

Accounting for other assets

Almost all assets are registered at their actual cost. Features of accounting for assets in foreign currency are contained in PBU 3/2006, intangible assets - in PBU 14/2007, inventories - in PBU 5/01, accounting for financial investments - in PBU 19/02. The procedure and rules for accounting for assets such as fixed assets are prescribed in PBU 6/01.

You can familiarize yourself with the features of accounting for various types of assets in the following articles:

• low-liquidity (overdue debts, securities that are not quoted on the stock market, etc.);
• medium-liquid (fixed assets that are in demand);
• highly liquid (examples - cash or money in a bank account, government securities, etc.).

Results

In accordance with the structure of the balance sheet, assets can be divided into current and non-current - such a division indicates how intensively assets participate in business turnover during the reporting period. The accounting procedure for various types of assets is established in special accounting provisions.

Any enterprise or organization has assets, by condition, structure, the volume of which can be concluded not only about the sustainability of the business, but also the market value of the enterprise or firm. The assets of a business entity (enterprise, organization, etc.) are, in simple words, the property of the enterprise. Property in this case is interpreted broadly as financial, tangible and intangible assets. The totality of assets is the property of an enterprise, the use of which generates income. Net assets or equity are the difference between a business's assets and its financial liabilities. The size of assets significantly affects the tax base.

If an enterprise is on a simplified taxation system or pays tax on imputed income, then the value of assets does not affect the tax base. However, it is advisable to keep records of assets in accounting in these cases, since when going beyond these taxation systems (annual income, number of employees, etc.) it is necessary to switch to the general taxation system. Assets are broadly divided into current and non-current assets.

Current assets- these are those that participate in the production cycle for less than one year. These assets transfer their value to finished goods entirely within a year. Typically these are raw materials, materials, cash on hand and in the current account, as well as short-term financial investments. Non-current assets- these are assets that are used in the activities of the enterprise for more than a year. They transfer their cost into finished products in parts. The answer to the question of what non-current assets are is important when determining the tax base. Non-current assets of an enterprise are most fully reflected in accounting documents. According to accounting, non-current assets are four categories of assets.

1. Tangible non-current assets (fixed assets).
2. Financial.
3. Intangible.
4. Other non-current assets.

Let's look at everything in order. Material non-current assets are:

• land plots;
• buildings (main and non-permanent) and structures;
• machines, machines, equipment, complex office equipment, instrumentation and vehicles;
• furniture, office equipment, tools with a service life of more than a year;
• unfinished capital construction;
• animals and perennial plants;
• trade equipment (counters, cash registers, display refrigerators, etc.;
• equipment purchased but not installed, as well as spare parts for it;
• property leased or rented;
• library collections;
• other tangible assets.

Tangible non-current assets are recognized as such if their value can be determined.

In addition, such assets have a cost limitation. Their cost should be above 10,000 rubles. Otherwise, low-value material fixed assets are classified as “low-value”. Such assets, despite the fact that they last more than a year, for example, a telephone, are accounted for as working capital in the form of inventories. Land plots are accounted for at their acquisition price or cadastral value. Buildings and structures - at the price of their acquisition or construction.

Unfinished capital construction, as well as equipment that is not installed, is taken into account at the purchase price of materials/equipment and the costs of their delivery, construction and design. Furniture, tools and trade equipment are accounted for at the purchase price. Accounting for the cost of animals and perennial plantings has its own characteristics and is discussed in detail in specialized sources. For example, you can recommend cxychet.ru or consultant.ru. Since fixed assets gradually transfer their value to products, their value is reduced annually by the amount of depreciation. The depreciation period, and, consequently, the amount that is included in the cost price and by which the value of the objects is reduced, is a standard value regulated by law.

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The residual value of an object is the difference between its original cost and accrued depreciation over the period of operation. No depreciation is charged on unfinished construction and uninstalled equipment. Other non-current assets include costs for land reclamation, major repairs that change the value of objects. Non-current assets and what relates to them can be acquired by the enterprise independently, donated, exchanged or created using its own/borrowed funds or authorized capital. Sometimes fixed assets are a contribution to the authorized capital of a newly created joint stock company. In this case, such assets are reflected in the constituent documents.

Financial assets- These are, first of all, long-term financial investments, which can be of several types.

