what is a balanced report

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Personal Finance

Balance Reporting: What It Is, How It Works

Diane Costagliola is a researcher, librarian, instructor, and writer who has published articles on personal finance, home buying, and foreclosure.

What Is Balance Reporting?

Balance reporting is a report by a bank to a customer, normally a company or organization, informing the customer of the balances in their accounts. Individual consumers can also request balance reports, but balance reports for corporate and organizational customers are typically much more complex.

These real-time reports are vital to the customer's cash-management program, especially for companies with far-flung operations and banking relationships in many countries and time zones, because they allow companies to see exactly how much money is in all of their accounts at the time the report is created. It may take time for balances to change, such as with 401(k) reporting.

Key Takeaways

• Balance reporting is a report by a bank to a customer, normally a company or organization, informing the customer of the balances in their accounts.
• Balance reports for corporate and organizational customers are typically much more complex, especially if multi-country operations are involved, and offer vital real-time reports of all their cash accounts.
• Online banking has become ubiquitous in the business world, and companies can now access balance reports through their online banking portals.
• Balance reporting helps companies track their performance, as well as keep enough cash on hand to pay employees and cover expenses.
• Some balance reporting features of business and organizational bank accounts include real-time pending transaction reporting and the ability to search for and isolate specific transactions in a report.

How Balance Reporting Works

Balance reporting used to be done on a daily basis, but now companies can often access their current account information at any time. Customers can also now export the data for queries in other applications.

Online banking has become ubiquitous in the business world, and companies can now access balance reports through their online banking portals. Businesses need to monitor cash inflows and outflows closely in order to maintain good accounting practices and meet expenses, and the larger the business, the more complicated this task can become. The largest multinational companies conduct transactions around the clock in every time zone. Balance reporting helps companies track their performance, as well as keep enough cash on hand to pay employees and cover expenses.

Balance Reporting Products and Features

Individual consumers can obtain balance reports via phone or text, as well as through online banking portals and monthly account statements. Banks typically offer a more complex range of balance reporting products to businesses and other organizations. Some balance reporting features of business and organizational bank accounts include:

• Real-time pending transaction reporting
• The ability to search for and isolate specific transactions in a report
• Front and back images of deposit tickets and canceled checks
• The ability to download balance reports in PDF or other file formats, such as Excel

Balance reporting may also allow customers to archive, print, fax, email, or electronically store check images. Banks may also help automate end-of-the-month accounting by offering some reconciliation services, which can produce a matched-list report of written checks and cleared checks, or a report of paid items that have cleared the account during the period in question. This can protect the business from fraudulent banking activity, make account reconciliations more accurate, and save the business time and money on account reconciliations at the end of the month.

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

Balanced scorecard

• Strategic analysis

The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance

• Robert S. Kaplan
• David P. Norton
• From the January–February 1992 Issue

Putting the Balanced Scorecard to Work

• From the September–October 1993 Issue

Office of Strategy Management

• From the October 2005 Issue

The Emerging Capital Market for Nonprofits

• Allen S. Grossman
• From the October 2010 Issue

Saving Money, Saving Lives

• Jon Meliones
• From the November–December 2000 Issue

Managing Alliances with the Balanced Scorecard

• Bjarne Rugelsjoen
• From the January–February 2010 Issue

Lean Strategy

• David J. Collis
• From the March 2016 Issue

How to Implement a New Strategy Without Disrupting Your Organization

• From the March 2006 Issue

Mission and Objectives

• Robert Steven Kaplan
• April 01, 2011

Balanced Scorecard: Measures That Drive Performance

• July 01, 2005

Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It

• September 01, 2000

8 Reasons Companies Don't Capture More Value

• Stefan Michel
• April 08, 2015

Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy

• Douglas A. Ready
• Linda A. Hill
• Robert J. Thomas
• From the January–February 2014 Issue

Measuring the Strategic Readiness of Intangible Assets

• February 01, 2004

How To Measure Your Company's Risk in a Downturn

• December 19, 2008

Start a Turnaround with a Strategy Map, Spanish Version

• Tiziana Dearing
• May 31, 2012

Coming Up Short on Nonfinancial Performance Measurement

• Christopher D. Ittner
• David F. Larcker
• From the November 2003 Issue

Measuring the Strategic Readiness of Intangible Assets (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Strategic Management System

• From the July–August 2007 Issue

Having Trouble with Your Strategy? Then Map It (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition)

• October 01, 2000

Angus Cartwright, III

• Kenneth J. Hatten
• William J. Poorvu
• Howard H. Stevenson
• Arthur I Segel
• John H. Vogel Jr.
• June 01, 1975

The Little Black Book of Innovation: How It Works, How to Do It

• Scott D. Anthony
• January 11, 2012
• Lawrence P. Carr
• November 06, 2003

Breaking Bad Habits: Why Best Practices Are Killing Your Business

• Freek Vermeulen
• October 30, 2018

An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

• Robert Kegan
• Lisa Laskow Lahey
• Matthew L. Miller
• Andy Fleming
• Deborah Helsing
• March 22, 2016
• V.G. Narayanan
• Dennis Campbell
• February 07, 2003

Volkswagen do Brasil: Driving Strategy with the Balanced Scorecard, Spanish Version

• Ricardo Reisen de Pinho
• October 25, 2010

Intel Corporation: Outsourcing Dilemma

• Saurabh Bhattacharya
• Arpita Agnihotri
• February 03, 2022
• Bjorn N. Jorgensen
• December 03, 2001

China Resources Corp. (B): China Resources Microelectronics

• November 07, 2006

TD Canada Trust

• Brent Kazan
• December 14, 2009

The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action

• August 02, 1996

Strategy Execution Module 9: Building a Balanced Scorecard, Italian Version

• Robert Simons
• November 20, 2016

Angus Cartwright IV

• June 10, 2013

Domestic Auto Parts, Chinese Version

• June 03, 2005

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (Paperback + Ebook)

• Harvard Business Review
• Michael E. Porter
• W. Chan Kim
• Renee Mauborgne
• February 07, 2011

Chemical Bank: Implementing the Balanced Scorecard

• Norman Klein
• February 17, 1995

SCI Ontario: Achieving, Measuring and Communicating Strategic Success

• Neil Bendle
• November 07, 2014

Interior JV: Teething Problems of a Manufacturing Operation in China

• Neale O'Connor
• December 06, 2011

HBR's 10 Must Reads on Strategy (including featured article "What Is Strategy?" by Michael E. Porter)

Survival strategies for unmerciful markets: the telecom experience.

• Bob Paladino
• July 15, 2001

Balanced Scorecard Report, September/October 2001, Volume 3, Number 5

• September 15, 2001

Managing the Development of Human Capital, Part Two

Managing innovation, a balanced scorecard reader.

• Balanced Scorecard Collaborative
• December 07, 2007

Managing the Alignment Process

• February 23, 2006

Managing Human Capital for Strategic Advantage: Three Challenges

• Cassandra A. Frangos
• September 15, 2007

Popular Topics

Partner center.

• Reports & Accounting

What Is a Balance Sheet Report?

• Bank Reconciliation
• Changes & Updates
• What Clients See
• Dashboard & Settings
• Expenses & Bank Connections

Access the Balance Sheet

• Click on the Accounting  section
• Select Balance Sheet  under  Accounting Reports.

• Reset all - Click on this link to restore the filters back to the default settings
• Balance Date - Choose from Custom, Today, End of Last Month,  or End of Last Quarter (note that Jan 1, 2018 is the earliest date we can retrieve data from currently for Balance Sheets in Beta) - if you’ve changed your Fiscal Year End date, you can also choose from the extra options
• Compare Dates  - If Custom is selected, check this box off and ensure you have a Start Date  and  End Date to compare with
• Billed (Accrual) - Contains income and Expenses for all transactions, whether cash has exchanged hands or not, and includes any sent Invoices and Bills that are still unpaid
• Collected (Cash-Based) - Contains income and Expenses for transactions where cash has exchanged hands, and includes any sent Invoices and Bills that have a paid status
• Currency - Toggle between multiple currencies, only one currency can be viewed at a time
• Clicking More Actions in the top right will give you the option to Export for Excel , or Print your Report
• The Balance Sheet shows balances for Parent Accounts only, export the Balance Sheet as a CSV to see more details
• To understand what makes up each Account’s balance, use the Chart of Accounts or the Trial Balance Report
• When comparing the Balance Sheet balances of Asset, Liability, and Equity accounts on an accrual basis with the Chart of Accounts / Trial Balance Report, ensure the date range is set to the date of the first transaction in your business
• Profit & Loss Report or Trial Balance - Includes all Income and Expenses during the date range
• Balance Sheet - Includes all accumulated revenue and Expenses from prior periods, so the books never close
• Projects & Time Tracking
• Apps & Integrations
• Estimates & Proposals

Support Categories

• Published: 02 November 2019

How to balance Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting

• Mikkel Gerken 1  

Philosophical Studies volume  177 ,  pages 3117–3142 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

923 Accesses

9 Citations

19 Altmetric

Metrics details

The paper draws on philosophy of science to help resolve a tension between two central journalistic ideals: That of resenting diverse viewpoints ( Balanced Reporting ) and that of presenting the most reliable testimony ( Reliable Reporting ). While both of these ideals are valuable, they may be in tension. This is particularly so when it comes to scientific testimony and science reporting. Thus, we face a hard question:

The Question of Balance How should Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting be balanced in science reporting?

The present paper contributes substantive proposals in a manner that integrates philosophy of science with the recent empirical literature on science communication. Specifically, I articulate and evaluate strategies for balancing Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting . First, I provide a diagnosis of the conflict between them that is informed by philosophy of science. On this basis, I provide restrictions of both Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting . The restrictions are unified because they are inspired by similar reflections about the epistemic basis of science reporting—namely scientific justification. Moreover, I note some empirical work that supports the restrictions as well as some empirical work that indicates some limitations of them. Thus, the paper exemplifies how an empirically informed philosophy of science may bear on a question of societal concern.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution .

Access options

Buy single article.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Rent this article via DeepDyve.

I take norms to be objective benchmarks of assessment that the agent need not have any cognitive access to, whereas guidelines are prescriptive and met only if they are, in some sense, followed by the agent (Gerken 2017 , 2018a ). Often the guideline will be a simplified approximation of the norm which it is feasible to follow. Here I will primarily be concerned with the underlying norms. Philosophy of science can contribute to the articulation of principled norms, whereas it is a more interdisciplinary task to articulate implementable guidelines. However, in this case, the guidelines may not need to differ much from the norms. So, I will occasionally consider the principles qua guidelines.

