Most people who own a business can read a profit and loss account and go blank at a balance sheet. It is the more useful of the two.
Start at the bottom. Net assets tell you what would be left if everything stopped today. Then look at how much of the asset side is money you are owed rather than money you have, and how much of the liability side falls due inside a year.
Those two comparisons answer the question the profit line cannot: can this business survive a slow quarter?
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