Final answer:
The accountant's snapshot of a firm's accounting value on a specific date is referred to as a balance sheet. It lists assets and liabilities, providing a comprehensive picture of what a company owns and owes at any given time.
Step-by-step explanation:
An accountant’s snapshot of a firm’s accounting value on a particular date is called a balance sheet. A balance sheet lists a firm's or an individual's assets and liabilities and is essentially a financial statement that provides a snapshot of what a company owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by shareholders. Assets include things of value such as cash, inventories, property, and equipment, while liabilities are debts or obligations, like loans or mortgages.
A bank's balance sheet, for example, includes assets such as cash held in vaults, monies held at the Federal Reserve Bank, loans made to customers, and bonds. A bank's liabilities might include customer deposits and any loans the bank has taken out. Bank capital (or net worth) is calculated by subtracting total liabilities from total assets and represents the value owned by the bank's shareholders.