Balance sheet difference between several industries

If you had 4 different balance sheets with the companies names blacked out how would you know which one was a banking company, industrial, retailer and technology company?

I recognize that some accounts are relatively larger in one indsutry than another, For example, depreciation would be highest in industrial and rent would be highest in retail.

What I am looking is accounts specific only to each of the aforementioned industries?

Thanks

3 Comments
 

Identifying a bank would be the easiest of the four. Banks typically have very different P&L and balance sheet statements and include line items such as Loans to the general public and/or deposits from the general public, which the others most probably wouldn't.

The others are a little trickier but some clues could be higher PPE for industrials, to account for tangible investments in factories, etc. Retail would probably be higher in working capital, specifically items such as inventory and accounts payable. A sign of a technology company could be high intangible assets, for example from capitalized software development costs.

 

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