What area of business keeps track of a company’s financial situations?

The area of business responsible for keeping track of a company’s financial situation is accounting. Accounting involves systematically recording, analyzing, and reporting financial transactions and is essential for understanding the financial health of an organization. This discipline ensures that a company can monitor income, expenses, assets, and liabilities, which are crucial for decision-making and strategic planning.

Accounting provides comprehensive financial statements, such as balance sheets and income statements, which present a clear picture of the company's performance over time. By producing financial reports, accounting helps stakeholders, including management, investors, and regulators, assess the company’s profitability and sustainability. Additionally, accounting practices ensure compliance with financial regulations and standards, which is vital for building trust and credibility with stakeholders.

In contrast, marketing focuses on promoting and selling products or services, human resources deals with employee management and organizational culture, while operations focus on the day-to-day activities that produce goods and services. Each of these areas is important, but they do not primarily concentrate on tracking financial situations. Thus, accounting is the correct choice for this question.