Your boss calls you and asks how the organization is doing as of today from a financial perspective? Should you use an income statement or a balance sheet? Please explain your answer.

Income Statement is the better choice of the two options for a manager to the organization’s current financial status.

An income statement is a showing of operational costs in the financial year, with costs like cost of goods, cost of goods sold, government obligations (taxes) et cetra. Whilst a balance sheet is a reflection of overall financial position at the end of the financial period, it shows capital additions/deductions, liabilities, assets, depreciation, even income statement’s balancing figure. 

Balance sheet is often much more detailed than income statement (“Balance Sheet VS”, n.d.)

Though it is worthy to note that, the balance sheet does not show a breakdown of actual sales revenue, nor does it show how much was spent to earn said revenue and it is only run at year end to get a complete picture, but an income statement can be run at any time during the fiscal year to determine profitability as it shows what was made and what was spent to make it.

In the instance where Revenue is higher than Cost of goods and all costs accompanying the sales, then the income statement is reflecting a profitable position, but if Revenue is lower than Cost of goods and all costs accompanying the sales, then the income statement is reflecting a loss; the figure is also called net profit or net loss. (Parham, n.d.)

Reference 

                      Balance Sheet vs. Income Statement (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.softschools.com/difference/balance_sheet_vs_income_statement/162/

                      Parham, M (n.d.) Income Statement vs. Balance Sheet vs. Cash Flow Statement Retrieved from  https://thebottomlinecpa.com/income-statement-vs-balance-sheet-vs-cash-flow-statement/