Reading Financial Reports For Dummies

by Lita Epstein

Your personal roadmap to becoming fluent in financial reports At first glance, the data in financial reports might seem confusing or overwhelming. But, with the right guide at your side, you can learn to translate even the thickest and most complex financial reports into plain English.

In Reading Financial Reports For Dummies, you'll move step-by-step through each phase of interpreting and understanding the data in a financial report, learning the key accounting and business fundamentals as you go. The book includes clear explanations of basic and advanced topics in finance, from the difference between private and public companies to cash flow analysis.

In this book, you'll also

Full coverage of how to analyze annual reports, including their balance sheets, income statements, statements of cash flow, and consolidated statements Real-world case studies and financial statement examples from companies like Mattel and Hasbro Strategies for analyzing financial reports to reveal opportunities for operations optimization Reading Financial Reports For Dummies is a can't-miss resource for early-career investors, traders, brokers, and business leaders looking to improve their financial literacy with a reliable, accurate, and easy-to-follow financial handbook.

Genres: Business, Finance, Accounting, Nonfiction, Economics, Reference

358 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 24, 2004

Reviews

[Martin Zoul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kniha popisuje Finanční reporty od začátku až do konce. Od jejich istorie, přes význam a vysvětlivky, na co si dát pozor nebo to kde společnosti schovávají v textu negativní informace. Nicméně jsem v knize asi nenašel to, co jsem čekal, a to různé vysvětlivky z finančních reportů, například, co je to "Cost of Goods Sold" a co si u něj hlídat atd. Také jsem v knize hodně skákal protože jsem spoustu věcí již znal nebo mě úplně tak nezajímaly.

Kniha může být velmi zajímavá pro lidi, které zajímá význam finančních reportů a kteří nehledají přímo vysvětlivky pojmů, ale komplexní vysvětlení co je např. Income Statement a proč je pro investory i společnosti tak důležitý.

Od knihy jsem měl možná přílišné očekávání nebo spíše, jiné očekávání a proto mě až tak nebavila a proto jsme v ní i tolik skákal, nicméně si myslím, že se k ní určitě časem budu vracet pro různé mnou označené pasáže.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, this is not the snore-fest the title would have you believe. Maybe my opinion says more about me than about the book, but it's very straightforward and spends most of its time teaching you your way around a financial report and how to calculate a whole set of ratios to look for certain kinds of problems. The writing is pretty good, and I was pleasantly surprised that this one didn't bog down halfway through like the other Dummies books I've read.

I must confess I didn't catch on to double entry bookkeeping and the credit/debit issue during the brief discussion of it in this book, but once again I think that says more about me, and it's not the focus of the book. I could understand the example financial statements and the calculations just fine.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

This 3rd edition has numerous publisher errors. The 2nd edition would be the one to read. This edition tries to use 2011-2012 data for Mattel/Hasbro but convolutes it with the 2nd editions 2006-2007 numbers and references, so it makes it confusing and unprofessional. Chapter 13 has many examples of the real slop-job by the publisher. The author herself does a great job in digging into the topic and explaining it in layman terms, but be sure and grab an older edition.

[Калоян Захариев · Rating 4 out of 5]

Това беше обогатяващо четиво. Авторката се е постарала почти да напише ученик, толкова внимателно и подробно е подходила. Все пак това не е книга, която можеш да прехвърлиш набързо. Материята и обема изискват време, а доста често - да се връщаш назад и да препрочиташ едно или друго.
Не запомних всичко, но определено научих доста неща, до едно - полезни. Полезно четиво, определено.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, easy to understand

[Serene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely helpful introduction to interpreting financial reports.

The author covers the three key financial statements as well as the various segments of an annual report that are often overlooked by investors.

[Ray Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely boring but a necessary evil. A lot of it was over my head, but I did get a decent sense of what makes up financial reports.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly, an excellent introduction into how to read financial statements.

Epstein occassionally goes offtrack. For many pages, she goes from telling you how to read financial statements to making an argument about some obscure global accounting brouhaha, which is totally out of place.

Still, mostly good.

[M F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it years ago, and it was a good manual/book

[Olivier Pitre-Breton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some numbers errors in the book ( in a book about numbers ! ), maybe when they updated the edition, they forgot to change some numbers ...

[Khin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's very easy to understand, and covers several areas as the title says. The book itself is really great, but the repeated errors in numbers are devastating. It should be thoroughly reviewed again. But I will still give it 5 stars.

[Shonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know it seems silly that I read this book. I was looking for a book that I could recommend to non-accounting people that could help them better understand their financials. I'm surprised at how many people are responsible for running the operations of a business, but don't understand the end result. I've heard more than once "help me understand what it is I'm looking at". How can you effectively run a business (or help run one, or contribute to it) if you don't understand the impacts of your decisions to the bottom line?

While this book was geared more towards investors than company employees, it had a lot of good information and was explained in a way that was simple and clear. There was a lot of repetition, but I think considering the audience, that's probably helpful. I did find a couple of errors in the book, but nothing earth shattering or probably even noticeable to a non-accountant. Overall, I would steer people toward this book until I come across a better one. I just have to figure out how to not make it sound insulting when I recommend it.

[Comaskeyk001]

with the halving of my 301-k I decided to invest on my own,,, doing good but then anyone who invested in march 09 probably did as well or better than me

[Neil Saint-jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

If you are looking to learn how to read financial reports or brush up, this is an excellent book !