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In finance, equity is an ownership interest in property that may be offset by debts or other liabilities. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of the assets owned. For example, if someone owns a car worth $24,000 and owes $10,000 on the loan used to buy the car, the difference of $14,000 is equity.
Financial capital (also simply known as capital or equity in finance, accounting and economics) is any economic resource measured in terms of money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or to provide their services to the sector of the economy upon which their operation is based (e.g. retail, corporate, investment banking).
A professional investor contemplating a change to the capital structure of a firm (e.g., through a leveraged buyout) first evaluates a firm's fundamental earnings potential (reflected by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and EBIT), and then determines the optimal use of debt versus equity (equity value).
The temporary accounts are closed to the Equity account at the end of the accounting period to record profit/loss for the period. Both sides of these equations must be equal (balance). Each transaction is recorded in a ledger or "T" account, e.g. a ledger account named "Bank" that can be changed with either a debit or credit transaction.
However, because accounting is kept on a historical basis, the equity is typically not the net worth of the organization. Often, a company may depreciate capital assets in 5–7 years, meaning that the assets will show on the books as less than their "real" value, or what they would be worth on the secondary market.
In financial accounting, reserve always has a credit balance and can refer to a part of shareholders' equity, a liability for estimated claims, or contra-asset for uncollectible accounts. A reserve can appear in any part of shareholders' equity except for contributed or basic share capital.
The accounting equation (Assets = Liabilities + Owners' Equity) and financial statements are the main topics of financial accounting. The trial balance, which is usually prepared using the double-entry accounting system, forms the basis for preparing the financial statements.
Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business; Home equity, the difference between the market value and unpaid mortgage balance on a home; Private equity, stock in a privately held company