Importantly, the principle appears to be severely qualified elsewhere in BBC’s editorial guidelines. Consider, for example, the following under the headline ‘Due Weight’: 4.4.2: “we should seek to achieve 'due weight'. For example, minority views should not necessarily be given equal weight to the prevailing consensus” (BBC 2018a , b ). Given the tension between these formulations, the conflict that the present paper addresses is very much present in actual editorial guidelines.

I will articulate the norm in terms of reliability of the basis of a hypothesis where the basis may refer to the usual bearers of reliability, such as sources or processes. However, the principle does not hinge on a reliabilist framework. For example, it could be rearticulated in evidentialist terms.

Thanks here to Carrie Figdor.

Coincidentally (in the literal sense of the term), Fox News retired their motto ‘Fair & Balanced’ in June 2017.

Thanks to Åsa Wikforss for pushing this point and to Karen Kovaka for suggesting the characterization in terms of equivocation on ‘controversial.’

I elaborate on this point in Gerken ( 2018a ).

Of course, novel, untested hypotheses might run afoul of other news criteria. Generally, reporting clear-cutfindings may be more newsworthy. (I say ‘generally’ because reporting on new radical ideas about sexy topics figures prominently in more sensationalist science reporting).

This is not to deny that scientists are often dismissive of novel hypotheses or minority criticism. As Kuhn famously argued, in normal science, alternative perspectives about fundamental assumptions may be ignored (Kuhn 1962 ). But this must be counterbalanced by arguments that novel discoveries are highly prioritized in the scientific community (Strevens 2003 ).

Beliefs about our own phenomenological states are candidates for beliefs better justified by a non-scientific source. Insofar as philosophy is not science, some philosophical theses and theories are other candidates.

Of course, there are grand debates about the capacity of science to produce true or verisimilar hypotheses. But due to the grandness of these debates, they must be set aside here (but see Gerken 2018b , forthcoming a, b).

I have added the’and accepting’ to the characterization in order to allow for the widely held idea that the scientific community may accept a theory or hypothesis that is not believed.

A more ambitious suggestion (that I will not rely on here) is the following principle:

Justification Reporting Science reporters should, whenever feasible, report aspects of the nature and strength of scientific justification or lack thereof for a reported scientific hypothesis.

Since Justification Reporting is not required for the ensuing argument, I will not motivate it here (but I do in Gerken forthcoming a, b, c). For those who find it agreeable, it provides a unified rationale for the restrictions of both Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting that I am about to propose.

That said, I have presented Epistemically Balanced Reporting to science journalists (see the acknowledgements section) who have generally responded that they found it useful as stated.

There are differences between existing versions of Weight-of-Evidence Reporting, with (Dixon and Clarke 2013 ; Clarke et al. 2015a ) aligning more with the present approach than (Dunwoody and Kohl 2017 ). However, the ‘Evidentiary Balance’ condition in (Clarke et al. 2015a ) includes a mix of justification reporting and consensus reporting (see also Clarke et al. 2015b ). So, Clarke et al.’s empirical evidence only provides indirect evidence for Epistemically Balanced Reporting, which may be seen as forming a specific brand of Weight-of-Evidence Reporting or as a broadly congenial alternative to it.

Almassi, B. (2012). Climate change, epistemic trust, and expert trustworthiness. Ethics & the Environment, 17 (2), 29–49.

Google Scholar  

Anderson, Elizabeth. (2011). Democracy, public policy, and lay assessments of scientific testimony. Episteme, 8 (2), 144–164.

Angler, M. W. (2017). Science journalism: An introduction . London: Routledge.

BBC. (2011). Science betrayed – episode 2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zm328 . 26 October 2019.

BBC. (2018a). BBC editorial guidelines. BBC Online. https://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidelines . 26 October 2019.

BBC. (2018b). In the wake of wakefield. BBC 4 , Feburauy 17.

Bedford, D. (2015). Does climate literacy matter? A case study of U.S. students’ level of concern about anthropogenic global warming. Journal of Geography, 115 (5), 187–197.

Berlin, J. A., & Golub, R. M. (2014). Meta-analysis as evidence: Building a better pyramid. JAMA, 312 (6), 603–606.

Boykoff, M. T. (2007). Flogging a dead norm? Newspaper coverage of anthropogenic climate change in the United States and United Kingdom from 2003 to 2006. Area, 39 (4), 470–481.

Boykoff, M. T., & Boykoff, J. M. (2004). Balance as bias: Global warming and the US prestige press. Global Environmental Change, 14 (2), 125–136.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. (2018). Vaccines and autism. Retrieved July 1, 2019 https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccines-and-other-conditions/vaccines-autism .

Clark, D., Ranney, M. A., & Felipe, J. (2013). Knowledge helps: Mechanistic information and numeric evidence as cognitive levers to overcome stasis and build public consensus on climate change. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of 35 th annual meeting of the cognitive science society (pp. 2070–2075).

Clarke, C. E., Dixon, G. N., Holton, A., & McKeever, B. W. (2015a). Including “evidentiary balance” in news media coverage of vaccine risk. Health Communication, 30 (5), 461–472.

Clarke, C. E., Weberling McKeever, B., Holton, A., & Dixon, G. N. (2015b). The influence of weight-of-evidence messages on (vaccine) attitudes: A sequential mediation model. Journal of Health Communication, 20 (11), 1302–1309.

CNN. (2019). ‘MMR vaccine does not cause autism, another study confirms’ https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/04/health/mmr-vaccine-autism-study/index.html . 26 October 2019.

Dixon, G. N., & Clarke, C. E. (2013). Heightening uncertainty around certain science: Media coverage, false balance, and the autism-vaccine controversy. Science Communication, 35 (3), 358–382.

Dixon, G., Hmielowski, J., & Ma, Y. (2017). Improving climate change acceptance among U.S. conservatives through value-based message targeting. Science Communication, 39 (4), 520–534.

Douglas, H. (2009). Science, policy, and the value-free ideal . Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Douven, I., & Cuypers, S. (2009). Fricker on testimonial justification. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 40 (1), 36–44.

Dunwoody, S. (2005). Weight-of-evidence reporting: What is it? Why use it? Nieman Reports, 54 (4), 89–91.

Dunwoody, S. (2014). Science journalism . Routledge: In Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology.

Dunwoody, S., & Kohl, P. A. (2017). Using weight-of-experts messaging to communicate accurately about contested science. Science Communication , 39 (3), 338–357.

Entman, R. (1989). Democracy without citizens: Media and the decay of american politics . New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Feinstein, N. (2011). Salvaging science literacy. Science Education, 95, 168–185.

Figdor, C. (2010). Is objective news possible? (pp. 153–164). Journalism ethics: A philosophical approach.

Figdor, C. (2013). New skepticism about science. Philosophers’ Magazine, 60 (1), 51–56.

Figdor, Carrie. (2017). (When) is scientific reporting ethical? The case for recognizing shared epistemic responsibility in science journalism. Frontiers in Communication, 2, 1–7.

Figdor, C. (2018). Trust me: News, credibility deficits, and balance. In C. Fox & J. Saunders (Eds.), Media ethics, free speech, and the requirements of democracy (pp. 69–86). London: Routledge.

Fischhoff, B. (2013). The sciences of science communication. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110 (Supplement 3), 14033–14039.

Fricker, E. (2002). Trusting others in the sciences: A priori or empirical warrant? Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 33 (2), 373–383.

Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic injustice . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gelbspan, R. (1998). The heat is on: The climate crisis, the cover-up, the prescription . Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

Gerken, M. (2012). Discursive justification and skepticism. Synthese, 189 (2), 373–394.

Gerken, M. (2013). Internalism and externalism in the epistemology of testimony. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 87 (3), 532–557.

Gerken, M. (2015). The epistemic norms of intra-scientific testimony. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 45, 568–595.

Gerken, M. (2017). On folk epistemology. How we think and talk about knowledge . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gerken, M. (2018a). Expert trespassing testimony and the ethics of science communication. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 49 (3), 299–318.

Gerken, M. (2018b). Pragmatic encroachment on scientific knowledge? In M. McGrath & B. Kim (Eds.), Pragmatic encroachment (pp. 116–140). London: Routledge.

Gerken, M. (forthcoming a). Public scientific testimony in the scientific image. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A .

Gerken, M. (forthcoming b). The significance of scientific testimony .

Gerken, M. (forthcoming c). Epistemic entitlement – its scope and limits. In P. Graham & N. J. L. L. Pedersen (Eds.), Epistemic entitlement . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Goldman, A. I. (2001). Experts: Which ones should you trust? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 63 (1), 85–110.

Guy, S., Kashima, Y., Walker, I., & O’Neill, S. (2014). Investigating the effects of knowledge and ideology on climate change beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44 (5), 421–429.

Hall, N., & Hájek, A. (2002). Induction and probability. In P. Machamer & M. Silberstein (Eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science (pp. 149–172). Oxford: Blackwell.

Hansson, S. O. (2008). Science and pseudo-science. In Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy .

Harding, S. (1991). Whose science? Whose knowledge? Thinking from women’s lives . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Hart, P. S., & Nisbet, E. C. (2012). Boomerang effects in science communication: How motivated reasoning and identity cues amplify opinion polarization about climate mitigation policies. Communication Research, 39 (6), 701–723.

Hawley, K. (2012). Trust: A very short introduction . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hoyningen-Huene, P. (2013). Systematicity: The nature of science . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hviid, A., Hansen, J. V., Frisch, M., & Melbye, M. (2019). Measles . Mumps, Rubella Vaccination and Autism: A Nationwide Cohort Study. Annals of internal medicine.

Jamieson, K. H., Kahan, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (Eds.). (2017). The Oxford handbook of the science of science communication . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Johnson, D. R. (2017). Bridging the political divide: Highlighting explanatory power mitigates biased evaluation of climate arguments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 51, 248–255.

Kahan, D. (2015). What is the “science of science communication”. Journal of Science Communication, 14 (3), 1–10.

Kahan, D. (2017). The ‘Gateway Belief’ illusion: Reanalyzing the results of a scientific-consensus messaging study. Journal of Science Communication , 16 (05), A03.

Kahan, D. M., Jenkins-Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011). Cultural cognition of scientific consensus. Journal of Risk Research, 14 (2), 147–174.

Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Wittlin, M., Slovic, P., Ouellette, L. L., Braman, D., et al. (2012). The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nature Climate Change, 2 (10), 732–735.

Keren, A. (2018). The public understanding of what? Laypersons’ epistemic needs, the division of cognitive labor, and the demarcation of science. Philosophy of Science, 85 (5), 781–792.

Kitcher, P. (1990). The division of cognitive labor. Philosophy of Science, 87, 5–22.

Kitcher, P. (1993). The advancement of science . New York: Oxford University Press.

