How to Keep Score in Business: Accounting and Financial Analysis for the Non-Accountant (2nd Edition)
The Classic Business Accounting Guide for Every Manager and Entrepreneur—Now Fully Updated! •  Uncover crucial insights buried in balance sheets, income statements, and other financial reports •  Master indispensable skills for day-to-day business and investment decision-making •  Learn up-to-the-minute techniques for analyzing ROI, planning cash flow, and identifying business trends In this classic book, long-time CEO Robert Follett shows you exactly how to “keep score” in business by reading and accurately interpreting company financials. Step by step, Follett helps you capture crucial insights buried in balance sheets, income statements, and other key reports. Follett shows how to apply core tools for analyzing financial reports and investment opportunities, and demystifies key accounting terms every manager and investor needs to know. Fully updated for today’s tools and techniques, this book will help you work confidently with accountants, auditors, financial analysts, budget directors, controllers, treasurers, bankers, and brokers…and make better business decisions every single day. A Note from the Author, Long-Time CEO Robert Follett: “In business, the score is kept in dollars. The accounting system provides the rules for keeping score. This book will teach you those rules. “I am not an accountant. I started in sales. I moved into product development. I was president of a large company. I became chairman of an even larger company. Along the way, I had to learn financial accounting the hard way. “I have worked with accountants, auditors, bankers, treasurers, controllers. These experts often flim-flammed me with accounting lingo I didn’t understand. I’ve made almost every dumb mistake that a manager with no financial background can make. “But I learned. Now I can keep score along with the best. I’ve distilled many years of hard knocks and dumb mistakes into a relatively few pages. When you’re finished studying this book, you will be well on your way to mastery of this indispensable management skill. You will know how to keep score in business.” This book will help you:• Bring practical common sense to financial analysis• Understand what your financial pros are telling you—and what they aren’t• Evaluate any company’s balance sheet• Recognize what balance sheets and income statements may be hiding• Create cash flow budgets that keep you from running out of cash• Identify changes in a company’s financial position• Use ROI tools to evaluate performance and analyze investments• Understand “goodwill,” “working capital,” “acid tests,” and other key concepts