This book provides a digestible step-by-step guide to reading corporate financial reports, drawing upon real-life case studies and examples of corporate collapses and accounting scandals, and applying practical tools to financial statement analysis. Appealing to a range of practitioners within corporate finance including investors, managers, and business analysts, this book is the first to specifically address the challenges facing those who are not professional accountants and auditors when examining corporate financial reports. Corporate financial reports are used widely by managers, investors, creditors, and government agencies to examine company performance and evaluate potential risks. However, although seemingly an invaluable source of information for managerial decision-making, financial reports are often based on rough simplifications of a very complex reality. With no way of avoiding deliberate manipulations and fraudulent activity, these statements cannot be relied on completely when selecting stocks or evaluating credit risk, and therefore poor analysis can lead to potentially disastrous investment decisions. The author suggests that in order to effectively interpret corporate financial reports, we must 'read between the lines' to accurately assess a company's economic performance and predict its long-term viability.

This textbook offers a step-by-step guide through comprehensive financial statement analysis with real-life case studies for students of financial accounting, financial reporting, and financial statement analysis. Structured into five comprehensive sections, it begins by explaining the content of accounting reports themselves and the three primary financial statements (income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement). It deciphers the notes to financial statements and demonstrates some classical tools such as ratio analysis and multivariable credit risk models that are useful in a retrospective financial statement analysis. It includes simple step-by-step procedures of a prospective (i.e. future-oriented) financial statement simulation and closes with a comprehensive real-life case study that demonstrates a practical application of the analytical tools discussed earlier in the text. Additionally, the textbook includes online appendices consisting of additional comprehensive real-life case studies (of varying degrees of complexity and dealing with different aspects of a practical financial statement analysis), a set of MS Excel files that contain all major calculations included in tables and charts that appear in the core textbook, and a set of webinars in which the most fundamental parts of the core textbook are discussed in the form of the recorded lectures.

A comprehensive guide to reading and understanding financial reports Financial reports provide vital information to investors, lenders, and managers. Yet, the financial statements in a financial report seem to be written in a foreign language that only accountants can understand. This comprehensive version of How to Read a Financial Report breaks through that language barrier, clears away the fog, and offers a plain-English user's guide to financial reports. The book features new information on the move toward separate financial and accounting reporting standards for private companies, the emergence of websites offering financial information, pending changes in the auditor's report language and what this means to investors, and requirements for XBRL tagging in reporting to the SEC, among other topics. Makes it easy to understand what financial reports really say Updated to include the latest information financial reporting standards and regulatory changes Written by an author team with a combined 50-plus years of experience in financial accounting This comprehensive edition includes an ancillary website containing valuable additional resources With this comprehensive version of How to Read a Financial Report, investors will find everything they need to fully understand the profit, cash flow, and financial condition of any business.

The second edition includes over 25 percent new and updated information including: New information on the separate accounting and financial reporting standards for private/small businesses versus public/large businesses Updated information that reflects the 2007 law on international financial reporting standards New content to match SEC and other governmental regulatory changes over the past three years New information about how the analyst-corporate connection has actually changed the playing field The impact of corporate communications and new technologies New examples that reflect the current trends Updated websites and resources

An updated new edition of the comprehensive guide to reading and understanding financial reports Financial reports provide vital information to investors, lenders, and managers. Yet, the financial statements in a financial report seem to be written in a foreign language that only accountants can understand. This new Eighth Edition of How to Read a Financial Report breaks through that language barrier, clears away the fog, and offers a plain-English user's guide to financial reports. This updated edition features new information on the move toward separate financial and accounting reporting standards for private companies, the emergence of websites offering financial information, pending changes in the auditor's report language and what this means to investors, and requirements for XBRL tagging in reporting to the SEC, among other topics. Makes it easy to understand what financial reports really say Updated to include the latest information financial reporting standards and regulatory changes Written by an author team with a combined 50-plus years of experience in financial accounting With this new edition of How to Read a Financial Report, investors will find everything they need to fully understand the profit, cash flow, and financial condition of any business.