Kitcher, P. (2003). Science, truth, and democracy . Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kitcher, P. (2011). Science in a democratic society . Lanham: Promethoeus Books.

Kohring, M., & Matthes, J. (2007). Trust in news media. Communication Research, 34 (2), 231–252.

Kovaka, K. (forthcoming). Climate change denial and beliefs about science. Synthese.

Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108 (3), 480.

Levy, N. (2019). Why no-platforming is sometimes a justifiable position. Aeon , March 4, 2019 https://aeon.co/ideas/why-no-platforming-is-sometimes-a-justifiable-position?utm .

Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., & Lloyd, E. (2018). The ‘Alice in Wonderland’ mechanics of the rejection of (climate) science: simulating coherence by conspiracism. Synthese, 195 (1), 175–196.

Lipton, P. (2004). Inference to the best explanation . London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.

Longino, H. (1990). Science as social knowledge . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Longino, H. (2002). The fate of knowledge . Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

McCain, K. (2015). Explanation and the nature of scientific knowledge. Science & Education, 24 (7–8), 827–854.

McCain, K., & Poston, T. (2014). Why explanatoriness is evidentially relevant. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy, 3 (2), 145–153.

Merton, R. [1942] (1973). Science and Technology in a Democratic Order. Journal of Legal and Political Sociology , 1: 115–126, 1942. Reprinted as “The Normative Structure of Science”: 267–278 in Merton, R. The Sociology of Science. Theoretical and Empirical Investigations , Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Miller, B. (2009). What does it mean that PRIMES is in P? Popularization and distortion revisited. Social Studies of Science, 39 (2), 257–288.

Mooney, C., & Nisbet, M. C. (2005). Undoing Darwin. Columbia Journalism Review, 44 (3), 30–39.

Murad, M. H., Asi, N., Alsawas, M., & Alahdab, F. (2016). New evidence pyramid. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, 21 (4), 125–127.

Nelkin, D. (1987). The culture of science journalism. Society , 24 (6), 17–25.

Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010). When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32 (2), 303–330.

Popper, K. R., (1934/2002), Logik der Forschung , Berlin: Akademie Verlag. (English translation as The logic of scientific discovery , London: Routledge).

Popper, K. R. (1963). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge . New York: Harper.

Porritt, J., et al. (2018). Climate change is real. We must not offer credibility to those who deny it. The Guardian . August 26, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/26/climate-change-is-real-we-must-not-offer-credibility-to-those-who-deny-it .

Ranney, M. A., & Clark, D. (2016). climate change conceptual change: Scientific information can transform attitudes. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8 (1), 49–75.

Read, R. (2018). I won’t go on the BBC if it supplies climate change deniers as ‘balance’. The Guardian ,August 2, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/02/bbc-climate-change-deniers-balance .

Schudson, M. (2001). The objectivity norm in American journalism. Journalism, 2 (2), 149–170.

Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). The psychology of Self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183–242.

Simion, M. (2017). Epistemic norms and ‘he said/she said’ reporting. Episteme, 14 (4), 413–422.

Simpson, R. M., & Srinivasan, A. (2018). No platforming. In J. Lackey (Ed.), Academic freedom (pp. 186–209). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sinatra, G. M., Kienhues, D., & Hofer, B. K. (2014). Addressing challenges to public understanding of science: Epistemic cognition, motivated reasoning, and conceptual change. Educational Psychologist, 49 (2), 123–138.

Soffer, O. (2009). The competing ideals of objectivity and dialogue in American journalism. Journalism, 10, 473–491.

Steele, K. (2012). The scientist qua policy advisor makes value judgments. Philosophy of Science, 79 (5), 893–904.

Strevens, M. (2003). The role of the priority rule in science. Journal of Philosophy, 100 (2), 55–79.

Sturgis, P., & Allum, N. (2004). Science in society: Re-evaluating the deficit model of public attitudes. Public Understanding of Science, 13 (1), 55–74.

Thagard, P. (1997). Collaborative knowledge. Noûs, 31 (2), 242–261.

Weber, E. U., & Stern, P. C. (2011). Public understanding of climate change in the United States. American Psychologist, 66 (4), 315.

Winsberg, E., Huebner, B., & Kukla, R. (2014). Accountability and values in radically collaborative research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 46, 16–23.

Wood, T., & Porter, E. (2019). The elusive backfire effect: Mass attitudes’ steadfast factual adherence. Political Behavior, 41 (1), 135–163.

Wray, K. B. (2015). History of epistemic communities and collaborative research. In J. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences (2nd ed., Vol. 7, pp. 867–872). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Download references

Acknowledgements

I presented early versions of this article at the Danish Philosophical Society Annual Meeting, Roskilde University Feb. 2018; University of Copenhagen, Mar. 2018; University of St. Andrews, May 2018; the University of Stockholm, Nov. 2018; Stanford University, Feb. 2019 and VU Amsterdam, May 2019. Thanks to the audiences for helpful feedback. I also presented the material at an editorial meeting at videnskab.dk in Oct. 2018 and would like to thank the crew of science journalists for helpful perspectives. For written comments, I am grateful to Carrie Figdor, Bjørn Hallsson and Karen Kovaka.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, 5230, Odense M, Denmark

Mikkel Gerken

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikkel Gerken .

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Gerken, M. How to balance Balanced Reporting and Reliable Reporting . Philos Stud 177 , 3117–3142 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-019-01362-5

Download citation

Published : 02 November 2019

Issue Date : October 2020

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-019-01362-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Public scientific testimony
• Science reporting
• Balance norm

Advertisement

• Find a journal
• Publish with us

• Programmes NewsWise Behind the Headlines Hugo Young Award Scott Trust Bursary Media Makers Incubator for Independent Media Podcasting Guardian News & Media Archive Programmes we support Past Programmes
• About Our team Our board

Producing balanced news reports

Newswise values.

This lesson focuses on the NewsWise value:  balanced.

Learning objective

To analyse whether a news report is balanced.

Learning outcomes

Identify points of view that are included within a news report.

Infer points of view that might be missing within a news report.

Compare different points of view and consider why people’s opinions differ.

Starter/baseline assessment

Whose point of view?  Provide pupils with the headline: ‘School bans homework’. Pupils identify the different points of view in the story, completing thought bubbles for each (eg teachers, parents, pupils).

As a class, consider the following: Do you think all pupils/teachers/parents would feel the same way? Why might ____ feel differently to ____? Why would it be important to include as many viewpoints as possible in a news report of this story? Whose points of view should be included to ensure balance?

Learning activity

Pupils read unbalanced news reports: Report 1 and Report 2 , identifying whose points of view are heard and whose are missing.

Provide pupils with context of the story, using Background and context notes and links 1 and 2 . Can pupils summarise the story using the 5 Ws?

As a class, look at Different viewpoints: for and against . The resource includes a montage of interviews with different people involved in the story. Ask pupils to consider the range of opinions involved: who is supportive? Who disapproves? Why do ___ and ____ feel differently?

Divide the class into two. Provide one half with  Report 1  and the other half with  Report 2 . Pupils read their allocated report, evaluating whether it is balanced. Can pupils identify whose viewpoints are heard in the story and whose are missing? For additional support, provide a list of suggestions of people who might be involved, eg commuters, general public, drivers, protesters, transport companies, police, mayor of London, government.

Challenge:  encourage pupils to consider what the viewpoints of those not represented might be. What might they think or feel about the situation? Why might they think or feel these things?

As a class, compare the two reports and ask pupils to share their evaluations. How do they differ? Are they balanced? Why/why not? Whose points of view were heard? Who else is involved in this story that you haven’t heard from? What might they think or feel about the situation? Whose side do you think the reporter is on? Why do you think this? What does the writer want you to feel or think?

Questions for assessment

What is a point of view? 

Why do people have different points of view? 

What would happen if a news report didn’t include all sides of the story? 

How can a journalist make sure their report is balanced? 

Why is it important for journalists to report news in a balanced way? 

What could you do if you don’t think you’ve been given all sides of the story in a news report?

Core knowledge and skills

Every story has more than one side, so can be told in different ways. To give readers an accurate report, journalists should make sure their reports are balanced by including different points of view, always representing both sides of the argument. 

Sometimes journalists write unbalanced reports by not including everyone’s point of view, which can be seen as being biased. They might only include one side of the story because it’s the side they agree with, or they may be trying to influence how the reader feels about the story.

When reading/listening to/watching the news, it is important to consider whose point of view is included and whether there are any missing points of view, in order to evaluate whether the story is balanced.

Extension opportunities

Pupils rewrite the news report, ensuring it is balanced. This could also be a drama or a speaking & listening activity, with pupils producing a TV or Radio news bulletin.

Role-play a whole-class press conference for the ‘homework ban’ story in the starter activity. Some pupils act as the people involved in the story (a teacher, a parent, a pupil etc), while remaining pupils act as reporters asking questions. After the conference, pupils practise producing a balanced news report, including all points of view.

Lesson plan pdf

Whose point of view?

Background and context notes and links 1

Background and context notes and links 2

Different viewpoints for and against

Report 1  and  Report 2

Curriculum links

Reading comprehension

Drawing inferences, making comparisons across texts   

PSHE education

Living in the wider world

how to assess the reliability of sources of information online; 

how text and images in the media and on social media can be manipulated or invented; strategies to evaluate the reliability of sources and identify misinformation.

Next lesson

Lesson 9: Analysing bias in the news

Previous lesson

Lesson 7: Identifying the difference between fact and opinion

All lessons

All the NewsWise lesson plans

The Right Balanced Scorecard for You: Examples, Samples, and Templates

By Joe Weller | August 16, 2017

Link copied

If your organization is looking for more structure - whether it is a startup or an established company - it can only strengthen its position by refining strategy. With so many different management techniques and methodologies, deciding where to start can be overwhelming. However, the balanced scorecard is one management tool that provides a cohesive and focused strategy. And with so many companies worldwide already using the balanced scorecard, there is plenty of expertise available to help you get started.

This guide wraps up our series on the balanced scorecard by explaining what the balanced scorecard is and why you should design one. We offer a brief history of this strategy as well as some examples of companies, both large and small, who utilize it. Next, we jump into the five key steps for developing your own scorecard. Then, we provide you with a useful lists of don’ts. Finally, we offer common metrics, samples of scorecards for different industries, and templates for you to develop your own scorecards.

Strategy Map Template - Excel

‌ Download Strategy Map Template - Excel

The strategy map is a location where you can lay out all of your objectives and organize them in a cause-and-effect relationship. You can edit the template with different colors, titles, and text to make it unique to your business.

See how Smartsheet can help you be more effective

Watch the demo to see how you can more effectively manage your team, projects, and processes with real-time work management in Smartsheet.

