The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements How to Budget, Forecast, and Monitor Cash Flow for Better Decision Making

In order to gauge a company's health?as well as the competition's?managers must know how to properly read and understand financial statements. The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements will introduce managers and business owners to various types of financial statements and explain why they are important. Serving as a desktop reference, especially for managers without a strong background in finance, this book will discuss the difference between internal and external financial statements and explain how they can be used for financial decision-making in order to avoid common missteps.

Whether you're planning for major capital projects or simply managing the fiscal aspects of your department, this nontechnical, results-driven guide will arm you with the fundamentals to:

• Understand the budget process and why it is important
• Manage assets and track inventory
• Gauge profitability
• Monitor success throughout the year using internal reporting
• Set prices and make key cost decisions

Financial statements are essential to determining a company's fiscal health. Understand where your company stands so that you can make informed decisions about its future.

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xv

Part I Using External Reports to Gauge Your Company’s Health and Competitive Status 1

Chapter 1 The Key Financial Statements and Their Starring Role 3

Chapter 2 Balancing the Books: Your Assets and Liabilities 25

Chapter 3 Gauging Profitability 49

Chapter 4 Cash Is King 71

Part II Using Internal Reporting to Manage Your Profits and Your Costs 91

Chapter 5 Why Budgeting Is Important 93

Chapter 6 Managing Inventory 107

Chapter 7 Monitoring Customer Collections 121

Chapter 8 Discounts and Special Pricing 133

Chapter 9 Getting a Handle on Manufacturing Costs 141

Chapter 10  Reducing Bill Payouts 153

Conclusion Using Financial Statements for Decision Making 163

About the Author 165

Index 167

LITA EPSTEIN, MBA, designs and teaches online courses on topics such as investing for retirement, getting ready for tax time, and finance and investing for women. She is the author of Streetwise Retirement Planning and the coauthor of Alpha Teach Yourself Retirement Planning in 24 Hours. She has also been a congressional press secretary, daily newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and fundraiser for The Carter Center.