I review multiple financial statements every month. While I don’t have an actual checklist and there are variations from one client to the next, I tend to follow the same process each time. I almost always start with a trend …
Each month when you receive your financial reports, what insights come along with them? If you’re the business owner or president, you should be asking this question. If you’re responsible for delivering the reporting package, you should be striving to …
There is an old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” While I’ve never done the math, I suspect that is close to true. I often use charts and graphs to tell a story. Years ago I remarked …
It’s been a while since I’ve written a piece that is technical in nature and deals with understanding financial statements so I suppose that I am overdue. The statement of cash flows is one of the most important, but least …
Is it worth the time to look for a $1.82? Recently, I was working with a client on the integration between a new payroll system and the general ledger. It was somewhat complex to say the least. We were dealing …
The goal of financial statements is to tell the story of the business in numerical form. That story may be for the most recent month, quarter, year or longer. There will be a lot of numbers on the pages but …
Believe it or not, your banker wants to lend you money and wants to see your business grow. That’s how they earn their money. They borrow from depositors and pay them a rate of interest and lend to businesses at …
Last month, I wrote about the pitfalls of being overly trusting of spreadsheets. As a follow-up, I felt compelled to offer some practical advice. Below are my top ten – it could easily be many more. 1. Know the answer …
Long before there was Visi-Calc, Multiplan, Lotus 1-2-3, and Microsoft Excel there was Ticonderoga No. 2. In some ways it is still the most powerful tool in existence for financial analysis. Why? Because it is the only one that absolutely …
For small companies, emulating the practices of “the big guys” usually has value. There is a reason why the big guys have been successful and gotten big. But they should only be emulated to a point. They have resources that …
