Put the most valuable business tool to work for you! The balance sheet is the key to everything--from efficient business operation to accurate assessment of a company’s worth. It’s a critical business resource--but do you know how to read it? How to Read a Balance Sheet breaks down the subject into easy-to-understand components. If you're a business owner or manager, this book helps you . . . Manage working capital Generate higher returns on assets Maximize your inventory dollars Evaluate investment opportunities If you're an investor, this book helps you . . . Determine the market value of a company's assets and operations Predict future earnings and trends Assess the impact of capital expenditures Identify potential "red flags" before the crowd How to Read a Balance Sheet gives you the bottom line of what you need to know about: Cash Flow * Assets * Debt * Equity * Profit and how it all comes together.

Written by two financial and accounting authorities, this hands-on working reference enables you to understand a company's balance sheet within the context of its annual report. You'll find detailed information on exactly what a balance sheet is, how it works, and how it's used to increase profitability; the individual components: receivables, cash, inventory, long-lived assets, current payables, long-term debt, and equity; how these different elements relate to each other, how they come into being, and how they should be controlled in your business; and how accounting data is created, accumulated, and used in the development of financial statements.

In what constitutes a landmark in the field of national accounts, Raymond W. Goldsmith gives detailed estimates of the nation's assets and liabilities year by year from 1953 through 1975 and for the benchmark years of 1900, 1929, and 1980. Special features of this work include presentation of data sector by sector, which casts light on the changing roles of financial institutions, and Goldsmith's expression of data in the form of ratios rather than in absolute dollar values, a device that makes the material both more informative and easier to absorb. The most comprehensive and extensive study of national wealth ever attempted, The National Balance Sheet will be a rich resource for researchers and users of national accounts.

Seamlessly bridging academic accounting with real-life applications, Crash Course in Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis, Second Edition is the perfect guide to a complete understanding of accounting and financial statement analysis for those with no prior accounting background and those who seek a refresher.