The Guide to Understanding Financial Statements

by S.B. Costales, Geza Szurovy

There's no mystery to understanding company financial statements Even if you have no financial or accounting background, you can read those intimidating-looking financial statements as easily as A-B-C. The second edition of The Guide to Understanding Financial Statements, by S.B. Costales and Geza Szurovy, makes all the numbers and jargon absolutely clear. In seconds you'll spot a company's strengths and weaknesses, see how its performance measures up, and have a solid basis for judging future prospects. The material is so easy to grasp, you'll know it all on first reading, what a balance sheet really reveals; the true significance of a profit and loss statement; what the six most important financial ratios are, and what each can tell you; how to tell when the numbers are favorable or not; how to spot fraud; how to discover whether the stated value of certain asests is true; much more.

Genres: Business

208 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1979

Reviews

[Mark Dantonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

ISBN = 0070131910 Geza Szurovy, SB. Costales

This is a simple straightforward guide to reading annual reports and financial statements. The book looks at what balance sheets, income statements, reconciliations of retained earnings and statements of cash flow are and how they are related.

It devotes a chapter to each of these and it shows how each of them is related to the other. It also goes into some minor ratio analysis so that different investments can be compared on an equal basis. It explains how to interpret the confusing mess and also how to get information that can be useful for investing purposes.

The book also has case studies at the end reviewing the material provided and showing how to use the analysis. This part was particularly valuable because it showed how what one learned is translated into a practical use.

Mark D.

[Alex Baier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for introduction to accounting. I used this book as a review of my first accounting class in university and it was great, but did not teach me anything new. Love that it has some examples as the back to review knowledge with

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

c1970: Despite a number of new formulae to help to analyse financial performance, this book is proof that the time old considerations are still the wisest. Simple to read and understand and inexplicitly funny in some places, any good credit analyst would actually benefit in reading this book - even after, what, 44 years or so. The only bone that I have to pick with the author/s are the comments regarding invoice financing - now that is a misguided and old fashioned way of looking at a really good financial tool if used properly.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

helps one understanding financial fundamentals. worth reading.