Watch a free demo

Key Performance Indicators Dashboard Template - Excel

‌ Download Key Performance Indicators Dashboard Template - Excel  

This template gives you a unique document where you can place all of your KPIs.The template comes with all four of the perspectives, but you can edit them to reflect your needs. There is also space for your company logo and space to indicate how important the KPI is as well as how your company is doing regarding that KPI.

The Basic Balanced Scorecard Template - Word

Download Basic Balanced Scorecard Template

Microsoft Word | Smartsheet

This template is suitable for businesses that need a basic template to get started with the balanced scorecard concept. You can modify fonts and colors and add a logo to create your custom look. There is also room for your budget information.

The Basic Balanced Scorecard Template - Excel

Excel | Smartsheet

This balanced scorecard template offers a professional, easy-to-read layout in Microsoft Excel (you can hover over each cell for instructions). Enter your objectives, KPIs, targets, and initiatives in each of the four perspectives. There is also room to add budget information for your projects.

The Basic Balanced Scorecard Template - PowerPoint

PowerPoint | Smartsheet

This template is suitable for scorecard presentations, which is helpful because many executive-level meetings require presentations in PowerPoint. You can add creative graphics for instructions, logos, and images, and crop, rotate, or use your scorecard as a graphic in itself. The scorecard is fillable, but you can easily turn it into a picture for your presentation needs.

Restaurant Balanced Scorecard Example - Excel

‌ Download Restaurant Balanced Scorecard Example - Excel

This is an example of what a restaurant’s balanced scorecard might look like. The scorecard contains all four perspectives, including objectives, KPIs, targets, and initiatives. The scorecard also includes the reporting frequency, along with a budget for the proposed projects.

Different Examples of Balanced Scorecards

‌ Download Different Examples of Balanced Scorecards - PowerPoint

What makes the balanced scorecard so successful is its adaptability: you can use it with a wide variety of programs, formats, and templates. Below are two different examples of what your BSC might look like. The first BSC incorporates a strategy map in the left portion, which outlines the main and lower-level objectives. This BSC also lists the objectives as well as the measures, targets, and initiatives in the traditional BSC format, and leaves room for budget calculations. The second BSC is a simple chart that does not incorporate any fancy graphics or cells.

Balanced Scorecard for Healthcare Example - Excel

‌ Download Balanced Scorecard for Healthcare Example - Excel

This is an example of a balanced scorecard for a hospital. Balanced scorecards for public and government organizations start with the organization’s mission and vision and then proceed first through the customer perspective. In this case, the customer perspective is the hospital’s stakeholders. This group may include not only the patients but also the health board, staff, and investors. Starting from the customer perspective will give you the transparency that a public agent requires, and enable you to prioritize responsibly. 

Balanced Scorecard for Information Technology Example

Download Balanced Scorecard for Information Technology Example

Excel  | PDF

This is an example of a balanced scorecard for an information technology department. As you can see, the financial perspective drives this scorecard, which keeps costs in line with the company’s needs. A department like this would not be concerned with external income, but it would have to keep within its allotted company budget and serve the staff accordingly.

What Is the Balanced Scorecard, and What Is Balanced Scorecard Software?

The balanced scorecard (BSC) is a management system and structured report that aligns your company’s strategy with your tactical activities. Developed uniquely for your company, this holistic system enables you to maintain focus and move in a cohesive, consistent direction. The balanced scorecard includes your overarching objectives, measures (key performance indicators or KPIs), targets for your KPIs, and the initiatives that can help you reach those targets. These four elements align with your private or public company’s mission, vision, and values, and you develop each of these four elements in four different perspectives: financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth. These perspectives, taken together, give your scorecard the “balanced” approach. 

• Financial Perspective: This perspective indicates whether your strategy improves your company’s bottom line and how that strategy is implemented and executed. For-profit companies design the financial perspective first, while nonprofit companies design the financial perspective last. 
• Customer Perspective: This perspective is all about the value proposition that you give to your customers. From this, you can target the market segment that you want to address and maximize your strategies. In nonprofit, design your customer perspective first - it will drive the rest of the scorecard. 
• Internal Business Processes Perspective: This perspective ensures the stability and sound operation of your business. In this way, you can guarantee that your products and services meet your customer’s expectations. 
• Learning and Growth Perspective: This perspective consists of training and improvement for your workforce. It ensures that your employees have the skills and development to keep pace and exceed the competition. 

Part of the benefit of having a scorecard is that you will design it yourself. You and your team design and implement the BSC so that it meets your unique business needs. Essentially, you are flushing out your business goals to determine the best and most realistic course to achieve them. You may then cascade those goals down through the structure of your business to maintain alignment. When using this management system, you should also perform a strategic mapping of your objectives. A strategy map gives your objectives cause-and-effect directionality. For more information on the balanced scorecard concept, see this BSC 101 guide . 

You use BSC software to manage your documents and updates. You can work with templates, pre-implemented performance management software modules, or standalone BSC tracking and development programs. Ideally, you should choose a software system that you can update easily and regularly and that your BSC users have access to. For more information on BSC software, see this BSC software guide .

Why Design a Balanced Scorecard?

All companies begin with a vision. Whether that vision is captured informally or formally, in order to get the company off the ground, you must design a strategy. Once the strategy is designed, you may think planning is complete and, therefore, dive directly into running your business. However, what’s missing from this scenario is a framework for achieving that strategic plan — something that takes your high-level objectives and turns them into a reality that does not overlook any stakeholders. This is what the balanced scorecard does. Further, it is an exercise in getting everyone in your company on the exact same page. Other benefits of the balanced scorecard include:

• Getting the full picture of your organization’s health 
• Acquiring feedback to continuously improve your processes
• Tracking the right metrics over time
• Enabling you to cascade your strategy down through your entire company

Five Steps to Develop a Balanced Scorecard

The development of your company’s BSC does not happen magically or in a vacuum. For all four perspectives, you should follow a series of loose steps. Also, consider using a template to ask your initial questions. Using a template will help center your group’s thinking and get you to ask the right questions of the right people. Here are the five steps to develop a BSC:

• Develop Your Company Vision: Vision statements provide clarification for the future of your company, and should be inspirational. For example, IKEA’s vision is “to create a better everyday life for the many people.” 
• Determine Your Strategic Objectives: These are the goals most important to your business’ current and future wellness. Many professionals use a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to determine these priorities. 
• Analyze What Factors Will Bring Success: These are the critical success factors (CSF) for your company or the critical areas in which high performance is crucial for the success of your company. 
• Choose Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): These are the indicators that align performance with strategic objectives. They should be defined in simple, concrete language that makes your strategic objectives accessible, and should also be linked to your budget. With enough time and honing, these measures will become obvious.
• Set Your Targets, Plans, and Initiatives: These are the areas of your BSC where your follow-up occurs. Your targets should take into account your KPIs’ baseline and aims.

The steps above will yield your overarching company BSC. Once you have completed this highest level, however, you need to cascade it down through all of your business units. Do this by having each unit develop their own BSC based on the high-level one. Then, link the BSCs together in your software. 

Also, remember that these documents are not static. You must update them regularly. If you build your BSCs so that users are comfortable using them, they will make changes as they address the lower-level elements, such as the month-to-month or quarter-to-quarter measures and targets. Moreover, you should schedule a periodic review of your BSC to determine how it relates to your organizational processes. For example, if you update your budget annually, it is appropriate to conduct an annual review of your BSC that addresses your budgeting processes. Finally, once you’ve completed your BSC, be sure to perform a formal review session about 18 months later to determine if your design is appropriate. By that point, you should have had enough meetings and updates to make clear what changes are necessary. Although many organizations use a five-year strategic plan, you’ll want to update your BSC more frequently to remain current and flexible as variables change. 

A Brief History of the Balanced Scorecard

In 1992, Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David Norton introduced the balanced scorecard concept in an article in the Harvard Business Review . The authors discussed measuring performance across more perspectives than merely the financial one and presented a solution that includes human issues. In succeeding generations of the BSC, organizational theorists removed the strategy’s early flaws and added a strategy map. In addition, they expanded the concept to include government and nonprofits. Kaplan and Norton published several books and papers, most notably their first book The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action . Over the years, other theorists have expanded on the BSC a bit, but the design that professionals use today remains essentially the same as the third generation developed in the late 1990s. By 2004, almost 60 percent of businesses worldwide had implemented the BSC. Kaplan and Norton continue to write and publish materials on the BSC, mostly about its uses. 

As of a 2014 survey , the BSC still ranks as one of the top 10 management tools used globally. Interestingly, commercial examples of current, actual BSCs are difficult to find. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the information that appears on the BSC is proprietary, detailing strategies of competitive organizations. However, while many available case studies do not reveal the contents of competing organization’s scorecards, they do detail the process they used to develop the BSC. It is markedly easier to find BSCs for nonprofits, as many are required to share with the public how they spend their funds. Balancedscorecard.org also keeps a running list of commercial and nonprofit adopters of the BSC. Some of the companies that use the BSC management system include:

Apple, Inc. Exxon Mobil Corporation Ford Motor Company General Electric Company Honeywell IBM Pfizer Inc. Thomson Reuters University of California University of Denver National Marrow Donor Program Wells Fargo Bank

The Balanced Scorecard: What Not to Do

In this guide and in companion articles , we discuss the theory of BSC in depth, and also tell you why and how you should build a BSC. However, there are some practices to avoid when developing and implementing your balanced scorecard. Do not:

• Do Not Use the Older BSC Generations as Your Model: The older models may give you an option you are looking for, but they do not explain your strategy and do not include the strategy map.
• Do Not Develop Your Scorecard in a Bubble: Without linking your scorecard to live data, it can run the risk of being out of date. Your scorecard should be a living document that is accessible to all who use it.
• Do Not Neglect to Show the Relationship between Your Business Goals: You should develop your perspectives from the top down, from the financial to the learning and growth perspectives (in a for-profit scenario). This shows the contributory effect between the goals. 
• Do Not Focus on Irrelevant KPIs: Your metrics should not only be capable of showing progress, but should also focus on the specific objectives of your BSC (you can apply lower-level KPIs to lower-level BSCs in your business). You should also choose metrics that help you manage a solution, not just report a problem.
• Do Not Use Templates That Are Not Actually Templates: There are so many diagrams online depicting the BSC. However, many of these merely describe the concept and are not actual templates. Some are old versions of the BSC, and some are simply amended versions that don’t look at all four perspectives. Get a BSC template from a reputable source. The template should contain all four perspectives and all four elements from each perspective. This true scorecard will tell your story.
• Do Not Use One Format as a One-Size-Fits-All: There are multiple formats available, even among software meant specifically for BSCs. Some modules and templates cater to presentation, and some cater to design and updates. Your company may need multiple versions.
• Do Not Mistake Metric-Only Dashboards for a Balanced Scorecard: Your measures are a vital part of your BSC, but they’re not the entire BSC. Be sure to seek out options that fulfill all of a balanced scorecard’s requirements. (Some templates even include benchmarking with their KPIs.)
• Do Not Take a Paint-by-Numbers Approach: The BSC has been so successful since the 1990s precisely because the concept stresses developing your own strategy and elements. Each business should have a unique, constantly evolving BSC.

