As discussed previously, investors and creditors assess a company's overall financial health by using published financial statements. Recall that the previous chapter about financial reporting illustrated how the core financial statements link into a cohesive network of financial information. The illustration in that chapter showed how the ending cash balance from the statement of cash flows (SCF) is also the ending cash balance in the SFP/BS. This is the final link that completes the connection of the core financial statements.

For example, in the SFP/BS for Wellbourn Services Ltd. at December 31 (which we saw also in the previous chapter) note how the cash ending balance links the two statements.