Real examples of 3 examples of interim balance sheets for 2024

When people look for examples of 3 examples of interim balance sheets, the cleanest place to start is a large, publicly traded company that files quarterly reports. In the U.S., that means a Form 10‑Q filed with the SEC. These filings include interim balance sheets that compare the current quarter-end to the prior year-end.

Take a hypothetical but realistic case modeled on a NASDAQ‑listed cloud software company:

• As of March 31, 2025 (unaudited)

  • Cash and cash equivalents: $1.4 billion
  • Short-term investments: $900 million
  • Accounts receivable, net: $650 million
  • Total current assets: $3.1 billion
  • Property and equipment, net: $600 million
  • Goodwill and intangibles: $2.3 billion

  • Total assets: $6.2 billion

  • Accounts payable: $220 million

  • Accrued expenses: $480 million
  • Deferred revenue (current): $1.5 billion
  • Total current liabilities: $2.3 billion
  • Long-term debt: $1.1 billion

  • Total liabilities: $3.6 billion

  • Common stock and APIC: $1.5 billion

  • Retained earnings: $800 million
  • Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss): $300 million
  • Total equity: $2.6 billion
  • Total liabilities and equity: $6.2 billion

This interim balance sheet is a textbook example of how public companies present their quarterly position:

• It’s clearly labeled “unaudited”, which is standard for interim financial statements under both U.S. GAAP and IFRS.
• It compares a quarter-end date (March 31, 2025) to the last audited year-end (December 31, 2024).
• It uses estimates more heavily than the annual report, especially for items like allowances for doubtful accounts and accrued bonuses.

If you want to see live, real examples, the SEC’s EDGAR database is the best hunting ground. Public companies are required to file interim reports there, and each 10‑Q includes an interim balance sheet:
https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search

This public tech scenario is the first of our 3 examples of interim balance sheets, and it highlights how recurring subscription revenue, deferred revenue, and stock-based compensation show up mid-year.

2. Mid-sized manufacturer: seasonal swings in interim balance sheets

The second of our 3 examples of interim balance sheets comes from a fictional but realistic U.S.-based manufacturing company that sells HVAC equipment to commercial builders. Manufacturing is great for illustrating how seasonal demand can distort an interim balance sheet.

Imagine the interim balance sheet for June 30, 2025 (unaudited):

• Assets

  • Cash: $50 million
  • Accounts receivable: $190 million
  • Inventory: $260 million
  • Prepaid expenses: $20 million
  • Total current assets: $520 million
  • Property, plant, and equipment (net): $430 million
  • Other long-term assets: $50 million
  • Total assets: $1.0 billion

• Liabilities and equity

  • Accounts payable: $140 million
  • Accrued payroll and benefits: $60 million
  • Short-term borrowings (line of credit): $120 million
  • Current portion of long-term debt: $40 million
  • Total current liabilities: $360 million
  • Long-term debt: $220 million

  • Total liabilities: $580 million

  • Common stock: $150 million

  • Retained earnings: $270 million
  • Total equity: $420 million
  • Total liabilities and equity: $1.0 billion

Here, the interim balance sheet is an example of how seasonality hits working capital:

• Inventory spikes in late spring and early summer as the company gears up for peak construction season.
• Short-term borrowings jump because the company draws on its credit line to finance that inventory.
• By year-end, both inventory and the line of credit might be much lower, so a single annual balance sheet would hide this mid-year cash squeeze.

For lenders, this is one of the best examples of why interim balance sheets matter: they show whether the company can survive its own busy season. Banks often require quarterly or even monthly interim balance sheets in loan covenants to monitor working capital.

If you want a standards backdrop for how interim financials should be prepared, the FASB’s guidance on interim reporting under U.S. GAAP is summarized here:
https://asc.fasb.org

3. Venture-backed SaaS startup: equity-heavy interim balance sheet

The third of our 3 examples of interim balance sheets focuses on a high-growth, venture-backed SaaS startup. This is where interim balance sheets start to look very different from mature public companies.

