Definition

Balance-sheet identity

The equation the balance sheet is built on: everything a company owns is funded by creditors or by owners, so total assets equal total liabilities plus stockholders' equity — by construction, in every filing. A statement where the identity fails to reconcile means a misread or a broken extraction, never a real company.

Formula
Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders' equity
Drivers — what actually moves it
Funding mix
the identity splits one asset base into its two funding sources — the split, not the total, is the analysis.
Reconciliation
Echelon's pipeline refuses any filing where the three filed totals fail to reconcile — the identity is a data-integrity gate.
Where to find it in the filing

Balance sheet (Consolidated Balance Sheets). 10-K Item 8 — total assets, total liabilities, and total stockholders' equity; the statement totals must balance.

XBRL concepts Echelon grounds to: Assets · Liabilities · StockholdersEquity

Sector caveats — where this breaks
  • Some filers tag no separate Liabilities total; it is then derived as assets minus equity — a derivation the identity itself licenses.

Educational use only — not investment advice. Figures come from public SEC filings; Echelon teaches you to analyze data, it never recommends buying or selling any security.