Understanding Accounts is a "finance for non-financial" multimedia CD-ROM to help you read and understand an Annual Report and Accounts, including the Balance Sheet, Income Statement / Profit and Loss Account and Cash Flow Statement.  It also explains the concepts of Assets and Liabilities, Liquidity, Depreciation, Equity and Loan Capital and Gearing, and shows how to use Accounting Ratios to identify trends in a company's financial performance.

• Why do we need published accounts?
• What is a Balance Sheet - what are Assets and Liabilities?
• Why do companies borrow? What are the relative merits of using equity and borrowed funds?
• How do companies (and the tax authorities) treat the purchase of capital items?
• Why is working capital important in many businesses and why do different companies have different needs?
• Why is a balance sheet presented the way it is?
• What happens to profit - especially that retained in the business?
• Liquidity: How can a company have substantial retained profit, yet still be short of cash?
• What can we learn from a company's balance sheet
• How do we measure Profit?
• What is the Matching Principle?
• What are the differences between Cash and Profit?
• What is meant by different measures of profit and how are they reported?
• What influences a company's cash position?
• What role does Depreciation play in the story of cash?
• How can we control cash - especially Working Capital?
• How can we measure the profitability of a business?
• What can simple ratios tell us about company performance?

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are changing the format and terminology (but not the basic principles) of company annual accounts.  Understanding Accounts takes note of this.  Further information

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