- Paperback: 328 pages
- Publisher: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 7 edition (11 Aug 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 027364615X
- ISBN-13: 978-0273646150
- Product Dimensions: 29.8 x 20.6 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 914,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Published accounts are often not easy to understand and are sometimes downright misleading but, to those who know how to read them, they provide the most readily available source of information on a company's activities, its profitability and its prospects. This book guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of reports and accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk-taking, where and how to look for clues on the quality of management and how to detect where window-dressing has been used to disguise poor results.
In 1990 the authors wrote: `Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy'. It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 15 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs), countless Financial Reporting Exposure Drafts (FREDs), a host of other documents, and, for the first time in the UK, an exposure draft Statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.
The seventh edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest amendments in accounting rules. Reports and accounts have improved immeasurably over the last 20 years, and especially over the last ten. There is now so much information that it has become difficult to find one's way through the maze. To demonstrate the art or skill of picking one's way through a mass of data, Chapter 31: `Putting it all together' takes readers step by step through the report and accounts of a well-known group (THE BODY SHOP).
In 1990 the authors wrote: `Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy'. It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 15 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs), countless Financial Reporting Exposure Drafts (FREDs), a host of other documents, and, for the first time in the UK, an exposure draft Statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.
The seventh edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest amendments in accounting rules. Reports and accounts have improved immeasurably over the last 20 years, and especially over the last ten. There is now so much information that it has become difficult to find one's way through the maze. To demonstrate the art or skill of picking one's way through a mass of data, Chapter 31: `Putting it all together' takes readers step by step through the report and accounts of a well-known group (THE BODY SHOP).
From the Back Cover
Published accounts are often not easy to understand and are sometimes downright misleading but, to those who know how to read them, they provide the most readily available source of information on a company’s activities, its profitability and its prospects. This book guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of reports and accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk-taking, where and how to look for clues on the quality of management and how to detect where window-dressing has been used to disguise poor results.
In 1990 the authors wrote- ‘Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy’. It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 15 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs), countless Financial Reporting Exposure Drafts (FREDs), a host of other documents, and, for the first time in the UK, an exposure draft Statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.
The seventh edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest amendments in accounting rules. Reports and accounts have improved immeasurably over the last 20 years, and especially over the last ten. There is now so much information that it has become difficult to find one’s way through the maze. To demonstrate the art or skill of picking one’s way through a mass of data, Chapter 31- ‘Putting it all together’ takes readers step by step through the report and accounts of a well-known group (THE BODY SHOP).
In 1990 the authors wrote- ‘Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy’. It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 15 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs), countless Financial Reporting Exposure Drafts (FREDs), a host of other documents, and, for the first time in the UK, an exposure draft Statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board (ASB). Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.
The seventh edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest amendments in accounting rules. Reports and accounts have improved immeasurably over the last 20 years, and especially over the last ten. There is now so much information that it has become difficult to find one’s way through the maze. To demonstrate the art or skill of picking one’s way through a mass of data, Chapter 31- ‘Putting it all together’ takes readers step by step through the report and accounts of a well-known group (THE BODY SHOP).
The Authors
Geoffrey Holmes, FCA, FTII retired after more than 20 years as editor of Accountancy, the Journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, to devote his time to investment research. He has lectured and written regularly on the interpretation of reports and accounts for many years. He is co-author, with Robin Dunham, of the companion volume Beyond the Balance Sheet.
Alan Sugden is a graduate of the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, and a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School. He spent 20 years in the City as an analyst and fund manager, running the then £100m (now £850m) Schroder Recovery Fund for several years. He is a former director of Schroder Investment Management.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A book ought to be judged on the basis on what it is intended to achieve which the authors say is "... to be a practical guide to the interpretation of reports and accounts. Although frequent reference is made to the legal, accounting and Stock Exchange requirements that accounts have to meet, this is done in order to show just what information the reader should expect to find, where to look for it, and then to use it, rather than as an explanation of how to prepare a set of accounts."
The text is easily accessible in A4 manual style format with a comprehensive list of contents and a good index. It was first published in 1979 and this is the seventh edition, so it has had a few readers over the years. One of the authors was the editor of the ICAEW house journal for over 20 years and this is a good guide to the style and quality of the work. The style is technical that would suite the serious investor and people with a business background with some financial knowledge.
The text in laid out in 32 chapters included in sections:
Introduction (This covers the basics and the jargon in 15 pages); Formation (and listing); The Balance Sheet: Capital Employed - Assets: Fixed and Current and Current liabilities; The Profit and Loss Account; Cash Flow (a subject that can be difficult to grasp); The Group (explaining how accounts are consolidated); and Other topics: Foreign exchange; Historical summaries, ratios and trends; Chairman's statement, operating and financial reviews and directors' report; Corporate governance and the auditors' report; Interim statements; Other sources of information (which I found helpful); Inflation accounting; UK v US GAAP; Putting it all together; and Future developments in accounting.
There are some useful questions in the text for reflection with suggested solutions in Appendix 5.
How you get on with this book will depend to some extent on your present knowledge and what you want to know. There are many excellent accounting and finance texts on the market, but I would suggest that if you want to learn more about book-keeping and accounts why not try for a start Frank Wood's 'Business Accounting 1' and 'Business Accounting 2' (Financial Times - Pitman Publishing). If you want to go more technical why not try Spicer and Pegler's 'Book-Keeping and Accounts' by Paul Gee (Butterworth Tolley). If you want a definitive work on financial reporting why not have a look at A Student's Manual of Accounting by PricewaterhouseCoopers (paperback - approx 3100 pages).
A useful companion that covers much of the same ground as the text currently under review is the Financial Times 'Guide to Using and Interpreting Company Accounts' by Wendy McKenzie (Financial Times - Pitman Publishing). This has more of a slant on interpretation and analysis - once you have understood the facts being presented to you to ensure that you are comparing like with like.
The press comment on the back cover of the book under review includes a quote from the Financial Times that "The book is wholly successful in its aim of providing a guide for 'anybody with a reasonably enquiring mind' on how to take to pieces a set of company accounts." I would agree with their view. This text is not about book-keeping but how to read a set of accounts, to understand the basis upon which the information has been compiled and presented to enable the reader to draw informed conclusions.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read many books in my quest to learn how to analyse the fundamentals of a company. In terms of information and how much I have learnt from it, this book gives more information per page, than some other books manage per chapter. Could I just stress though that it is by no means an easy read and will require maybe reading 2 or three times to fully understand everything. It covers every aspect of a plc's company report and gives lots of handy pointers to watch out for. If your new to this however I would suggest you begin by reading a simpler book such as 'which guide to shares' before attempting this. Overall a very informative book for anyone intent on learning about this kind of thing.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a good book if someone is really interested in learning how to analyze company reports (balance sheets, P&L accounts and cash flow statements). It also contains a good section about the important financial ratios. It contains really nice real life examples which makes things easy to understand. I really liked it.
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