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Textbook The Essentials of Finance and Accounting For Nonfinancial Managers Third Edition Edward Fields Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook The Essentials of Finance and Accounting For Nonfinancial Managers Third Edition Edward Fields Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Edward Fields
Glossary 319
Index 339
About the Author 345
Free Sample from The First-Time Manager by Loren B. Belker, Jim
McCormick, and Gary S. Topchik 346
Introduction
T
his is a book for businesspeople. All decisions in a business
organization are made in accordance with how they will
affect the organization’s financial performance and future
financial health. Whether your background is in marketing, manu-
facturing, distribution, research and development, or the current
technologies, you need financial knowledge and skills if you are to
really understand your company’s decision-making, financial, and
overall management processes. The budget is essentially a finan-
cial process of prioritizing the benefits resulting from business op-
portunities and the investments required to implement those
opportunities. An improved knowledge of these financial proc-
esses and the financial executives who are responsible for them
will improve your ability to be an intelligent and effective partici-
pant.
The American economy has experienced incredible turmoil in
the years since this book was first published. Before U.S. govern-
ment intervention in 2008/2009, we were on the verge of our sec-
ond ‘‘great depression.’’ We witnessed the demise of three great
financial firms, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and AIG. Corpo-
rate bankruptcies were rampant, with General Motors, Chrysler,
and most of the major airlines filing. The U.S. government lent the
banks hundreds of billions of dollars to save the financial system,
while approximately seven million Americans lost their jobs (and
most of these jobs will never exist again; see Chapter 6, ‘‘Key Fi-
nancial Ratios,’’ for a discussion of employee productivity trends).
1
2 INTRODUCTION
? Measuring performance
? Making decisions
? Liquidity
? Working capital management
? Financial leverage (debt)
? Profitability and performance
? Supply-chain management
? New product strategy
? Marketing strategy
? Product mix and growth strategies
? Outsourcing options
? Capital expenditures
? Research and development
? Acquiring other companies
? Marketing programs
? Strategic alliances
cussions of the planning process and the budget, and why they are
so important. It also covers the many ways in which the company
may obtain financing. While this is not a direct responsibility of
most members of the management team, knowledge of debt and
equity markets and sources of corporate financing will be very use-
ful for the business manager.
Appendices A Through F
In order to ensure that you have understood the information pro-
vided in this book, we have included six practice exercises in the
appendices. One of the goals of this book is to make the informa-
tion it provides really useful in your business management efforts.
An effective way to achieve this is to practice the lessons and anal-
yses.
Appendix A provides practice in constructing the three finan-
cial statements. This ‘‘fill in the blanks’’ exercise will reinforce the
knowledge gained in Part 1.
Appendix B is a glossary ‘‘matching’’ test. Seventy-nine finan-
cial terms are given, along with their definitions, but not in the
same sequence. This will reinforce understanding of the many
terms and ‘‘buzzwords’’ that businesspeople must understand
when they communicate with accounting people and use the in-
formation that they produce.
Appendix C is a comprehensive case study of a company that
is (in a financial sense) severely underachieving. The company’s
past performance must be analyzed using the knowledge gained in
Chapter 6, ‘‘Key Financial Ratios.’’ The case study also includes the
budget plan and forecasting techniques discussed in Chapters 10
and 12.
The format and content of financial information is seriously
affected by the business the company is in. Thus, Appendix D pro-
vides a list of 10 companies and 10 sets of financial information.
The goal is to figure out which set of financial information belongs
to which of the 10 companies. Providing actual, recognizable com-
panies provides the opportunity to understand how ratios behave
INTRODUCTION 9
Additional Background
We study financial management because doing so helps us to man-
age our business more intelligently.
As mentioned earlier, business management activities may be
divided into two major categories:
? Measuring performance
? Making decisions
year. Can the company afford to finance its future growth and pay
off its debts?
Breakeven analysis helps us to understand the profitability of
individual products. We use it to evaluate pricing strategies and
costs. The company uses the results of this analysis in decisions
concerning such things as outsourcing options, vertical integra-
tion, and strategic alliances.
This book surveys these financial tools. We will provide de-
scriptions and definitions of their components so that you can gain
an understanding of how they can help you and why you should
understand them.
