How to Figure Out Company Accounts

In the best-selling How to Read the Financial Pages, Michael Brett stripped the mystique from the world of investment and finance and sold over 180,000 copies as a result. In How to Figure Out Company Accounts the author once again applies the same practical, jargon-free method to help us all understand company accounts. For investors, both professional and amateur, or anyone in business, the annual report and accounts is the critical document that reveals the health (or otherwise) of a company and points the way forward towards the companyÂ's growth plans and strategies. It is the annual scorecard from which much can be revealed Â- if you know what you are looking for. If you want to get inside a company, all the information you will need is there for all to see. But in order to understand that information, the Â"languageÂ" of the report has to be learned. This includes not only the financial information as set out in the balance sheet, profit and loss account and the cash flow statement, but also the Notes which contain critical data on how the company is run and by whom, the ChairmanÂ's statement, the CFOÂ's financial review and the general Review of the yearÂ's operations. All these elements are looked at and analysed in the authorÂ's no-nonsense style. Key financial ratios are also explained, which in themselves provide a critical snapshot of how a company is performing. This is not about creating a set of account. It seeks to set out clearly the language of existing accounts for anyone who needs to understand or interpret them in the course of their work or their personal investment decisions. It assumes no previous financial or accounting knowledge. With his a step-by-step approach Michael Brett guides the non-expert through the basic concepts first before moving on to the more complex detail.