You have been hired by ABC Company, Inc. to prepare their financial statements on a quarterly basis. Management of ABC Company, Inc. has asked you for a lesson on what information they can expect to find on each of the financial statements and if each financial statement has a unique structure / characteristic / template to help them remember.

In response to your clients request, please provide:

1. A general description, in everyday language, of what management can expect to learn from the four basic financial statements and

2. One unique characteristic for each of these basic financial statements (i.e. perhaps a mathematical equation represented, reporting period, categorization of accounts show, etc.)

You are welcome to write in sentence format and/or use bullet points but make sure you include both responses (1 and 2 above) for each of the four basic financial statements. Please be sure to proofread your responses before submitting.