Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports

Book arrived in perfect used condition. The content is exactly what I needed to explain corporate bookkeeping to the layman. Very good example of office bookkeeping and financial ratios.

Thomas Ittelson has done what most authors fail to do: explain something to beginners in an understandable way. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is aimed at beginners in business and finance. Reading, writing and understanding financial statements is essential to business and investing. If you own your own company, and it is growing, you will have to produce financial statemtns of your own. Unless you are a pure momentum investor, one who follows stock prices without a care for the actual company that this price represents, you will need to look at and understand financial data. This is the basis of most investing strategies. If you look at a financial statement as a series of unintelligible tables full of meaningless numbers, accompanied by mind numbing prose, this book will help you out immensely. It offers definitions of the financial terms and explanations of financial tables, using plain language that a non financial person can understand. The book starts with simple examples, and gradually adds on complexity. If you read the entire book, you will not be an accountant, but you will be able to understand the basic concepts of a company's financial reports. This may only represent the beginning of your investing education, or the high point of your knowledge, but it belongs in every beginning investor's library. I have been investing for over twenty years, and I keep my dog-eared copy in a place where I can easily find it.

I used this book for a business course in college, and it was a huge help. It breaks down financial concepts in a clear and straightforward way, making it easy to understand even for beginners. Whether you’re a student or just looking to improve your financial literacy, this is a solid choice. The product arrived in perfect condition with fast shipping. I’d recommend this textbook for anyone needing a foundation in financial statements.

A great entry-level book that covers most aspects of the financial statements and accounting basics. I would recommend this to anyone who has no experience in dealing with financial statement; including bookkeepers who are comfortable with Quickbooks but don't really understand the accounting aspect of journal entries & credit/debit. It gives basic examples of how to properly record typical transactions in various situations. (Ex. when receiving payment, exchange asset, record stock options etc.). Any non-accountant would benefit greatly from these practical and easy to understand examples. Also, this book is written in plain English that anyone can understand, it does a good job introducing and explaining the basic accounting terms. You won't feel overwhelmed. However, keep in mind this is a very basic book on financial statement & accounting. If you are looking for more in-depth financial statement analysis techniques etc., you won't find it here. If you are an accounting major or a CPA, you can safely skip this book. Overall: great entry-level book to get familiar with financial statements.

I don't typically write book reviews, but felt the need given how effective and useful this book is, especially given its very small financial investment. I have taken several courses related to this topic, and this book really helps to tie all concepts together related to financial statements. It is very simple to follow and understand. It is completely comprehensive covering any and all concepts related to the topic. I have found it to be very useful and a great resource that I will refer to in the future. I highly recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about the topic, use as a handy reference, or as an intro to any related courses they might be taking. It covers everything you need to know broken down in simple steps, in a very simple manner. Highly recommend to anyone, I cannot say that enough. I have high regard to anyone who can break down and explain a pretty difficult concept and explain it in simple terms. Kudos to Ittelson for his ability to do so.

Financial Statements made it easy to understand the big picture and then placed each concept into that context. I appreciated that it started with clear, simple definitions of the basic concepts and explanations for why those concepts are useful, making no assumptions on the reader. Where the book really shined was in showing exactly how the three core financial statements connected to each other - and each example really solidified the concepts. I enjoyed trying to predict, before reading through what actually should be recorded, what would happen based on what I'd learned from the book so far. Often, I could - and when I couldn't, it was instructive and useful. I feel far more equipped to understand financial statements than I ever have before, and I'm grateful that someone wrote such a readable introduction. (I also appreciated how it framed accounting as the "language of business" - that almost immediately helped me understand the value of the material and what I should expect.)

Financial Statements by Thomas Ittelson is - as says on the front cover of the book - "a step-by-step guide to understanding and creating financial reports", and does just that brilliantly. The author manages to make rather difficult business concepts palpable to the laymen reader. The book is also well suited for those with a higher business acumen because the author attacks many financial statement and business fundamentals in a feasible way that serves as good reiteration and study. I feel that my recent statements portrayed accurate objectivity about what many consider a top tier book of its kind. Personally, i love how the text was very flexible (financial statements and number nuances weren't jammed in like they could have been), it flowed very well page-to-page and chapter-to-chapter, and though surprising it was pleasantly conversational. What the book was about: Throughout the first 5 chapters the author goes over the accounting principals, the financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement) and draws the connection within them. Through the next chapters (6-11) the author goes over transactions of a hypothetical start-up company (named AppleSeed Enterprises) with the intent for the reader to understand how transactions affect the financial statements, which is very good practical application. In chapters 12 through 15 the author goes on about accounting policies, ratio analysis, fraud, and so forth. The last chapters (16-22) the author examines business expansion (risk, strategy, sources of capital, decisions, etc) and how to make good investment decisions by helping the reader better understand the time value of money (PV, FV, interest rates, discount rates,etc.) and keen forecasting. This text would be most suitable for those with some knowledge of financial statements or at least finance itself but can benefit just about anyone - even pundits.

The three financial statements that are fundamental to any understanding of business and investing--the Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement--are thoroughly explained and explored in clear and simple terms with a deft touch of whimsy in this book. Financial terms many take for granted are effectively defined. (Difference between revenue and income, anyone?) This is NOT advanced economics but rather Accounting 101 for those investors, business people and others who need to understand the nuts and bolts of financial statements. For that purpose, I cannot imagine how a book could be better than this one. Also, I heartily agree with reviews that said buy the actual book, not the Kindle version. Financial statements and written explanations are on opposing pages making it easy to glance back and forth. (And you will definitely be glancing back and forth between the two.) The Kindle version would make this arrangement cumbersome at best.

I run a small design consultancy. I have no education in finance. While I've always bene comfortable with P&L statements I've never known what to do witha balance sheet. After reading this book I feel much more informed and much more able to analyse the Balance sheet and the P&L. The book comes complete with a very thorough set of examples based upon a fictitious company doing a number of different transactions as it goes from startup through several manufacturing cycles. These examples show you how every different type of transaction affects the financial statements.... this is terrific. The one down side, is that it is written from an American perspective, and my company is based in the UK. However there is a huge amount of crossover. Some terminology may differ and the governing bodies are different, but other than that this book provides an excellent foundation for the non-expert.

Very well-structured book! Definitely recommend

Es un libro que explica todo de manera fácil. Comienza con lo básico y poco a poco va desglosando los detalles. Excelente libro para quienes no saben absolutamente nada sobre contabilidad y/o finanzas. Desglosa cada transacción paso a paso, por lo que es posible que a algunos les resulte confuso ver "hojas repetidas".

As an accountant with not native English this book was very useful to go through the basic knowledge and refresh memories about all financial statements. Basically very great book to improve vocabulary. Information is very easy to read. Thank you

One of the best books i have ever read in accounting. I am a software developer and i was looking for a book designated for non-accountants in order to understand the main accouting terms and aspects. Simple, Clear and full of examples.