Beyond the Book
In addition to the material in the print or e-book you're reading right now, this product comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. You'll probably need reminders about the key parts of an annual report or the best financial analysis formulas to use. To view the Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type “Reading Financial Reports For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.
Where to Go from Here
You can start reading anywhere in this book, but if you're totally new to financial reports, you definitely want to start with Part 1 so you can get a good handle on the basics before delving into the financial information. If you already know the basics, turn to Part 2 to begin dissecting the parts of a financial report. And to get started on the road to analyzing the numbers, turn to Part 3. If your priority is tools for optimizing company operation, you may want to begin with Part 4. Turn right to Part 5 if you want to know more about company outsiders involved in the financial reporting process.
Part 1
Getting Started with Financial Reports
IN THIS PART …
Explore the types of financial reports and get to know the key financial statements.
Discover business types and their tax rules, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited liability companies.
Differentiate between public and private companies, and understand what it means when a company decides to go public.
Understand accounting basics — enough to understand different kinds of profit, and to distinguish debits from credits.
Chapter 1
Opening the Cornucopia of Reports
IN THIS CHAPTER
Financial reports give a snapshot of a company's value at the end of a particular period, as well as a view of the company's operations and whether it made a profit. The business world couldn't function without financial reports. Yes, fewer scandals would be exposed because companies wouldn't be tempted to paint false but pretty financial pictures, but you'd still need a way to gauge a firm's financial health.
Currently, nothing's available that can possibly replace financial reports. Nothing can be substituted that'd give investors, financial institutions, and government agencies the information they need to make decisions about a company. And without financial reports, the folks who work for a company wouldn't know how to make it more efficient and profitable because they wouldn't have a summary of its financial activities during previous business periods. These financial summaries help companies look at their successes and failures and make plans for future improvements.
This chapter introduces you to the many facets of financial reports and shows you how internal and external players use them to evaluate a company's financial health.
Figuring Out Financial Reporting
Financial reporting gives readers a summary of what happens in a company based purely on the numbers. The numbers that tell the tale include the following:
Assets: The cash, marketable securities, buildings, land, tools, equipment, vehicles, copyrights, patents, and any other items needed to run a business that a company holds
Liabilities: Money a company owes to outsiders, such as loans, bonds, and unpaid bills
Equity: Money invested in the company
Sales: Products or services that customers purchase
Costs and expenses: Money spent to operate a business, such as expenditures for production, compensation for employees, operation of buildings and factories, or supplies to run the offices
Profit or loss: The amount of money a company earns or loses
Cash flow: The amount of money that flows into and out of a business during the time period being reported
Preparing the reports
A company's accounting department is the key source of its financial reports. This department is responsible for monitoring the numbers and putting together the reports. The numbers are the products of a process called double-entry accounting, which requires a company to record resources and the assets it uses to get those resources. For example, if you buy a chair, you must spend another asset, such as cash. An entry in the double-entry accounting system shows both sides of that transaction — the cash account is reduced by the chair's price, and the furniture account value is increased by the chair's price.
This crucial method of accounting gives companies the ability to record and track business activity in a standardized way. Accounting methods are constantly updated to reflect the business environment as financial transactions become more complex. To find out more about double-entry accounting, turn to Chapter