To objectively determine the role of assets in the business of commercial organizations, to measure their value, it is important to disclose their functional purpose and use the appropriate tools for its evaluation. Goal. The purpose of the study is to substantiate and develop tools for assessing the functional purpose of assets of commercial organizations. In the course of the research, the works of Russian and foreign authors were studied, classified into those who identify assets and financial resources (N.I. Berzon, I.A. Blank, G.S. Gabidenova, A. Damodaran, V.V. Kovalev, V.V. Korshunov, M.V. Livson, M.R. Matthews, M.H.B. Perera, M.A. Eskindarov) commercial organizations, and vice versa. Recognition of assets as an independent economic category necessitates the formation of tools for their assessment in commercial corporate organizations. Based on the analysis of debatable aspects, the functional purpose of assets of commercial organizations is determined, including: measurement of the value of the organization’s economic turnover; characteristics of accumulated potential; participation of assets in achieving sustainable capital formation; protection against the risk of loss of liquidity by highly liquid assets exceeding the min mark, guaranteeing the safety margin of equity; production; influence on the level of risky activity of the organization; direct participation in the assessment of its financial condition. As a result, a methodological toolkit for assessing their functional purpose has been developed, which provides for the distribution of the established ranges of values of financial indicators describing the functional role of assets by phases of the economic cycle (the participation of assets in achieving sustainable capital formation – the stability of sources of asset formation, financial tension, autonomy; production – indicators of turnover and profitability of assets; influence on the level of risk activity – capital multiplier, the share of the most risky and non-performing assets in their total aggregate, etc.) based on the professional judgment of specialists.
