Financial Statement Analysis for the Non-Accountant

Improve Your Ability to Interpret Key Financial Tools

Financial statements are the pulse of a business, and one of the clearest indicators of its health. This course will provide you with a basic understanding of financial statements and the use of key financial analysis tools. You will use actual financial statements to learn and apply the techniques being examined.

Participants are not expected to have any formal accounting experience.

What you will learn

• Expand your knowledge about generally accepted accounting principles
• Gain a basic understanding of various financial statements
• Appreciate the uses of key financial analysis tools
• Understand the relationships between investment, operational and financing decisions
• Identify the danger signals when assessing the viability of an enterprise
• Understand the difference between cash flows and accounting profits
• Recognize the limitations of financial statements
• Improve your ability to communicate with accounting and financial professionals
• Be able to interpret key financial figures and their impact on your business
• Better comprehend financial information seen in the media

Program content

• Content and format of financial statements: accounting standards, current issues
• Making sense of individual statements: the balance sheet, income statement/retained earnings, cash flow statements, notes to statements
• Analyzing statements: analyzing liquidity, leverage, profitability and activity ratios, common size analysis, comparisons with other firms/industries or over time

Special features

There will be considerable discussion on “earnings management” and “aggressive financial reporting,” and how companies such as Nortel, Livent, Enron and WorldCom used these techniques to manipulate their financial statements. You will also learn how to uncover some of these irregularities in financial statements.