Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts

This book guides the reader through the conventions and complexities of reports and accounts, explaining how to assess the financial and trading position of a company from year to year, how to spot undue risk-taking, where and how to look for clues on the quality of management and how to spot �??cosmetic accounting�??.

In 1991 the authors wrote: �?? Company accounting is currently in a state of flux, confusion and controversy.�?? It is now in much better shape. In ten years, 19 Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs) together with a statement of Principles of Financial Reporting have been produced by the Accounting Standards Board ( ASB).

Many earlier abuses have been prevented, and much more information now has to be disclosed, the use and purpose of which the authors seek to explain. But work still needs to be done. The final chapter of this edition examines the problems that remain, and the steps the ASB is taking to resolve them.

The eighth edition has been fully updated to take account of the latest amendments in accounting rules. Reports and accounts have improved immeasurably over the last 20 years and especially over the last ten. There is now so much information that it has become difficult to find one's way through the maze. To demonstrate the art or skill of picking one�??s way through a mass of data, chapter 31: �?? Putting it all together�?? takes readers step by step through the report and accounts of a listed company.

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That it is known as �?? The Analysts Bible�?? says much about this book. It shows how to crunch the numbers and what to look for buried in the notes to the accounts and suggests how to read the director�??s reports for the signs of business turning sour."

                                                                                         Investors Chronicle

" The book is wholly successful in its aim of providing a guide for �??anybody with a reasonably enquiring mind�?? on how to take to pieces a set of company reports."

"An interesting guideline on how to interpret the usual broad and platitudinous statements made by many company chairmen is to be found in this excellent book."

                                                                 Jim Slater Investment Made Easy

Interpreting Company Reports and Accounts has long been used by a number of universities and colleges, and is recommended reading for several professional examinations. To assist both lecturers and readers problems are included to encourage readers to put the ideas contained within the text into practice, together with solutions.

Geoffrey Holmes FCA, FTII was involved in the initial stages of this edition. He was, for more than twenty years, the highly regarded and much respected Editor of Accountancy, the Journal of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He lectured and wrote regularly on the interpretation of reports and accounts for many years and was co-author with Robin Dunham, of the companion volume Beyond the Balance Sheet.

Alan Sugden is a graduate of the Royal Navy Staff College, Greenwhich, and a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School. He spent 20 years in the city as an analyst and fund manager, running the then £100m (now £850m) Schroder Recovery Fund for several years. He is a former director of Schroder Investment Management.

Paul Gee BA (Econ) FCA is Technical Director of Bristol based accountants Solomon Hare, and lectures widely in the UK on financial reporting. Prior to joining Solomon Hare, Paul was a principal lecturer at Bristol Business School