Product Description

Required reading for anyone starting, running, or growing a business, Business Ratios and Formulas, Second Edition puts answers at the fingertips of business managers, with nearly 250 operational criteria and clear, easy-to-understand explanations that can be used right away. The Second Edition includes approximately fifty new ratios and formulas, as well as new chapters covering ratios and formulas for e-commerce and human resources.

Product Details

• Published on: 2002-09-30
• Format: Amazon Upgrade
• Number of items: 1

Review
"It is an important, Quick Reference item that should be in every business collection." (Choice, April 2003)

"It is an important, Quick Reference item that should be in every business collection." -- Choice, April 2003

From the Inside Flap
Required reading for anyone starting, running, or growing a business, Business Ratios and Formulas, Second Edition puts answers at the fingertips of business managers, with nearly 250 operational criteria and clear, easy-to-understand explanations that can be used right away.

An ideal tool for measuring corporate performance, this authoritative resource allows managers and auditors to pick and choose the tools they need to best assess their organization's performance. Each formula includes a complete description, explanation of the calculation, an example, and cautions regarding its use. The cautions are of particular use, since they describe those elements of a measurement that can be modified to deliver misleading results, different measurements that may work better in certain situations, usage on a trend line basis, and alternate measurements for reinforcing indicated results.

The Second Edition includes approximately fifty new ratios and formulas, as well as new chapters covering ratios and formulasfore-commerceandhuman resources. For professionals needing to compile information about a company's long-term performance, the new edition uses Microsoft Excel to describe how to use an electronic spreadsheet to assemble a standard set of measurements.

Author and renowned accounting expert Steven Bragg categorizes performance measurements for accounting, engineering, logistics, production, and sales departments and also discusses topics related to efficiency, effectiveness, capacity, and market share. Chapter topics include measurements related to asset utilization, operating performance, cash flows, liquidity, capital structure, return on investment, and market performance.

Accounting professionals, business managers, and operational consultants will turn to Bragg's peerless guide again and again to assess a host of organizational performance standards.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Business Ratios and Formulas A Comprehensive Guide Second Edition

"With the thousands of measurements available to the corporate manager, this publication filters them based on usefulness and the type of business manager. More importantly, the helpful examples, along with cautions to consider when using the measurements, display the years of experience Steven possesses in real-world application of such tools."
—Richard B. Lanza, CPA-CITP, CFE, PMPCash Recovery Partners, LLC

"Mr. Bragg takes business analysis one step further, providing an invaluable reference asset for both financial and nonfinancial professionals. The reader will be impressed with the extremely organized manner in which Bragg presents each chapter, allowing the reader to navigate independently, simplifying a sometimes overwhelming process."
—Jodi Nefzger, CPP, Director of Finance Masonic Home of Missouri

"Steve's book is an extremely comprehensive compilation of valuable measurements for gauging and managing any business, including both financial and nonfinancial parameters and at several different levels. His unique way of explaining the measurement, presenting the formula, giving a fairly comprehensive example, then including cautions on its use is especially valuable. Anyone concerned about maximizing their business and monitoring performance will find this book quite valuable."
—Robert C. Johnson, CPA Greeneville, Tennessee

Praise for the First Edition

"Steve Bragg has created a useful, relevant guide to applying performance measurements across the organization. His practical explanations and examples should enable managers to apply sophisticated performance measures in a straightforward manner. This book will be a great tool for process improvement. It should be well received by managers, accountants, and consultants."
—Clint Davies, Principal Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker

Customer Reviews

An excellent business resource
Business Ratios and Formulas, A Comprehensive Guide, is the most thorough reference book of its type. Steven Bragg provides a complete explanation of each business ratio and formula and follows each with a scenario example of their applications. Also provided is a discussion of how the resultant calculation can be misleading or should be used in conjunction with other ratios. I have not seen this feature in any other book of its kind.

Another excellent feature of the book is the chapter on "Measurement Analysis with an Electronic Spreadsheet", which describes the use of Microsoft Excel to assist the business professional in automating the analysis. Five types of analyses are included in this chapter: financial statements, project analysis, investment analysis, risk analysis and trend analysis.

In the introduction to the text Mr. Bragg states, "Even if a company has developed a reasonable set of measurements, this does not mean that they should never be changed." As a controller I am in the process of re-examining my company's measurement process. This book is an invaluable resource. Excellent for both the professional and student. A book I wish I had during my MBA studies.

Set up your books so performance can be measured
This is not an easy-read book. It is much like a cookbook - there are all kinds of recipes (formulas) identified and explained. A must-read for anyone who wants to start, run, and grow a business.

After reading this book you should be impressed with the fact that every business can be viewed as a database of numbers (statistics). The quality of the databases will vary, often significantly, but all businesses can build quality databases if they so desire. If they do, then they can take advantage of the priceless information included in this book.

I used to work for a small company that refused to keep accurate accounting records. All they worried about it seemed was the cash flow schedule so they could pay their bills. I tried to impress upon them the importance of well-kept books so the health status of the business could always be identified quickly, and strategic planning could be performed to increase profitability or to pursue growth pursuant to a plan. If they had kept books as I suggested, then they wold have been able to take advantage of the book I'm reviewing here.

By reading this book and taking note of the financial data necessary to plug and chug the formulas, you will be knowledgeable about how to set up your accounting records on Quickbooks Pro or whatever other accounting software your company uses. And the better those accounts are set up, the better you will be able to use the information provided in this book.

Great Ratio Analysis reference book
This is a great reference book for Financial Statement Ratio Analysis. Unlike some other ratio analysis books, this one has more ratios than you would ever need to use even in the most in-depth analysis of a companies financials.

The layout of the book flows naturally, meaning that the book divides the ratios into categories like Liquidity, Solvency, Performance, Return on Investment, etc... the one shortfall here is though you'd expect the ratios to flow from one into the other as you pick a category and investigate it, you'd be wrong. For example, The Current, Quick, and Cash ratios are some of the most important starter ratios for Liquidity test and you'd expect the section on Liquidity to start with them, but it doesn't. It starts with Accounts Receivable Turnover ratio followed by Average Receivable Collection Period. Although that is important, it's not where one typically starts during a liquidity test, so the author could have organized the ratios with a little more thought. Nevertheless, this disadvantage is outweighed by the advantage of having a good explanation of what each ratio means with a hypothetical example for every single ratio.

It's my conclusion that this book is made for people with an existing knowledge of Accounting.

Beginners would have a difficult time with this, as the book is filled with jargon. Accountants and professional analysists would love this, because all the jargon just saves us time. We hate it when books like these try to cater to everyone, including amateurs, and in the end just 'water down' the content. We just want that ratio and a quick explanation in OUR language of what it means and how to interpret it. This book does just that.

If you're looking for a Ratio reference book, you should definitely have this one as part of a larger collection, since having one ratio reference book is not enough and you always need to cross-reference if you get lost along the way.