1. Bonds with a maturity of more than one year, bills of exchange and certificates of deposit. The purpose of such long-term investments is to use free funds in order to receive profit in the form of interest on such securities.
2. Purchase of shares in closed/open joint stock companies and shares in limited liability companies. The purpose of such acquisitions is to establish control over the relevant business entities and receive profit in the form of dividends. In some cases, such acquisitions are aimed at establishing control over the supply of raw materials or creating their own distribution system.
3. Providing loans to organizations/enterprises. Such loans, in addition to the purposes of generating income, may pursue, for example, the expansion of production of raw materials at the supplier’s enterprise.
4. Investments to improve the financial condition of subsidiaries.
5. Other financial investments lasting more than one year.

Accounts receivable, the maturity of which is several years, can also be classified as non-current assets.

Intangible assets represent a large group of objects, the valuation of which is sometimes difficult. This part of the company's balance sheet requires detailed consideration. Intangible assets include:

• software products and databases (if these objects are not proprietary, they are accounted for at the purchase price);
• rights to use subsoil and land plots;
• licenses for the right to conduct a particular type of activity;
• patents, know-how, industrial designs and trademarks.

The results of scientific research and surveys are not intangible assets, expenses for improving personnel training, advertising and the creation of industrial designs and trademarks. These expenses are expensed in the period during which they are incurred. The difficulty in registering intangible assets lies in determining their value. Tax authorities often have questions about the value of acquired patents and know-how.

It should be borne in mind that the term of patents (and therefore the period of their protection) is usually twenty years. The older the patent, the lower its value. But, on the other hand, if an object protected by a patent is sufficiently “promoted” at the time of acquisition, the higher its value. The latter option is often found in the case of pharmaceuticals. Unlike patents, know-how (from the English know how - know how, production secret) does not have a validity period and is often acquired along with a patent (license).

Know-how belongs to the most protected objects of intellectual property.

This is the most common target of industrial espionage. Often it is know-how that protects patents more reliably than intellectual property laws containing difficult-to-control technologies or product formulations. Indeed, if you have invented a new technology for the production of polyethylene and received a patent for it, then the polyethylene produced using the new technology is no different from that produced by the old method. Your competitors may simply use the description of the invention, and you will not be able to control this. But if the patent contains know-how (which is not published and is not freely available), then the competitor will not be able to reproduce the patent. Therefore, the presence of know-how significantly increases the cost of a patent.

One of the main terms associated with the property and financial position of an organization is the concept of “assets”. What are assets? We'll tell you in our material.

Assets: Definition

In a general sense, the assets of an enterprise are the totality of its property and cash. To simplify things, an equal sign is often placed between the terms “assets” and “property”. At the same time, the assets of an organization are not only its property, including cash. Property rights and other rights that have a monetary value are also considered assets.

The definition of the concept of “assets” can be found in the Concept of Accounting in the Market Economy of Russia (approved on December 29, 1997). It is indicated that the assets of a company are economic assets over which the organization received control as a result of accomplished facts of its economic activity and which should bring it economic benefits in the future.

What is included in assets

The term “asset” is widely used in accounting and financial reporting. Thus, in the form of a balance sheet (Order of the Ministry of Finance dated July 2, 2010 No. 66n), information about the financial position of the organization as of the reporting date is grouped into 2 blocks: assets and liabilities. Therefore, from the point of view of accounting and reporting, the balance sheet form will help answer the question of what is an asset. Below are examples of assets.

Thus, the assets of the organization include:

• intangible assets;
• fixed assets;
• stocks;
• accounts receivable;
• financial investments;
• cash, etc.

It is important to take into account that the criteria for recognition of assets, as well as the characteristics of assets for accounting and reporting purposes, are determined by specific regulatory acts on accounting that regulate the accounting of certain assets.

Asset Analysis

The study of the composition, structure and changes in the value of an organization's assets is one of the main areas of analysis of the property and financial position of the organization. Thus, the proportion of assets of individual types in the total assets of the organization is produced, their structure, as well as the quality of the assets are determined.

In addition, the dynamics of the enterprise's assets are usually under close attention. For example, when increasing assets, the rate of growth of assets is calculated and their compliance with the rate of change in income, expenses and profit is examined.