Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 11-15 of 35
 From a lay point of view November 28, 2007
Wade M. Englund (Sandy, Utah)
Some friends and I have been looking into buying a media company, and none of us have had any experience running a large corportation, or even much in the way of collegete education in financing. This book enabled us to run a high-level diagnostic on the financial health of our prospective business, and recognize certain significant challenges. Consequently, we have had second thoughts, and are proceeding with caution--or at least now we are in a position to make more informed desicions. Amazingly, we were able to find ways to improve the company's financial situation that the CFO has apperantly overlooked--and he's an MBA. ;-)
Excellent book for those who know little about accounting November 10, 2007
Houman Tamaddon (Seattle, WA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book along with Ittelson's Financial Statements. I was not sure which one to get so I got both thinking one would be repetitive but not as good. They were both excellent and together increased my accounting knowledge tremendously (No, I am not trying to drum up business for Amazon). Tracy's book is clear and has a nice logical flow to it. It would be great for managers, investors, and students. If you are trying to decide between this and Ittelson, I don't think you can go wrong with either one. They are both excellent and even complement each other so consider buying both of them.
 Excellent for first time user (FIRST time user) October 20, 2007
Petur (Iceland)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a good choice for someone who don't now anything about financial reports.
I'm no expert but I'm more than novice. It didn't help me much. If you know already something, don't buy this book. But if this is your FIRST step reading financial reports, this is a great book.
great book July 30, 2007
Charlie B (over the rainbow, USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I spent a long time trying to find a book that could help me read a financial statement. It needed to be simple without sacrificing substance. Finally I found this book. It shows how income, cash flow, and balance sheet are related, in a visual, line by line way.
I think the only way you could do it better is by having a spreadsheet which linked all these together, which you could play with and see the linkages in action. But barring that, this book is great.
It does require study, but I don't think it requires much accounting background. I had no business or accounting background, and I found this book approachable.
The one downside is that it doesn't teach you how to interpret a financial statement. It teaches you to understand how one works, and how it fits together. But how to spot things that might be "troublesome" or in need of further inquiry in a real business report, this book doesn't tell you.
You need another book for that sort of thing. And I haven't found one of those yet -- that is simple and strong in its own way.
Excellent terse intro to financial statements June 19, 2007
Vasiliy Zhulin (bay area, CA USA)
I loved this book. John Tracy does an outstanding job introducing financial statements: how to read them, how to make sense of the numbers, and the basic framework around the statements. His language is easy to understand, and his examples illustrate the new concepts very well. The book is 200 pages long, and there is zero fluff. I found everything to be very useful information - nice and crisp.
Tracy jumps in by introducing cash flows and basic financial statements. He continues through the first half of the book by going down the income statement and the balance sheet together, describing how the numbers from the two statements work together (i.e. which portions of the income statement affect various numbers on the balance sheet).
Next, Tracy jumps into cash flows and describes the cash flow statement. He nicely illustrates how cash flow and profit differ and how they can grow in opposite directions depending on whether the business is expanding or shrinking. Tracy then covers logistics - he talks about statement footnotes, the importance of CPA audits, and the organizations and standards surrounding financial statements. He continues by discussing the various methods of expensing the cost of goods (LIFO, FIFO, average) and various depreciation and amortization techniques, and wraps up with common financial ratios (ROE, ROI, P/E, etc.) and a brief FAQ of basic questions and answers.
There are many diagrams throughout the book, and they are, for the most part, very helpful. I found a couple small errors in the diagrams (and a couple typos throughout the text), but they didn't really hinder my understanding - it was obvious what the author was trying to say and show.
This book does not require any previous knowledge of the subject. In fact, Tracy does a fantastic job defining everything he discusses. I like how new terms and concepts are italicized to emphasize their importance. The book is well organized (see 2nd and 3rd paragraphs of this review), although I wish that chapters 20 and 21 (cost of goods expense methods, depreciation & amortization techniques) came earlier in the book - closer to where Tracy discussed these items on the income statement. However, I do understand his motivation to save these items for later - so as not to confuse the reader with more advanced topics while introducing the basics - and to postpone the discussion of various ways to affect the net income.
Tracy is unafraid to give his own personal advice. He often uses "I think" and "in my opinion" throughout the book to emphasize his own preferences and thoughts rather than the generally accepted ideas. He expresses his opinions on the GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), the organizations that ultimately govern the GAAP, and, most importantly, on acceptable and average values for various financial ratios - I found this to be most helpful.
On a totally different note, the book has an interesting physical format - it is wider than it is taller. While this sucks for bookshelf storage, it gives lots of room for the large and clear diagrams.
In conclusion, I recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn about financial statements. You will not see very advanced topics, but you will get a great introduction and quite a bit of practical advice. Excellent job by John Tracy!
Pros:
+ very easy to read and understand - Tracy's explanations are simple and straight to the point
+ lots of diagrams, which nicely illustrate the flow of numbers
+ great intro to the 3 basic financial statements
+ additional useful and interesting info on the organizations and standards surrounding financial statements
+ practical advice (average values for certain ratios, what to look for first in the financial statements, etc.)
Cons:
- a couple small diagram errors and typos (not very significant)
- could include more info on advanced topics
Showing reviews 11-15 of 35
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