Graziadio Business Report - Financial Reporting Accounting is the language of business. Information found in financial statements is employed daily in various forms of analysis and decision making by a worldwide business community. Bankers use it to determine whether or not a client should be extended a loan, and what the terms will be if the loan is granted. Investment bankers use it to analyze the potential for mergers, acquisitions, asset sales and purchases, and to raise debt and equity in capital markets.
Consultants use it to formulate their clients' strategies based on competitive analysis.
Buy-side securities analysts use it for ferreting out potential investments for their clients' portfolios. Managers use it to monitor their firm's current performance, analyze prospective investment opportunities, and to determine appropriate financing policies. Boards of directors use it to create compensation packages for the firm's managers and to monitor the managers' performance. In this era of openly managing earnings, Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC, has been asking himself the same question. Day-traders, among others, want to know what will happen to a stock's price in the next few minutes, or at least by tomorrow.