Accounting and finance clips

v. 1. What do a company's accounts tell you? Why are they important? This is a simple guide to the profit and loss account (income statement) and balance sheet. Together these documents form the basis for a company's annual report. The balance sheet provides a snapshot of a firm's financial health - but what do we mean by financial health? --v. 2. Working capital is getting tight at Blakeway and Maynard wants to know what's going wrong. One reason:...

v. 1. What are budgets? How do they work? In Blakeway Ltd budgeting is vital to their manufacturing plans - but budgets depend on sales forecasts which are notoriously unreliable. Variance analysis is used to track the difference between estimates and reality. Budgets can be used to make staff more accountable and set priorities - but sometimes managers use up current budgets simply for fear of losing their money next year! --v. 2. A manager uses...

v. 1. Vital to commercial success is how well businesses control their costs. These come in two basic types: direct and indirect. But in the real world classifying costs is rarely clear-cut. Manufacturer Blakeway Ltd divides its company up into cost and profit centres to help it monitor how different parts of its business are performing financially. But there's disagreement inside the company about how to act on the figures. --v. 2. Acme Whistles...