Examples of Key Performance Indicators

In each field, there are standard KPIs that you can choose from to give you a sense of the health of your company. Although the KPIs for your company should be based on how your specific business operates, there are some that are more prevalent in certain industries. The customer indicators you’ll find below are an example of those that you’d find in any business, while the internal processes indicators are usually highly specialized. (The ones listed below are examples. Most likely, you do not have these in your business but can get an idea of what they would entail.) Finally, the education KPIs you’ll see below are examples that are only relevant in the higher-learning industry. These can tell you where your school stands with respect to academics, finances, curriculum, faculty, facilities, technology, transportation, and housing. Here are the customer indicators:

• Overall Satisfaction: This is the level of satisfaction as reported by your customers. You can perform surveys of your customers to learn this information.
• Satisfaction Improvement: This indicator measures the change in customer satisfaction. You should be looking out for improvement or stasis. 
• Customer Retention: This is the rate of customers who stay with your business over time. 
• Net Promoter Score: This is the rate of customers who recommend your business to others.
• Conversion Rate: This is the rate of purchase by customers after they have interaction with your company.
• Compared to Competitors: This is the rate of customers who choose your company over your competitors.
• Average Resolution Time: This is how quickly your customer service team resolves issues.
• Active Issues: These are the issues that you have not resolved. 
• Resolved Issues: How quickly your customer service team resolves your customers’ issues is an indication of the quality of your customer service operation. 
• Employee Productivity: This is a measure of your employees’ effectiveness. You can measure job effectiveness in many different ways, but employee productivity is a major factor affecting your customers’ satisfaction.
• Employee Retention/Employee Turnover: The happier your employees are, the longer they stay with your company. The longer they stay with your company, the more empowered and capable they feel in their positions, so they will provide higher-quality service.
• Brand Attributes: You need to understand how your customers perceive your company. You should have a unique brand that customers can describe.
• Complaint Escalation Rate: This rate ties together your number of complaints and resolved issues. You should track complaints that escalate.
• Cash Flow: Cash flow can indicate how well your business is doing with regard to customer service, referrals, and brand image.
• External Industry Benchmarks: This should tell you how you stack up against your competition. Even the best companies do not get it right all of the time. Checking external benchmarking survey data is appropriate. Examples of internal processes indicators include:
• Cost measures for storage
• Rate of on-time delivery 
• Order fulfilment time
• Rates of capacity utilization
• Yield measurements
• Percentage of project cost variance
• Percentage of billable hours 
• Supplier relationship measures
• First contact resolved
• Percentage of process waste 
• Percentage of rework
• Cost to serve measures
• Risk measures
• Efficiency of information systems
• Expenses per employee
• Average decision-making time
• Supplier frequency
• Ratio of timely completed orders

The following are examples of education indicators:

• Graduation Rate: How many students completed schooling or finished their course of study. 
• Research Grants: This is the percentage of grants received over the amount of grants applied for. 
• Student Attendance Rate: This is the number of students who have achieved a certain percentage of attendance per semester or year. 
• Grant Money: This is the amount of money you’ve raised for your institution.
• Cost per Student: This is the amount of money it takes to educate each student in the school. 
• Number of Annual Faculty Training Sessions: This KPI indicates how up to date your faculty is with teaching methods and industry standards.
• Proficiency Rates for Each Subject: This rate tells you how well your curriculum is doing. 

Make Better Business Decisions, Faster with Smartsheet Dashboards

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Balanced Scorecard Basics

What is a balanced scorecard.

• Communicate what they are trying to accomplish
• Align the day-to-day work that everyone is doing with strategy
• Prioritize projects, products, and services
• Measure and monitor progress towards strategic targets

The name “balanced scorecard” comes from the idea of looking at strategic measures in addition to traditional financial measures to get a more “balanced” view of performance. The concept of balanced scorecard has evolved beyond the simple use of perspectives and it is now a holistic system for managing strategy. A key benefit of using a disciplined framework is that it gives organizations a way to “connect the dots” between the various components of strategic planning and management, meaning that there will be a visible connection between the projects and programs that people are working on, the measurements being used to track success (KPIs), the strategic objectives the organization is trying to accomplish, and the mission, vision, and strategy of the organization.

Who Uses the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)?

BSCs are used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. More than half of major companies in the US, Europe, and Asia are using the BSC, with use growing in those areas as well as in the Middle East and Africa. A recent global study by Bain & Co listed balanced scorecard fifth on its top ten most widely used management tools around the world. BSC has also been selected by the editors of Harvard Business Review as one of the most influential business ideas of the past 75 years.

What Are Balanced Scorecard Perspectives?

Strategic Planning

Ready for IN PERSON Training?

Bsc-kpi-okr: the alphabet of strategy management.

Balanced Scorecard Professional Certification

Free Articles & White Papers

Nominate your organization for the Institute's Award for Excellence

Explore Our

The Institute Way

Group Project Manager , T-Mobile US, Inc.

Chief Strategy Officer , National Marrow Donor Program

Manager, Performance and Measurement , BC Oil and Gas Commission

How to Learn More

To create a balanced scorecard, BSI recommends learning the Nine Steps to Success™ . To learn more about this methodology, see our  Professional Certification Programs , which are offered in association with the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, or contact us below with questions or inquiries about consulting services.

Contact us to find out how we can help your organization focus on strategy and improve performance.

• Business Essentials
• Leadership & Management
• Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• *New* Marketing
• Finance & Accounting
• Business in Society
• For Organizations
• Support Portal
• Media Coverage
• Founding Donors
• Leadership Team

• Harvard Business School →
• HBS Online →
• Business Insights →

Business Insights

Harvard Business School Online's Business Insights Blog provides the career insights you need to achieve your goals and gain confidence in your business skills.

• Career Development
• Communication
• Decision-Making
• Earning Your MBA
• Negotiation
• News & Events
• Productivity
• Staff Spotlight
• Student Profiles
• Work-Life Balance
• Alternative Investments
• Business Analytics
• Business Strategy
• Design Thinking and Innovation
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Disruptive Strategy
• Economics for Managers
• Entrepreneurship Essentials
• Financial Accounting
• Global Business
• Launching Tech Ventures
• Leadership Principles
• Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability
• Leading with Finance
• Management Essentials
• Negotiation Mastery
• Organizational Leadership
• Power and Influence for Positive Impact
• Strategy Execution
• Sustainable Business Strategy
• Sustainable Investing

How to Prepare a Balance Sheet: 5 Steps for Beginners

• 10 Sep 2019

A company’s balance sheet is one of the most important financial statements it produces—typically on a quarterly or even monthly basis (depending on the frequency of reporting).

Depicting your total assets, liabilities, and net worth, this document offers a quick look into your financial health and can help inform lenders, investors, or stakeholders about your business. Based on its results, it can also provide you key insights to make important financial decisions.

When paired with cash flow statements and income statements , balance sheets can help provide a complete picture of your organization’s finances for a specific period. By determining the financial status of your organization, essential partners have an informative blueprint of your company’s potential and profitability.

Have you found yourself in the position of needing to prepare a balance sheet? Here's what you need to know to understand how balance sheets work and what makes them a business fundamental , as well as steps you can take to create a basic balance sheet for your organization.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is a Balance Sheet?

A balance sheet is a financial statement that communicates the so-called “book value” of an organization, as calculated by subtracting all of the company’s liabilities and shareholder equity from its total assets.

A balance sheet offers internal and external analysts a snapshot of how a company is performing in the current period, how it performed during the previous period, and how it expects to perform in the immediate future. This makes balance sheets an essential tool for individual and institutional investors, as well as key stakeholders within an organization and any outside regulators who need to see the status of an organization during specific periods of time.

Most balance sheets are arranged according to this equation : Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity

The equation above includes three broad buckets, or categories, of value which must be accounted for:

An asset is anything a company owns which holds some amount of quantifiable value, meaning that it could be liquidated and turned to cash. They're the goods and resources owned by the company.

Assets can be further broken down into current assets and non-current assets .

• Current assets , or short-term assets, are typically what a company expects to convert into cash within a year’s time, such as cash and cash equivalents, prepaid expenses, inventory, marketable securities, and accounts receivable.
• Non-current assets —also called fixed or long-term assets—are investments that a company does not expect to convert into cash in the short term, such as land, equipment, patents, trademarks, and intellectual property.

Related: 6 Ways Understanding Finance Can Help You Excel Professionally

2. Liabilities

A liability is anything a company or organization owes to a debtor. This may refer to payroll expenses, rent and utility payments, debt payments, money owed to suppliers, taxes, or bonds payable.

As with assets, liabilities can be classified as either current liabilities or non-current liabilities.

• Current or short-term liabilities are typically those due within one year, which may include accounts payable and other accrued expenses.
• Non-current or long term liabilities are typically those that a company doesn’t expect to repay within one year. They are usually long-term obligations, such as leases, bonds payable, or loans.

3. Shareholders’ Equity

Shareholders’ equity refers generally to the net worth of a company, and reflects the amount of money that would be left over if all assets were sold and liabilities paid. Shareholders’ equity belongs to the shareholders, whether they be private or public owners.

Just as assets must equal liabilities plus shareholders’ equity, shareholders’ equity can be depicted by this equation: Shareholders’ Equity = Assets - Liabilities

Does a Balance Sheet Always Balance?

A balance sheet should always balance. The name itself comes from the fact that a company’s assets will equal its liabilities plus any shareholders’ equity that has been issued. If you find that your balance sheet is not truly balancing, it may be caused by one of these culprits:

• Incomplete or misplaced data
• Incorrectly entered transactions
• Errors in currency exchange rates
• Errors in inventory
• Incorrect equity calculations
• Miscalculated loan amortization or depreciation

How to Prepare a Basic Balance Sheet

Here are the steps you can follow to create a basic balance sheet for your organization. Even if some or all of the process is automated through the use of an accounting system or software, understanding how a balance sheet is prepared will enable you to spot potential errors so that they can be resolved before they cause lasting damage.

1. Determine the Reporting Date and Period

A balance sheet is meant to depict the total assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity of a company on a specific date, typically referred to as the reporting date. Often, the reporting date will be the final day of the accounting period .

How Often Is a Balance Sheet Prepared?

