Questions: 1: Financial statements in my opinion are an overall outlook on how your account is doing. I think that they are easy to read, and even simple to create! Nowadays, it's crazy to see that Excel and other accounting software creates it for you by what you put in your information each month.
2: The benefits of a financial statement worksheet in my opinion is to keep things in order. Every asset has its place, each liability has a place, each account stands for something and instead of having separate sheets for each, its summarized into one. It makes things easier, saves time and paper. It took me awhile to figure it all out myself, so being able to explain how to break it down and what each is for is good to know. Its more than just words and numbers on a paper as some people might see it, to a business owner and accountant its the figures and proof on how well the company is doing, what their expenses are and so on.
3: Some people keep other records similar to a worksheet instead of an actual worksheet. It is basically the same thing but it looks different. You can keep a record of your earnings in a notebook that is designed like a worksheet. You can buy notebooks like that at Office Max or Walmart. But it is important to keep your records in a safe place over the life of the business so that you can come back to them later and maybe check out your gains and losses.
4: If you lose your records of the business it would also cause a big problem for your business. I have seen people that misplaced there records and had to start over which caused some embarrassment for the business. One example is my grandfather; he had a video store for over 20 years and he closed it down a couple years ago. But now he wants to go back into business a second time with no records of his past business. He told me that he still has some of his records but some of them were lost. He said that he can still go into business, but it will cause some problems if he ever had to go to court. So, it is important to keep the records some place safe even if you go out of business, if you wanted to go back into business a couple years later.