The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements

In order to gauge a company's health—as well as the competition's—managers must know how to properly read and understand financial statements. The Business Owner's Guide to Reading and Understanding Financial Statements will introduce managers and business owners to various types of financial statements and explain why they are important. Serving as a desktop reference, especially for managers without a strong background in finance, this book will discuss the difference between internal and external financial statements and explain how they can be used for financial decision-making in order to avoid common missteps.

Whether you're planning for major capital projects or simply managing the fiscal aspects of your department, this nontechnical, results-driven guide will arm you with the fundamentals to:

• Understand the budget process and why it is important
• Manage assets and track inventory
• Gauge profitability
• Monitor success throughout the year using internal reporting
• Set prices and make key cost decisions

Financial statements are essential to determining a company's fiscal health. Understand where your company stands so that you can make informed decisions about its future.

Lita Epstein, MBA, designs and teaches online courses on topics such as investing for retirement, getting ready for tax time and finance, and investing for women. She is the author of Streetwise Retirement Planning and the coauthor of Alpha Teach Yourself Retirement Planning in 24 Hours. She has also been a congressional press secretary, daily newspaper reporter, magazine editor, and fundraiser for The Carter Center.