What is the difference between an end of year annual report and an end of year financial report?

Question

Specific detail answers pease. i dont care if you ramble on.

Answer 1

The financial report is part of the annual report.

The annual report for companies required to file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission must contain a number of facts in addition to financial disclosures. Among the things required:

1. The company must name its officers.
2. It must make a statement indicating any unusual or unexpected activities that took place in the past fiscal year, as well as any unusual activities or events it foresees in the coming financial year.
3. It must disclose the nature of its business activities -- for example, state what it does, what its basic plans are, the nature of the market it is involved in, the pressures of the market (such as materials costs, labor shortages, price sensitivities, etc), its position within the market and how its business plans / strategies are likely to affect its bottom line and position in the market.
4. It must disclose any capital gains or losses it has taken in the last year, as well as any anticipated for the coming fiscal year -- such as aquisitions of other companies, selling off business assets, major equipment / real estate transactions, etc.

There's a lot more. Depending on what business sector a business is in, it may need to make additional reports. For example, a certain company might be required to disclose how much foreign ownership is in the company.

You can investigate what the reports look like by going to http://www.sec.gov and using EDGAR to search for 10-K (annual report) filings of major companies. You'll see that they have extensive narratives, along with full financial reports.