Accounting Defined
Accounting is the process of recording past business transactions
in dollars (or any other currency). Training to become a certified
public accountant (CPA) involves learning the rules and regula-
tions of the following organizations:
Financial Analysis
Financial analysis is an analytical process. It is an effort to examine
past events and to understand the business circumstances, both
internal and external, that caused those events to occur. Knowing
and understanding the accounting information is certainly a criti-
cal part of this process. But to fully understand the company’s past
performance, it is important to also have information concerning
units sold, market share, orders on the books, utilization of pro-
ductive capacity, the efficiency of the supply chain, and much
more. Every month, we compare the actual performance with the
budget. This is not an accounting process. It is an analytical proc-
ess that uses accounting information.
Accounting is the reporting of the past. The budget reflects
management’s expectations for future events and offers a standard
of performance for revenues, expenses, and profits.
Financial analysis as a high-priority management process also
requires forecasting. A forecast is an educated perception of how a
decision that is being contemplated will affect the future of the
business. It requires a financial forecast—a financial quantification
of the anticipated effect of the decision on marketing and opera-
tional events, and therefore on cash flow.
Accounting/Forecasting/Budget Perspective
The end result of all the planning efforts in which a company en-
gages, including forecasting, must finally be the making of deci-
sions. These many decisions about people, spending allocations,
products, and markets are included in a report called a budget.
Therefore, the budget is really a documentation of all the decisions
that management has already made.
INTRODUCTION 13
The Issues
There are frequently cultural clashes between the accounting de-
partment and the rest of the company. This results from the false
assumption that the philosophies and attitudes that are required
for accounting are also appropriate in business analysis and deci-
sion making. The budget is not an accounting effort. It is a man-
agement process that may be coordinated by people with
accounting backgrounds. A forecast need not adhere to accounting
rules. There is nothing in accounting training that teaches accoun-
tants to deal with marketing and operational forecasting and
decision-making issues. In addition, to the extent that the future
may not be an extension of the past, it is conceivable that past
(accounting) events may not be very relevant.
Accounting is somewhat precise. Forecasting, by its very
nature, is very imprecise. When the preparation of the budget be-
comes ‘‘accounting-driven,’’ those preparing it focus on nonexis-
tent precision and lose sight of the real benefits of the budget and
its impact on the bigger picture.
Accounting is conservative. It requires that the least favorable
interpretation of events be presented. Business forecasting needs
to be somewhat optimistic. Using a conservative sales forecast
usually means that the budget will be finalized at the lower end of
expectations. If the forecast is actually exceeded, as it is likely to be,
the company will not be totally prepared to produce the product or
deliver the services. In short, conservatism in accounting is re-
quired. Conservatism in business decision making can be very
damaging.
Business is risky and filled with uncertainty. Accounting is risk-
averse.
Resolution
To alleviate some of these cultural pressures, accountants need to
learn more about the business—its markets, customers, competi-
tive pressures, and operational issues—and all other business
14 INTRODUCTION
The Customers
Why do our customers buy our products and services? Why do we
deserve their money? These are critical questions that must be an-
swered if we are to focus the company’s energies and resources
on those efforts that will sustain growth. We need to expand our
definition of ‘‘the highest quality’’ and devote corporate cash and
people to distinguishing the company from and staying ahead of
the competition.
Do we really know our customers’ needs, present and future?
Are we prepared to support them in their goal of succeeding in
their marketplace? Do they view us as a key strategic partner? After
all, we are in business to help our customers make money. If we
define our company’s strategic mission accordingly, our custom-
ers’ success will be ours. What we do is only a means to that end.
The Markets
Products and services are provided in numerous markets. These
may be defined by:
INTRODUCTION 15
? Geography
? Product application
? Quality and perception of quality
? Means of distribution
? Selling channel (direct, distributor, Internet)
Resources
People and money must be dedicated to the most profitable,
fastest-growing segments of the business. These business seg-
ments represent the future of the company and should be properly
supported. Are our strategies and practices designed to hang on
to the more comfortable past rather than focusing on the future?
Intelligent planning and management controls do not inhibit cre-
ativity and aggressive risk taking. In fact, they ensure that the most
important opportunities receive the resources that they require if
they are to succeed.