Picture the interim balance sheet at September 30, 2025 (unaudited), just after a Series C funding round:

• Assets

  • Cash: \(120 million (after raising \)100 million)
  • Accounts receivable: $8 million
  • Deferred contract acquisition costs: $6 million
  • Total current assets: $134 million
  • Property and equipment: $4 million
  • Capitalized software development costs: $10 million
  • Total assets: $148 million

• Liabilities and equity

  • Accounts payable: $3 million
  • Accrued expenses: $7 million
  • Deferred revenue: $18 million
  • Total current liabilities: $28 million
  • Long-term lease liabilities: $10 million

  • Total liabilities: $38 million

  • Preferred stock: $90 million

  • Common stock and APIC: $40 million
  • Accumulated deficit: $(20) million
  • Total equity: $110 million
  • Total liabilities and equity: $148 million

This is a textbook example of how interim balance sheets for startups look:

• Equity dominates the capital structure; debt is minimal.
• The company is losing money (negative retained earnings / accumulated deficit) but has plenty of cash from recent funding.
• Deferred revenue is growing as the startup sells more annual subscriptions.

Investors use this kind of interim balance sheet to answer blunt questions: How fast is the company burning cash? How many months of runway are left? Does the balance sheet support the next funding round valuation?

For a broader view of how investors analyze financial statements, the investor education resources at FINRA are worth a look:
https://www.finra.org/investors

More real examples of interim balance sheets you’ll actually see

The three core scenarios above give you a solid baseline. But in real life, examples include several other patterns that deserve attention if you’re serious about reading interim financials.

Retail chains: interim balance sheets around the holiday crunch

Retailers provide some of the best examples of how timing can warp an interim balance sheet. Consider a national apparel chain at October 31, 2025 (unaudited), right before the holiday season hits in full force:

• Inventory is piled high, maybe double the March level.
• Cash might be temporarily low due to inventory purchases and marketing spend.
• Short-term borrowings are up as the company taps seasonal credit facilities.

By January 31, the interim balance sheet flips:

• Inventory plummets after holiday sales and markdowns.
• Cash is temporarily stronger, assuming the season went well.
• Some short-term debt is repaid.

If you only looked at the year-end balance sheet, you’d miss the October stress point completely. That’s why lenders and landlords often insist on quarterly interim balance sheets from retail tenants.

Construction and project-based businesses

A construction contractor offers another example of an interim balance sheet with quirks:

• Contract assets (work done but not yet billed) and contract liabilities (billings in excess of work performed) can swing wildly from quarter to quarter.
• Retainage receivable—amounts held back by customers until project milestones—can stack up on the asset side.

These interim swings matter because they affect the company’s ability to meet surety bond requirements and bank covenants. One quarter’s interim balance sheet might show a strong asset base; the next could show a large contract liability that signals aggressive billing.

Nonprofits: interim balance sheets with restricted funds

Nonprofits also publish interim balance sheets, often called statements of financial position. A mid-year example for a U.S. nonprofit might show:

• Cash and investments split between restricted and unrestricted categories.
• A spike in contributions receivable around a fundraising campaign.
• Deferred revenue for program fees or grants received in advance.

Here, an interim balance sheet is an example of how donor restrictions matter. A nonprofit can look “cash rich” mid-year, but much of that cash might be restricted and unusable for general operations. That nuance is only obvious if you read the interim balance sheet detail.

For standards on nonprofit financial reporting, the guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board and educational resources from major universities (for example, Harvard’s nonprofit finance materials) are useful references:
https://www.hks.harvard.edu

Banks and financial institutions

Banks give some of the most data-heavy examples of interim balance sheets:

• Loan portfolios re-priced each quarter as interest rates move.
• Securities portfolios marked to market, affecting equity through other comprehensive income.
• Regulatory capital ratios that depend on interim balance sheet numbers.

In 2024–2025, with interest rates still a front-page topic, interim balance sheets for banks show how rapidly deposit levels, loan demand, and unrealized losses on securities can move from quarter to quarter. Analysts watch these interim numbers closely to gauge liquidity risk.

