Understanding the Financial Score

Financial statements and information drawn from them confront us daily: in the media, in corporate annual reports, in the treasurer’s reports for clubs or religious groups, in documents provided to employees and managers, as one considers alternative investments, in documents provided by homeowners’ association and government agencies. Various readers of a company’s “financial score” make decisions based on financial information: the company’s managers devise actions to improve operations; investors buy or sell the corporation’s securities; creditors decide how much to lend; customers judge the reliability of this supplier; potential employees decide whether to invest their careers in the company. If you are training to be an accountant, find another book. This book’s objective is to increase your ability to draw useful information from financial statements, and thus to make better decisions—in both your personal life and your professional life. Studying this book should help you be a better manager. That is both its objective and its perspective. The book starts at square one; it assumes no prior knowledge on your part. To increase your financial literacy, you will learn the common nomenclature (but not esoteric jargon) used by accountants and financial experts. You will be equipped to ask insightful questions of experts, to engage them and your colleagues in thoughtful debates about financial and accounting issues, and to make better decisions.