You don't have to be an accountant to realize that your company's financials are extremely important. You also don't need to be an accountant to properly run and manage financial reports. In fact, if you're a small business owner, financial reports should be a regular part of your life — especially if you hope to apply for small business funding in the near future.

In this blog post we'll list and explore the five most important financial reports you'll need to provide a lender with before they'll agree to loan your business money.

1. A Balance Sheet

Let's start with the balance sheet, which can be thought of as a quick snapshot of a business's financials. It's a high-level document that identifies what a business has or is owed, and what it owes to others such as creditors, vendors, etc.

Balance sheets are normally split into two categories: assets and liabilities.

• Assets: These are the things your company has; property, equipment, technology, tangible things a business owner could sell if he or she needed to. The balance sheet for a small company might also include bank and investment accounts, and accounts receivable information.
• Liabilities: These are the things your business owes money on and generally includes credit cards, business loans, and accounts payable.

After subtracting what your business owes from what it has, you get equity. In an ideal situation, this will be a positive number — one that grows greater each and every year that you're in business.

2. Your Company Income Statement

Arguably the most important financial document of any and every business out there, a company income statement (also known as a profit and loss statement or a P&L) illustrates how much money an organization actually makes, where that money comes from, and how funds are spent after they've been acquired.

For an example, let's take a look at Bob's Music Store. If Bob has a properly maintained income statement on file, we should be able to view it and see what percentage of the store's revenue comes from instruments, accessories, clothing, etc.

We should also be able to see how much Bob spends on inventory, what it costs to employ his team, and the price for any tools Bob uses to run his business such as monthly fees for POS software.

We recommend analyzing your company's income statement on a weekly basis, though this may be a bit excessive for some businesses. At the very least, consult your P&L once a month. When you do, look for trends. How have things changed in the last year? What's working well and can you double down on it?

Questions like these are important to ask yourself on a regular basis and will allow you to focus on the areas of your business that are making you the most money, while eliminating (or at least downsizing) the areas that aren't as lucrative.