Companies, especially publicly traded ones, prepare their balance sheet reports on a quarterly basis. When this is the case, the reporting date usually falls on the final day of the quarter. For companies that operate on a calendar year, those dates are:

• Q1: March 31
• Q2: June 30
• Q3: September 30
• Q4: December 31

Companies that report on an annual basis will often use December 31st as their reporting date, though they can choose any date.

It's not uncommon for a balance sheet to take a few weeks to prepare after the reporting period has ended.

Related: 10 Important Business Skills Every Professional Needs

2. Identify Your Assets

After you’ve identified your reporting date and period, you’ll need to tally your assets as of that date.

Typically, a balance sheet will list assets in two ways: As individual line items and then as total assets. Splitting assets into different line items will make it easier for analysts to understand exactly what your assets are and where they came from; tallying them together will be required for final analysis.

Assets will often be split into the following line items:

• Current Assets:
• Cash and cash equivalents
• Short-term marketable securities
• Accounts receivable
• Other current assets
• Non-current Assets:
• Long-term marketable securities
• Intangible assets
• Other non-current assets

Current and non-current assets should both be subtotaled, and then totaled together.

3. Identify Your Liabilities

Similarly, you will need to identify your liabilities. Again, these should be organized into both line items and totals, as below:

• Current Liabilities:
• Accounts payable
• Accrued expenses
• Deferred revenue
• Current portion of long-term debt
• Other current liabilities
• Non-Current Liabilities:
• Deferred revenue (non-current)
• Long-term lease obligations
• Long-term debt
• Other non-current liabilities

As with assets, these should be both subtotaled and then totaled together.

4. Calculate Shareholders’ Equity

If a company or organization is privately held by a single owner, then shareholders’ equity will generally be pretty straightforward. If it’s publicly held, this calculation may become more complicated depending on the various types of stock issued.

Common line items found in this section of the balance sheet include:

• Common stock
• Preferred stock
• Treasury stock
• Retained earnings

5. Add Total Liabilities to Total Shareholders’ Equity and Compare to Assets

To ensure the balance sheet is balanced, it will be necessary to compare total assets against total liabilities plus equity. To do this, you’ll need to add liabilities and shareholders’ equity together.

Here's an example of a finished balance sheet:

It's important to note that this balance sheet example is formatted according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which companies outside the United States follow. If this balance sheet were from a US company, it would adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

Related: GAAP vs. IFRS: What Are the Key Differences and Which Should You Use?

If you’ve found that your balance sheet doesn't balance, there's likely a problem with some of the accounting data you've relied on. Double check that all of your entries are, in fact, correct and accurate. You may have omitted or duplicated assets, liabilities, or equity, or miscalculated your totals.

The Purpose of a Balance Sheet

Balance sheets are one of the most critical financial statements , offering a quick snapshot of the financial health of a company. Learning how to generate them and troubleshoot issues when they don’t balance is an invaluable financial accounting skill that can help you become an indispensable member of your organization.

Do you want to learn more about what's behind the numbers on financial statements? Explore our finance and accounting courses to find out how you can develop an intuitive knowledge of financial principles and statements to unlock critical insights into performance and potential.

This post was updated on August 12, 2022. It was originally published on September 10, 2019.

About the Author

Limited-Time Offer 🚨 Get 5 0% Off for 5 Months. BUY NOW & SAVE

50% Off for 5 Months Buy Now & Save

Wow clients with professional invoices that take seconds to create

Quick and easy online, recurring, and invoice-free payment options

Automated, to accurately track time and easily log billable hours

Reports and tools to track money in and out, so you know where you stand

Easily log expenses and receipts to ensure your books are always tax-time ready

Tax time and business health reports keep you informed and tax-time ready

Automatically track your mileage and never miss a mileage deduction again

Time-saving all-in-one bookkeeping that your business can count on

Track project status and collaborate with clients and team members

Organized and professional, helping you stand out and win new clients

Set clear expectations with clients and organize your plans for each project

Client management made easy, with client info all in one place

Pay your employees and keep accurate books with Payroll software integrations

FreshBooks integrates with over 100 partners to help you simplify your workflows

Send invoices, track time, manage payments, and more…from anywhere.

• Freelancers
• Self-Employed Professionals
• Businesses With Employees
• Businesses With Contractors
• Marketing & Agencies
• Construction & Trades
• IT & Technology
• Business & Prof. Services
• Accounting Partner Program
• Accountant Hub
• Reports Library
• FreshBooks vs QuickBooks
• FreshBooks vs Harvest
• FreshBooks vs Wave
• FreshBooks vs Xero
• Free Invoice Generator
• Invoice Template
• Accounting Templates
• Business Name Generator
• Help Center
• Business Loan Calculator
• Mark Up Calculator

Call Toll Free: 1.866.303.6061

1-888-674-3175

• All Articles
• Productivity
• Project Management
• Bookkeeping

Resources for Your Growing Business

What is a balance sheet.

A balance sheet states a business’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity at a specific point in time. They offer a snapshot of what your business owns and what it owes, as well as the amount invested by its owners, reported on a single day. A balance sheet tells you a business’s worth at a given time, so you can better understand its financial position.

What is a balance sheet? These topics will help you understand what’s included on a balance sheet and what it tells you about the financial position of your small business:

What Items Are on a Balance Sheet?

Balancing a balance sheet, why is a balance sheet important, balance sheet example, what are the 4 basic financial statements.

NOTE: FreshBooks Support team members are not certified income tax or accounting professionals. They cannot provide advice in these areas, outside of supporting questions about FreshBooks. If you need income tax advice please contact an accountant in your area.

A balance sheet reports the assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity of your business at a given point in time. The items reported on the balance sheet correspond to the accounts outlined on your chart of accounts . A balance sheet is made up of the following elements:

The assets section of the balance sheet breaks down what your business owns of value that can be converted into cash. Your balance sheet will list your assets in order of liquidity; that is, it reports assets in order of how easily they can be converted to cash. There are two main categories of assets included on your balance sheet:

• Cash and cash equivalents: These are your most liquid assets . They include currency, checks, and money stored in your business’s checking and savings accounts
• Marketable securities : Investments that you can sell within a year
• Accounts receivable : Money that your clients owe you for your services that will be paid in the short term
• Inventory: For businesses that sell goods, inventory includes finished products and raw materials
• Prepaid expenses: Things of value that you’ve already paid for, like your office rent or your business insurance
• Fixed assets : Includes property, buildings, machinery, and equipment like computers
• Long-term securities: Investments that can’t be sold within one year
• Intangible assets : These are assets that aren’t physical objects. They include copyrights, franchise agreements, and patents

Liabilities

The next section of a balance sheet lists a company’s liabilities. Your liabilities are the money that you owe to others, including your recurring expenses, loan repayments, and other forms of debt . Liabilities are further broken down into current and long-term liabilities.

Current liabilities include rent, utilities, taxes, current payments toward long-term debts, interest payments, and payroll.

Long-term liabilities include long-term loans, deferred income taxes, and pension fund liabilities.

Owner’s Equity

Owner’s equity (called shareholders’ equity or stakeholders’ equity, for corporations) refers to:

• The amount of money generated by a business
• The amount of money put into the business by its owners or shareholders
• And any donated capital

In other words, owner’s equity is your net assets. On your balance sheet, it’s calculated using this formula:

Owner’s Equity = Total Assets – Total Liabilities

Naturally, your balance sheet must always be balanced. A balance sheet is divided into two sections. One side represents your business’s assets and the other shows its liabilities and owner’s equity.

The total value of your assets must be equal to the combined value of your liabilities and equity. When that’s the case, your document is said to be in balance. This idea is represented by the foundational formula of balance sheets:

Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity

How to Analyze a Balance Sheet

Seeing the information on a balance sheet is just the start. You’ll also need to know how to analyze a balance sheet to use it to its maximum effect.

The best technique to analyze a balance sheet is through financial ratio analysis . With financial ratio analysis, you’ll use formulas to determine the financial health of the company. You’ll also determine its operational efficiency.

There are two types of ratios you can use:

• Financial strength ratios, which tell you how well a company can meet its debt obligations. These include debt-to-equity ratios and working capital ratios
• Activity ratios , which focus on current accounts and operating cycle expenses. This can include receivables, payables, and inventory

Accountants can use any of the above-described ratios with the information contained on balance sheets. Using that information, an accountant can analyze a company’s financial health more deeply.

Again, balance sheets are useful, but they are only skin deep. A more in-depth analysis is always required if you want to determine the health of an investment or company.

Who Prepares Balance Sheets?

Balance sheets can be prepared by several individuals. These can include company owners for small businesses or company bookkeepers. Internal or external accountants can also prepare and look over balance sheets.

If a company is public, public accountants must look over balance sheets and perform external audits. Furthermore, public companies have to prepare their balance sheets by following the GAAP. Public balance sheets have to be filed regularly with the SEC, too.

Because of these factors, balance sheets can be created and managed by a variety of people. Multiple copies of balance sheets should be kept at all times and updated regularly. This will ensure that balance sheets have the same information and don’t contain discrepancies. Any discrepancies could appear suspicious during an audit .

A balance sheet is an important financial statement that gives a snapshot of the financial health of your business at a point in time. You can also look at your balance sheet in conjunction with your other financial statements. This way, you can better understand the relationships between different accounts. A balance sheet is important because it provides the following insights about your business:

By comparing your business’s current assets to its current liabilities, you’ll get a clear picture of the liquidity of your company. In other words, it shows you how much cash you have readily available. It’s wise to have a buffer between your current assets and liabilities to cover your short-term financial obligations. Your assets should be greater than your liabilities.

By comparing your income statement to your balance sheet, you can measure how efficiently your business uses its assets. For example, you can get an idea of how well your company can use its assets to generate revenue .

Your balance sheet can help you understand how much leverage your business has, which tells you how much financial risk you face. To judge leverage, you can compare the debts to the equity listed on your balance sheet.

Here’s an example of a completed balance sheet. It can help you better understand what information these sheets include. The example also shows how it’s laid out and how the two sides of the balance sheet balance each other out.

We also have a balance sheet template you can download and use right now.

The balance sheet is one element in a series of four basic financial statements. Together, these give an overview of your business’s financial performance. These are the four basic financial statements and how they’re used to evaluate a business’s finances:

Income Statement: Also called a profit and loss statement, this reports the revenues, expenses, and profits and losses generated during a specific reporting period. It’s considered to be the most important of the four financial statements because it shows the profits a business is generating.

Balance Sheet: A balance sheet lists a company’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity at a specific point in time. It’s usually thought of as the second most important financial statement. A balance sheet, at its core, shows the liquidity and the theoretical value of the business.

