Final answer:
The Income Statement reports a company's financial performance over different periods (e.g., months, quarters, years) rather than daily or annually. It details revenues, expenses, and net income to depict operational efficiency and profitability for that period.
Step-by-step explanation:
d. reports operations over various time periods, such as months, quarters, and years.
An Income Statement is a financial document that companies use to report their financial performance over a certain period of time, be it monthly, quarterly or annually. This statement provides information about a company’s revenue, expenses, and profits or losses during that period. The purpose of an income statement is to give stakeholders an idea of the company's operational efficiency and profitability over the specified timeframe. Unlike what option c might suggest, an income statement does not assume a company is in business forever; rather, it is a snapshot of a company's financial activity over a certain period.
Firms can cease to exist for various reasons; the primary being the inability to generate profits. Without profits, firms lack the necessary resources to cover their total costs, which include the costs of inputs required to produce and sell their goods or services. In the long run, this unsustainable financial performance can lead to a business having to shut down or exit the industry.