A complete set of financial statements also include statements of cash flows and other comprehensive income. These statements play important roles, but earnings are still used in these as the starting and dominant measure. Occasionally, the relevance of financial statements is questioned; this article is written to reaffirm their importance. Accountants have been preparing some sort of financial statements since the beginning of written records, which were developed by the Sumerians in cuneiform around 3400 BCE. A more formal, and familiar, report was developed around 1350 CE by the merchants of Venice, Genoa, and surrounding areas. In 1494, Luca Pacioli…