Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166002 in Books
• Published on: 2009-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover

The ins and outs of financial reports, explained in plain English

Want to make sense of financial reports? This easy–to–follow guide gives you a set of tools to understand these complicated statements, helping you read between the lines to determine a company′s true financial health. You′ll make informed decisions about investing, spot possible problems, and use these reports to manage your own department or company for success.

• Get down to reporting basics — recognize different business types and how their structure affects the books, and grasp the accounting method underlying it all

• Analyze the annual report — make sense of the balance sheet, income and cash flow statements, and the notes while spotting red flags

• Know your numbers — keep an eye on whether a company is making a profit or suffering a loss

• Understand how companies optimize operations — use reports to measure how efficiently management is using its resources

• Meet the financial watchdogs — from auditors to analysts, see who certifies report accuracy and how recent scandals have changed the rules

• Practice makes perfect — put your skills to the test by dissecting the annual reports of two similar companies throughout the book

• Open the book and find:

• The accounting basics necessary to understand financial reports

• New information on reporting standards for private/small versus public/large businesses

• Updates surrounding the 2007 law on international financial reporting standards

• The impact of corporate communications and new technologies

• New real–world examples that reflect current trends

• Updated Web sites and resources

• Tips for spotting the fluff in financial reports

About the Author
Lita Epstein, MBA, is a seasoned financial writer who focuses on helping people understand the complex worlds of money and finance. She was a financial manager for a medical clinic and content director for a financial services Web site, MostChoice.com. She also writes for AOL′s Blogging Stocks and WalletPop.

Customer Reviews

could do better
this is one of those books where the author spends the first half of the book telling you what will be in future chapters but you never quite get there because you lose interest by the half way point after not actually being told much at all in the first half....