Understanding, Reading and Interpreting Financial Statements

Every day businesses deal with financial reports in some form or another, including reviewing budget numbers and running financial reports for decision-making and reporting to shareholders and regulators. In addition, businesses use financial reports from prospective clients to make decisions such as whether to enter into service agreements, assess the viability of the provision of credit, or set payment terms for goods sold. Financial planners use client financial statements to determine corporate/business financial planning needs and to identify suitable solutions. Further, under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 37 of 2002 (FAIS), licensed financial services providers (FSPs) are required to submit annual financial statements to the FAIS Commissioner. These statements must display the standard financial reports, which will be covered in this course.

The goal of this course is to provide a basic understanding of financial reports in order to render decisions based on financial data. During this course, the main financial statements will be covered as well as key terms that are used, how to perform various analyses and areas of consideration for business or corporate financial planners.