Understanding
Financial
Information
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to occur in many Platyhelminthes: (1) the larger longitudinal canals,
and (2) the capillary vessels, which commence with (3) the flame-
cells in the parenchyma of the body. The mode of distribution of
these parts is not, however, ascertained. The canals are delicate,
sinuous, apparently intracellular tubes, coursing close to the margin
of the body and sending offsets which suspend the canals to the
dorsal surface, where possibly openings may occur. In dilatations of
these vessels bunches of cilia, and occasionally flame-cells, are
found. Usually, however, flame-cells occur at the commencement or
during the course of the capillaries, which are straight, rarely
branching, tubes of exceeding tenuity, and appear (Lang) to be
outgrowths of the flame-cells, just as the duct is an outgrowth of a
gland-cell. In fact there is little doubt that the stellate flame-cells are
modified parenchymatous gland-cells, containing a lumen filled with
a fluid into which a number of cilia project and vibrate synchronously.
The cells excrete nitrogeneous waste substances, which are then
discharged into the capillaries, whence the cilia of the main vessels
drive them presumably to the exterior, though external openings of
the excretory system are not known. Traces of this system have
been observed in young Leptoplana (first by Schultze in 1854) and
also in Cestoplana.
The eyes which occur in Polyclads may be divided into (a) a pair of
cerebral groups overlying the brain; (b) those embedded in the
tentacles (tentacular group); and (c) the marginal eyes, which in
Anonymus occur all round the margin. A complex form is sometimes
assumed by the cerebral eyes of Pseudoceridae, resulting probably
from incomplete fission (Fig. 11). Leptoplana otophora was obtained
by Schmarda on the south coast of Ceylon. On each side of the
brain is a capsule containing two otoliths. This is the only known
case of the occurrence of these organs in Polyclads.
The Triclads are most conveniently divided into three groups[39]: (i.)
Paludicola, the Planarians of ponds and streams; (ii.) the Maricola,
the Triclads of the sea; and (iii.) Terricola or Land Planarians. From
the Polyclads they differ in their mode of occurrence; in the
elongated form of their body and almost constant, mid-ventral
position of the mouth; in possessing a single external genital pore
(Monogopora); and in the production of a few, large, hard-shelled
eggs provided with food-yolk.
The skin of Triclads is full of minute rods or rhabdites, which are shot
out in great numbers when the animal is irritated, and doubtless
serve an offensive purpose. The Terricola possess two kinds of
these: (1) needle-like rods; and (2) in Bipalium kewense, flagellated
structures, bent into a V-form and with a slender thread attached to
one end (Shipley). In Geoplana coerulea these bent rods furnish the
blue colour of the ventral surface. The rhabdites arise in all Triclads
in cells below the basement-membrane, which they are said to
traverse in order to reach the epidermis, thus differing in origin, and
also in structure, from the rods of Polyclads.
There are two ovaries (ov) placed far forwards, between the third
and fourth pairs of intestinal coeca. The oviducts (ovd) lie just over
the lateral nerves, and have a slightly tortuous course, at each
outward bend receiving the duct (yo) of a yolk-gland (yg), so that ova
and yolk are already associated when the oviducts open by a short
unpaired tube into the genital atrium. The yolk-glands develop
rapidly,[57] and when fully formed are massive glands occupying the
spaces between the intestinal branches and the testes which are
then aborting. The so-called uterus (ut), apparently at first a
diverticulum of the genital atrium, expands behind the pharynx into a
receptacle lined by long glandular columnar cells, which, however,
are not all of the same kind. The uterine duct opens into the atrium
just above the aperture of a problematical, eversible, "musculo-
glandular organ" (mgr).
The genitalia of the Maricola (Fig. 14, F) and Terricola do not differ
very much from those of Planaria. The uterus (greatly reduced in the
Land Planarians) lies behind the genital pore, and several ova,
together with much milky yolk, are enclosed in a capsule which is
formed in the genital atrium.
PALUDICOLA.
Family. Genus and British Species.
Planariidae Planaria lactea O. F. M., P. punctata Pall., P.
polychroa Schm., P. torva M. Sch., P. alpina
Dana.
Polycelis nigra Ehr., P. cornuta Schm.
Anocelis.
Oligocelis, Procotyla. (Doubtful genera.)
Sorocelis.
Dicotylus.
MARICOLA.
Procerodidae Procerodes (= Gunda) ulvae Oersted, P.
(= Gundidae). littoralis van Beneden.
Cercyra.
Uteriporus.
Bdellouridae Bdelloura.
Syncoelidium.
TERRICOLA.
Bipaliidae Bipalium kewense Moseley (introduced).
Geoplanidae Geoplana.
Geodesmus.
Rhynchodemidae Rhynchodemus terrestris O. F. M.
Belonging to Dolichoplana.
undetermined Polycladus.
Families Microplana.
Leimacopsis.