Cash Flow Statement: The cash flow statement shows the money flowing into and out of a business during a specific reporting period. The cash flow statement is important to lenders and investors to determine whether a business has access to the cash needed to pay off its debts.

Statement of Owner’s Equity or Retained Earnings: This shows the changes in equity within a business for a specific reporting period. The statement is typically made up of many parts. These include dividend payments, the sale or repurchase of stock, and profit or loss changes.

Do Balance Sheets Have Limitations?

Yes. Although balance sheets can be very important for investors, analysts, and accountants, they do have a couple of drawbacks. Balance sheets only show you the financial metrics of the company at a single point in time. So balance sheets are not necessarily good for predicting future company performance.

Furthermore, balance sheets are inherently static. For the best financial analysis, accountants may want to draw on data from the balance sheet and other forms, too. These can include a statement of cash flow or dynamic income statements. These can indicate the financial health of the company more thoroughly.

There’s one other downside. Accounting systems or depreciation methods may allow managers to change things on balance sheets. This opens up balance sheets to corruption. Some executives may fiddle with balance sheets to make them look more profitable than they actually are. Thus, anyone reading a balance sheet must examine footnotes in detail to make sure there aren’t any red flags.

Key Takeaways

Balance sheets are important financial information summaries. Business owners and accountants can use it to measure the financial health of an organization. However, balance sheets should be used in conjunction with other analysis tools whenever possible.

Want to learn more about accounting, financial analysis, and other key topics? Check out our helpful resource hub for more guides just like this!

RELATED ARTICLES

Save Time Billing and Get Paid 2x Faster With FreshBooks

Want More Helpful Articles About Running a Business?

Get more great content in your Inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to receive communications from FreshBooks and acknowledge and agree to FreshBook’s Privacy Policy . You can unsubscribe at any time by contacting us at [email protected].

👋 Welcome to FreshBooks

To see our product designed specifically for your country, please visit the United States site.

• Site License

Balanced Scorecard

Use balanced scorecards to align company activities with strategic goals, what is a balanced scorecard, balanced scorecard perspectives, how to draw a balanced scorecard, balanced scorecard examples, strategic planning, strategy maps, with smartdraw, you can create more than 70 types of diagrams, charts, and visuals.

A balanced scorecard (BSC) is a visual tool used to measure the effectiveness of an activity against the strategic plans of a company. Balanced scorecards are often used during strategic planning to make sure the company's efforts are aligned with overall strategy and vision.

It was created to help businesses evaluate their activities with more than just a straight financial eye using revenues, costs, and profits. This diagram presents a balanced view that also takes into account other perspectives of success.

A traditional balanced scorecard examines the initiatives of a company from four different perspectives: Financial, Learning & Growth, Business Processes, and Customer.

These activities are noted in the appropriate buckets with stated measures, targets, and objectives for data collection and analyzing. The activities then can be evaluated and assessed properly.

What are the Four Perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard?

The financial perspective in a balanced scorecard is potentially the most traditional of the four. You'll want to look at return on investment, growth, fixed costs, profit, and so on.

Learning and Growth Perspective

This area examines the company's health in terms of training employees on rapidly changing technologies, mentoring junior employees in a way that helps them grow and contribute, and employing the latest tools and systems to foster innovation. You may also want to examine how fast your company responds to change and how long it takes a team to develop a new product and bring it to market.

Business Process Perspective

It's also important to examine a company's internal processes to look for areas ripe for improvement by removing inefficiencies and identifying error-prone portions. Would it help the company's strategic goal if some processes were faster or cost less?

Customer Perspective

You will want to examine your company's activities from your customers' or stakeholders' perspective. How do your customers view your activities? What are the reviews and feedback? Do you have an objective measure of customer satisfaction from surveys or other sources? A negative perception of your business or products could lead to declining sales in the future.

Some claim that this traditional approach to balanced scorecards doesn't fit every industry or business. So some of today's balanced scorecards will feature a different set of perspectives, sometimes even more than the traditional four listed above. Some balanced scorecards will also rely on strategy maps . These balanced scorecards will portray a series of smaller strategic objectives in addition to the overall goal of the company.

How to Draw a Balanced Scorecard

Balanced scorecards are easiest to create using a template. Start with a space for all four perspectives and just add what specifically applies to your organization.

• Determine the vision. The company's main vision belongs in the center of a balanced scorecard. Whichever part of your company you look at, you should always keep this goal or vision in mind.
• Add perspectives. To create a traditional balanced scorecard, place the four perspectives in a ring around the central vision.
• Add objectives and measures. Within each perspective define specific objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives.
• Connect each piece. Link each perspective to the others using arrows to indicate that they're all interconnected when it comes to achieving the company's vision.
• Share and communicate. Use the balanced scorecard to demonstrate how different initiatives and short-term actions are contributing to the long-term strategic objectives of the company.

The best way to understand balanced scorecards is to look at some examples of balanced scorecards.

Click on any of these balanced scorecards included in SmartDraw and edit them:

Browse SmartDraw's entire collection of balanced scorecard examples and templates

More Balanced Scorecard Information

• Balanced scorecard software
• Strategic map software
• Strategic planning software
• Three kinds of business strategy
• Strategic planning template
• Growth share matrix software
• SWOT analysis
• Strategic planning: Goals Grid
• Step chart software
• PEST analysis
• Ansoff matrix

Try SmartDraw's Balanced Scorecard Software Free

Discover why SmartDraw is the best balanced scorecard software today.

©1994-2023 SmartDraw, LLC

• Explore SmartDraw
• Privacy [UPDATED]
• Flowchart Maker
• Floor Plan Designer
• Organizational Chart Templates
• Visio Alternative
• Lucidchart Alternative

What is a balanced report?

The correct option is c a balanced report is one that discusses all points of view of a particular story and then leaves it to the readers to make up their minds. a balanced report is one that discusses all points of view of a particular story and then leaves it to the readers to make up their minds..

Talk to our experts

1800-120-456-456

• Social science
• Media and democracy

What do you mean by a balanced report?

What is a balanced report?

A balanced report is one that discusses all points of view of a particular story and the leaves it to the readers to make up their minds.

this is especially for class 7th

this is from civics book

chapter " understanding media"

i hope this helps you

mariam moatasem ∙

Personal Finance

What is discretionary spending within a budget, what provides a bank with collateral on a car loan, which is one way that credit cards differ from debit cards, which of these is an example of a fixed expense, add your answer:.

Accuracy of technical writing?

means the use of precise words coherent sentences, well-developed paragraphs and balanced report.

Which category of accounts is not balanced?

Which category of account is not balanced?

What is a balanced scorecard?

A balanced scorecard is used by managers to describe their vision/goals to the company.

What is balanced in the balanced scorecard approach?

The integration of financial and non-financial performance metrics in employee reviews make the scorecard balance. Before the balanced scorecard, only financial metrics were measured.

What is summary report transaction report exception report and detail report?

Summary is the sister of dictionary. Summary is the sister of dictionary.

Is media independent in India?

No, it does not give a balanced report to people.

What is the purpose of a balanced scorecard?

The primary purpose of a balanced scorecard is to provide a concise report on organizational performance. Usually, a balanced scorecard involves both financial and non-financial factors.

What is the purpose of balanced Scorecard?

What is the primary purpose of a balanced scorecard, we report you decide what network insists that its news coverage is fair and balanced, what is an balanced force.

balanced force is when things are balanced.

What is the meaning of impartiality of technical report writing?

Impartiality is the property of being balanced in the presentation of arguments and facts. Not hiding anything and offering positive and negative analyses of all situations.

Does balanced meal and balanced diet the same?

not necessarily, all meals don't have to be balanced for the total diet to be balanced.

What class on guild wars does the most damage?

There is no class on guild wars that does the most damage. Guild wars is a very balanced game and therefore all classes should do about the same amount of damage. If not, players will report it and guild wars will eventually(about 2-4 months) fix it and make the game balanced again.

Are the forces on a car unbalanced or balanced?

Are gravity and pressure balanced or not balanced.

In the case of a star (that is not actually going nova or supernova) they are balanced.

Top Categories

We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here . By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms of Service .

Member Sign In

Don't Know Your Password?

New to Zacks? Get started here.

You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating individual securities.

If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK . If you do not, click Cancel.

Image: Bigstock

Is Schwab Balanced Fund (SWOBX) a Strong Mutual Fund Pick Right Now?

If you've been stuck searching for Mutual Fund Equity Report funds, consider Schwab Balanced Fund ( SWOBX Quick Quote SWOBX - Free Report ) as a possibility. SWOBX holds a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on various forecasting factors like size, cost, and past performance.

History of Fund/Manager

Schwab Funds is based in San Francisco, CA, and is the manager of SWOBX. Schwab Balanced Fund debuted in October of 1996. Since then, SWOBX has accumulated assets of about $625.08 million, according to the most recently available information. The fund is currently managed by Zifan Tang who has been in charge of the fund since February of 2012.

Performance

Obviously, what investors are looking for in these funds is strong performance relative to their peers. This fund has delivered a 5-year annualized total return of 5.29%, and is in the middle third among its category peers. But if you are looking for a shorter time frame, it is also worth looking at its 3-year annualized total return of 3.02%, which places it in the bottom third during this time-frame.

It is important to note that the product's returns may not reflect all its expenses. Any fees not reflected would lower the returns. Total returns do not reflect the fund's [%] sale charge. If sales charges were included, total returns would have been lower.

When looking at a fund's performance, it is also important to note the standard deviation of the returns. The lower the standard deviation, the less volatility the fund experiences. The standard deviation of SWOBX over the past three years is 12.59% compared to the category average of 12.25%. Over the past 5 years, the standard deviation of the fund is 12.91% compared to the category average of 12.82%. This makes the fund more volatile than its peers over the past half-decade.

Risk Factors

Investors should note that the fund has a 5-year beta of 0.67, which means it is hypothetically less volatile than the market at large. Another factor to consider is alpha, as it reflects a portfolio's performance on a risk-adjusted basis relative to a benchmark-in this case, the S&P 500. Over the past 5 years, the fund has a negative alpha of -2.78. This means that managers in this portfolio find it difficult to pick securities that generate better-than-benchmark returns.

For investors, taking a closer look at cost-related metrics is key, since costs are increasingly important for mutual fund investing. Competition is heating up in this space, and a lower cost product will likely outperform its otherwise identical counterpart, all things being equal. In terms of fees, SWOBX is a no load fund. It has an expense ratio of 0.50% compared to the category average of 0.85%. So, SWOBX is actually cheaper than its peers from a cost perspective.

Investors should also note that the minimum initial investment for the product is $0 and that each subsequent investment has no minimum amount.