How 2024–2025 trends show up in interim balance sheets

Looking across all these examples of 3 examples of interim balance sheets and the additional cases, a few current themes keep showing up in 2024–2025:

• Higher interest rates:

  • More interest income on cash and short-term investments for tech companies and startups.
  • Higher interest expense on variable-rate debt for manufacturers and retailers.

• Supply chain normalization after the pandemic:

  • Inventories on interim balance sheets are stabilizing compared with the wild swings of 2020–2022.
  • Some companies are holding strategic safety stock, so mid-year inventory levels remain higher than pre‑2020 norms.

• Remote and hybrid work:

  • More right-of-use assets and lease liabilities as companies re-negotiate office space.
  • Some startups show smaller property and equipment balances as they avoid heavy office build-outs.

• Increased investor scrutiny:

  • Venture and private equity investors are demanding monthly or quarterly interim balance sheets, not just annuals, especially for cash-burning startups.
  • Lenders are tightening covenants that rely directly on interim balance sheet ratios.

For a policy-level view on financial reporting and markets, the U.S. SEC maintains current guidance and investor resources:
https://www.sec.gov

Reading interim balance sheets: what these examples teach you

Across all these real examples of interim balance sheets, a few practical lessons repeat:

1. Interim means more estimates.
Companies don’t re-run every detailed process each quarter. Provisions for bad debts, inventory obsolescence, and bonuses often rely on updated estimates rather than full-blown studies.

2. Seasonality can mislead if you only see one date.
A single interim balance sheet is just a snapshot. For seasonal businesses, you need a series of interim balance sheets across the year to see the real pattern.

3. Cash and working capital trends matter more than one number.
In the startup and manufacturer examples, the story is in the direction of cash, receivables, and payables from one interim period to the next, not in any single quarter’s figures.

4. Debt and covenant tests are often based on interim data.
Banks rarely wait for the annual audit. They watch interim balance sheets for leverage ratios, current ratios, and net worth covenants.

5. Footnotes still matter, even mid-year.
Every strong example of an interim balance sheet comes with notes explaining accounting policies, contingencies, and changes since year-end. Skipping the notes is how you miss the landmines.

FAQ: examples of interim balance sheets and how they’re used

Q1. Can you give more examples of interim balance sheets beyond the 3 in this article?
Yes. In practice, you’ll see interim balance sheets from hospitals, universities, real estate investment trusts, insurance companies, and municipal governments. Each sector has its own quirks—like claims reserves for insurers or unearned tuition for universities—but the core structure (assets, liabilities, equity/net position) is the same.

Q2. Are interim balance sheets audited?
Typically not. Public companies’ interim balance sheets are reviewed by auditors but not fully audited. Private companies often prepare interim balance sheets internally or with limited external review. That’s why every good example of an interim balance sheet is clearly labeled “unaudited” in the header.

Q3. How do investors use these real examples of interim balance sheets?
Investors and lenders use interim balance sheets to monitor short-term liquidity, leverage, and covenant compliance. In the tech and startup examples, they’re checking cash runway. In the manufacturing and retail examples, they’re watching inventory and short-term debt. The pattern across multiple interim periods matters more than a single date.

Q4. Do interim balance sheets follow the same rules as annual ones?
Yes, but with some flexibility. Under U.S. GAAP and IFRS, interim financial statements are prepared using the same accounting policies as annual statements, but with more reliance on estimates and allocations. The FASB and IASB both provide guidance on how to handle interim reporting.

Q5. Where can I find the best examples of interim balance sheets to study?
For public companies, the SEC’s EDGAR system is the primary source of real examples of interim balance sheets in 10‑Q filings. For nonprofits and universities, many publish interim financials on their websites. For private companies and startups, you typically need direct access as an investor, lender, or advisor.

The bottom line: if you want to get comfortable with interim reporting, don’t just memorize definitions. Study these examples of 3 examples of interim balance sheets, then branch out to other sectors. The patterns—seasonality, cash swings, leverage, and equity changes—will start to jump off the page, and your analysis will get a lot sharper, quarter by quarter.