There's no mystery to understanding company financial statements Even if you have no financial or accounting background, you can read those intimidating-looking financial statements as easily as A-B-C. The second edition of The Guide to Understanding Financial Statements, by S.B. Costales and Geza Szurovy, makes all the numbers and jargon absolutely clear. In seconds you'll spot a company's strengths and weaknesses, see how its performance measures up, and have a solid basis for judging future prospects. The material is so easy to grasp, you'll know it all on first reading, Discover: what a balance sheet really reveals; the true significance of a profit and loss statement; what the six most important financial ratios are, and what each can tell you; how to tell when the numbers are favorable or not; how to spot fraud; how to discover whether the stated value of certain asests is true; much more.
| Preface | ||
| 1 | Historical Development of Financial Statements | 3 |
| 2 | The Four Types of Financial Statements | 7 |
| 3 | The Nature of Business Organizations | 11 |
| 4 | The Balance Sheet: A Snapshot of Financial Structure | 23 |
| 5 | The Income Statement: Measuring Financial Performance Over Time | 33 |
| 6 | The Cash Flow Statement: Where Cash Comes from, Where It Goes | 41 |
| 7 | The Reconciliation of Net Worth Statement: Accounting for the Bottom Line | 53 |
| 8 | A Few Important Financial Ratios | 57 |
| 9 | The Operating Cycle and Its Financial Consequences | 67 |
| 10 | Analyzing a Set of Financial Statements | 75 |
| 11 | Detecting Error, Fraud, and Window Dressing | 85 |
| 12 | Faux Leather | 93 |
| 13 | Outdoor Sports, Inc. | 101 |
| 14 | Frank's Electrical Supply | 109 |
| 15 | Green Thumb Gardens | 117 |
| 16 | G&G Fashions | 125 |
| 17 | Hammerhead Hardware | 133 |
| 18 | The Old Mill Restaurant | 141 |
| 19 | Auto Tire and Recapping | 149 |
| Appendix: Using Spreadsheets to Standardize Financial Statements and to Calculate Cash Flows and Financial Ratios | 157 | |
| Index | 167 |
Overview
There's no mystery to understanding company financial statements Even if you have no financial or accounting background, you can read those intimidating-looking financial statements as easily as A-B-C. The second edition of The Guide to Understanding Financial Statements, by S.B. Costales and Geza Szurovy, makes all the numbers and jargon absolutely clear. In seconds you'll spot a company's strengths and weaknesses, see how its performance measures up, and have a solid basis for judging future prospects. The ...