Fees charged by investment advisors have not been taken into considiration. Returns would be less if those were included.

Bottom Line

Overall, Schwab Balanced Fund ( SWOBX ) has a high Zacks Mutual Fund rank, and in conjunction with its comparatively similar performance, average downside risk, and lower fees, Schwab Balanced Fund ( SWOBX ) looks like a good potential choice for investors right now.

Don't stop here for your research on Mutual Fund Equity Report funds. We also have plenty more on our site in order to help you find the best possible fund for your portfolio. Make sure to check out www.zacks.com/funds/mutual-funds for more information about the world of funds, and feel free to compare SWOBX to its peers as well for additional information. And don't forget, Zacks has all of your needs covered on the equity side too! Make sure to check out Zacks.com for more information on our screening capabilities, Rank, and all our articles as well.

See More Zacks Research for These Tickers

Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report free:.

Schwab Balanced (SWOBX) - free report >>

Published in

This file is used for Yahoo remarketing pixel add

Due to inactivity, you will be signed out in approximately:

• Pre-Markets
• U.S. Markets
• Cryptocurrency
• Futures & Commodities
• Funds & ETFs
• Health & Science
• Real Estate
• Transportation
• Industrials

Small Business

Personal Finance

• Financial Advisors
• Options Action
• Buffett Archive
• Trader Talk
• Cybersecurity
• Social Media
• CNBC Disruptor 50
• White House
• Equity and Opportunity
• Business Day Shows
• Entertainment Shows
• Full Episodes
• Latest Video
• CEO Interviews
• CNBC Documentaries
• CNBC Podcasts
• Digital Originals
• Live TV Schedule
• Trust Portfolio
• Trade Alerts
• Meeting Videos
• Homestretch
• Jim's Columns
• Stock Screener
• Market Forecast

Credit Cards

Credit Monitoring

Help for Low Credit Scores

All Credit Cards

Find the Credit Card for You

Best Credit Cards

Best Rewards Credit Cards

Best Travel Credit Cards

Best 0% APR Credit Cards

Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Best Cash Back Credit Cards

Best Credit Card Welcome Bonuses

Best Credit Cards to Build Credit

Find the Best Personal Loan for You

Best Personal Loans

Best Debt Consolidation Loans

Best Loans to Refinance Credit Card Debt

Best Loans with Fast Funding

Best Small Personal Loans

Best Large Personal Loans

Best Personal Loans to Apply Online

Best Student Loan Refinance

All Banking

Find the Savings Account for You

Best High Yield Savings Accounts

Best Big Bank Savings Accounts

Best Big Bank Checking Accounts

Best No Fee Checking Accounts

No Overdraft Fee Checking Accounts

Best Checking Account Bonuses

Best Money Market Accounts

Best Credit Unions

All Mortgages

Best Mortgages

Best Mortgages for Small Down Payment

Best Mortgages for No Down Payment

Best Mortgages with No Origination Fee

Best Mortgages for Average Credit Score

Adjustable Rate Mortgages

Affording a Mortgage

All Insurance

Best Life Insurance

Best Homeowners Insurance

Best Renters Insurance

Best Car Insurance

Travel Insurance

All Credit Monitoring

Best Credit Monitoring Services

Best Identity Theft Protection

How to Boost Your Credit Score

Credit Repair Services

All Personal Finance

Best Budgeting Apps

Best Expense Tracker Apps

Best Money Transfer Apps

Best Resale Apps and Sites

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Apps

Best Debt Relief

All Small Business

Best Small Business Savings Accounts

Best Small Business Checking Accounts

Best Credit Cards for Small Business

Best Small Business Loans

Best Tax Software for Small Business

Best Tax Software

Best Tax Software for Small Businesses

Tax Refunds

All Help for Low Credit Scores

Best Credit Cards for Bad Credit

Best Personal Loans for Bad Credit

Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit

Personal Loans if You Don't Have Credit

Best Credit Cards for Building Credit

Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower

Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower

Best Mortgages for Bad Credit

Best Hardship Loans

All Investing

Best IRA Accounts

Best Roth IRA Accounts

Best Investing Apps

Best Free Stock Trading Platforms

Best Robo-Advisors

Index Funds

Mutual Funds

Fed declines to hike, but points to rates staying higher for longer

• The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, while also indicating it still expects one more hike before the end of the year and fewer cuts than previously indicated next year.
• Along with the rate projections, the Fed also sharply revised up its economic growth expectations for this year, with gross domestic product now expected to rise 2.1% this year.
• In addition to holding rates at relatively high levels, the Fed is continuing to reduce its bond holdings, a process that has cut the central bank balance sheet by some $815 billion since June 2022

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in a decision released Wednesday, while also indicating it still expects one more hike before the end of the year and fewer cuts than previously indicated next year.

That final increase, if realized, would do it for this cycle, according to projections the central bank released at the end of its two-day meeting. If the Fed goes ahead with the move, it would make a full dozen hikes since the policy tightening began in March 2022.

Markets had fully priced in no move at this meeting, which kept the fed funds rate in a targeted range between 5.25%-5.5%, the highest in some 22 years. The rate fixes what banks charge each other for overnight lending but also spills over into many forms of consumer debt .

While the no-hike was expected, there was considerable uncertainty over where the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee would go from here. Judging from documents released Wednesday, the bias appears toward more restrictive policy and a higher-for-longer approach to interest rates.

That outlook weighed on the market, with the S&P 500 falling nearly 1% and the Nasdaq Composite off 1.5%. Stocks oscillated as Fed Chair Jerome Powell took questions during a news conference .

"We're in a position to proceed carefully in determining the extent of additional policy firming," Powell said.

However, he added that the central bank would like to see more progress in its fight against inflation.

"We want to see convincing evidence really that we have reached the appropriate level, and we're seeing progress and we welcome that. But, you know, we need to see more progress before we'll be willing to reach that conclusion," he said.

Projections released in the Fed's dot plot showed the likelihood of one more increase this year, then two cuts in 2024, two fewer than were indicated during the last update in June. That would put the funds rate around 5.1%. The plot allows members to indicate anonymously where they think rates are headed.

Twelve participants at the meeting penciled in the additional hike, while seven opposed it. That put one more in opposition than at the June meeting. Recently confirmed Fed Governor Adriana Kugler was not a voter at the last meeting. The projection for the fed funds rate also moved higher for 2025, with the median outlook at 3.9%, compared with 3.4% previously.

Over the longer term, FOMC members pointed to a funds rate of 2.9% in 2026. That's above what the Fed considers the "neutral" rate of interest that is neither stimulative nor restrictive for growth. This was the first time the committee provided a look at 2026. The long-run expected neutral rate held at 2.5%.

"Chair Powell and the Fed sent an unambiguously hawkish higher-for-longer message at today's FOMC meeting," wrote Citigroup economist Andrew Hollenhorst. "The Fed is projecting inflation to steadily cool, while the labor market remains historically tight. But, in our view, a sustained imbalance in the labor market is more likely to keep inflation 'stuck' above target."

Economic growth seen higher

Along with the rate projections, members also sharply revised up their economic growth expectations for this year, with gross domestic product now expected to increase 2.1% this year. That was more than double the June estimate and indicative that members do not anticipate a recession anytime soon. The 2024 GDP outlook moved up to 1.5%, from 1.1%.

The expected inflation rate, as measured by the core personal consumption expenditures price index, also moved lower to 3.7%, down 0.2 percentage point from June, as did the outlook for unemployment, now projected at 3.8%, compared with 4.1% previously.

There were a few changes in the post-meeting statement that reflected the adjustment in the economic outlook.

The committee characterized economic activity as "expanding at a solid pace," compared with "moderate" in previous statements. It also noted that job gains "have slowed in recent months but remain strong." That contrasts with earlier language describing the employment picture as "robust."

In addition to holding rates at relatively high levels, the Fed is continuing to reduce its bond holdings, a process that has cut the central bank balance sheet by some $815 billion since June 2022. The Fed is allowing up to $95 billion in proceeds from maturing bonds to roll off each month, rather than reinvesting them.

A shift to a more balanced view

The Fed's actions come at a delicate time for the U.S. economy.

In recent public appearances, Fed officials have indicated a shift in thinking, from believing that it was better to do too much to bring down inflation to a new view that is more balanced. That's partly due to perceived lagged impacts from the rate hikes, which represented the toughest Fed monetary policy since the early 1980s.

There have been growing signs that the central bank may yet achieve its soft landing of bringing down inflation without tipping the economy into a deep recession. However, the future remains far from certain, and Fed officials have expressed caution about declaring victory too soon.

"We, like many, expected to see the hawkish hold that Powell nodded to at Jackson Hole," said Alexandra Wilson-Elizondo, deputy chief investment officer of multi-asset strategies at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. "However, the release was more hawkish than expected. While a share of past policy tightening is still in the pipeline, the Fed can go into wait and see mode, hence the pause. However, the main risk remains tarnishing their largest asset, anti-inflation credibility, which warrants favoring a hawkishness reaction function."

The recent rise in energy prices as well as resilient consumption is likely why the median dot moved higher next year, she said.

"We don't see a singular upcoming bearish catalyst, although strikes, the shutdown, and the resumption of student loan repayments collectively will sting and drive bumpiness in the data between now and their next decision. As a result, we believe that their next meeting will be live, but not a done deal," Wilson-Elizondo said.

The jobs picture has been solid, with an unemployment rate of 3.8% just slightly higher than it was a year ago. Job openings have been coming down, helping the Fed mark progress against a supply-demand mismatch that at one point had seen two positions for every available worker.

Inflation data also has gotten better, though the annual rate remains well above the Fed's 2% target. The central bank's favored gauge in July showed core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, running at a 4.2% rate.

Consumers, who make up about two-thirds of all economic activity, have been resilient, spending even as savings have diminished and credit card debt has passed the $1 trillion mark for the first time. In a recent University of Michigan survey, respective outlooks for one- and five-year inflation rates hit multiyear lows.

Correction: The Federal funds target rate is a range of 5.25-5.5%. A previous version of this story misstated the end point of the range.

Top Courses for Class 7 View all

NCERT Textbooks & Solutions for Class 7

Science Class 7

NCERT Solutions for Class 7

Mathematics (Maths) Class 7

Social Studies (SST) Class 7

Top courses for class 7, learn this topic in detail, similar class 7 doubts, why chemical equation be balanced, give me some chemical equations to be balanced, write a balanced chemical equation for the newutralisation reaction between hydrochloric acid and calcium hydroxide , what is balanced report, what is balanced report related: what is mass media & types of media - understanding media, cbse class 7 sst (civics), quick links for class 7 exam.

Share your doubts

Welcome Back

Create you account for free.

Forgot Password

Unattempted tests, change country.