Written by two financial and accounting authorities, this hands-on working reference enables you to understand a company's balance sheet within the context of its annual report. You'll find detailed information on exactly what a balance sheet is, how it works, and how it's used to increase profitability; the individual components: receivables, cash, inventory, long-lived assets, current payables, long-term debt, and equity; how these different elements relate to each other, how they come into being, and how they should be controlled in your business; and how accounting data is created, accumulated, and used in the development of financial statements.

Introduction to Business covers the scope and sequence of most introductory business courses. The book provides detailed explanations in the context of core themes such as customer satisfaction, ethics, entrepreneurship, global business, and managing change. Introduction to Business includes hundreds of current business examples from a range of industries and geographic locations, which feature a variety of individuals. The outcome is a balanced approach to the theory and application of business concepts, with attention to the knowledge and skills necessary for student success in this course and beyond. This is an adaptation of Introduction to Business by OpenStax. You can access the textbook as pdf for free at openstax.org. Minor editorial changes were made to ensure a better ebook reading experience. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Put the most valuable business tool to work for you! The balance sheet is the key to everything--from efficient business operation to accurate assessment of a company’s worth. It’s a critical business resource--but do you know how to read it? How to Read a Balance Sheet breaks down the subject into easy-to-understand components. If you're a business owner or manager, this book helps you . . . Manage working capital Generate higher returns on assets Maximize your inventory dollars Evaluate investment opportunities If you're an investor, this book helps you . . . Determine the market value of a company's assets and operations Predict future earnings and trends Assess the impact of capital expenditures Identify potential "red flags" before the crowd How to Read a Balance Sheet gives you the bottom line of what you need to know about: Cash Flow * Assets * Debt * Equity * Profit and how it all comes together.

Avoiding technical jargon, this user-friendly guide takes the non-financial manager step-by-step through the balance sheet to explain what each number means, while providing clues for good financial management.

The purpose of this book is to help readers understand the basics of understanding financial statements. Material covered includes a step-by-step instruction on how to read and understand the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. It also covers information about how these three statements are interconnected with one another.

Balance sheet analysis can reveal lot of important information about the company. A user of balance sheet if interpret the figures correctly can safeguard his interests and protect himself against creative accounting practices. · It is a snapshot of company’s assets, liabilities & equity on a given date. · It is used by management, investors, bankers, & creditors rating agencies to understand the financial health of a company. · It is the minimum requirement for availing credit facilities from banking system. · Users can interpret balance sheet to know the liquidity & leverage position of a company. · It is used by investors to compare with other companies and to find out stocks good for value investing. · It enables the credit providers to ascertain proper utilization of funds by the company. · It is used by regulators to ensure regulatory compliances. · It is used by private equity investors, venture capital funds to ascertain value of a company and to acquire stake at appropriate price. · It is used by top management to ascertain, if the company is moving in right direction or needs some course correction. In this book, author has tried to elaborate basic structure of balance sheet along with classification of assets and liabilities of a company. The book provides commonly used tools for interpretation of balance sheet information for use by bankers and investors.