The role and functions of accounting and finance -- Understanding financial statements -- Financial performance metrics -- The impact of income taxes on financial analysis -- Short-term financial management and supply chain finance -- Strategic financial planning -- The time value of money -- Interest rates and valuation of financial securities -- Capital investment decisions -- Determining cash flows -- Cost of capital, hurdle rates, and financial structure -- Long-term financing -- Leasing as a financing and business alternative -- Strategy and valuation: creating shareholder value -- Mergers and acquisitions.

It’s easier than you think to understand the financial reports you face every day . . .

If your job focus is on managing employees and overseeing corporate affairs, financial analysis may sound like a foreign language to you. But, in today’s competitive business environment, it is crucial that managers and business executives have a firm grasp of financial analysis. The Essentials of Financial Analysis simplifies an often difficult-to-understand topic so stakeholders ranging from employees to executives to investors can understand and discuss an organization’s financial workings.

The Essentials of Financial Analysis delivers practical, in-depth coverage on the key components of financial reporting, budgeting, and analysis to help you better relate to the numbers behind the business issues you face every day. By the time you turn the final page of this book, you will be able to command confident discussions on performance, investment, and other financial situations with members of your finance team and senior management.

This hands-on book helps you make better business decisions by showing you how to structure financial analysis, as well as:

Contribute to an organization’s success and guide others companywide to make better financial decisions
Reduce cost of capital and hurdle rates by selecting the financial markets, intermediaries, and instruments that work best for your company’s financing needs
Increase shareholder value by pursuing growth through capital investment, new products, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategies

Your career success and the prosperity of your company depends on your ability to understand and act upon basic financial principles. With The Essentials of Financial Analysis, you can go inside the numbers and get a clear picture of where your company has been, where it is going, and how you can help it get there.