Using Accounting & Financial Information: Analyzing, Forecasting, and Decision Making

Accounting often is referred to as the language of business; unfortunately, many business professionals lack the fluency in this unique language required to perform basic financial analysis, prepare budgetary forecasts, or compare competing capital investment alternatives. And while there is no shortage of financial-related textbooks or reference manuals, most assume that readers have educational backgrounds and/or have had years of professional experience in accounting, financial analysis, or corporate finance. This book targets individuals in management positions with limited exposure to or formal training in accounting or related finance disciplines. These professionals often include but certainly are not limited to engineers, information technology specialists, retail managers, entrepreneurs, marketing directors, construction contractors, attorneys, and even bankers who are making career transitions from consumer lending positions to become commercial loan officers. The primary purpose of this book is to help managers from diverse professional and educational backgrounds to: (1) converse more effectively with their accounting and finance colleagues; (2) understand the structure and the elements of general-purpose financial statements, (3) identify both the usefulness and the limitations of accounting information; (4) prepare basic financial forecasts; and (5) make sense of commonly used decision-making models.