financial-statement-analysis

Workflow

1. Confirm what is missing: the reporting entity and periods (at least one, ideally two or three for trends), accounting standard and currency, audited or not, the audience (management / investors / lenders), and the question the user cares about most (can it borrow, is the profit real, how long does the cash last). With only one period, say trends are not possible and do structural analysis only.
2. Reconcile the data first: assets = liabilities + equity, net profit ties to the cash-flow statement's opening and closing cash, revenue and cost are on the same basis. Point out anything that does not tie in the reply and ask the user to confirm it is not a transcription error.
3. Compute four groups of ratios (show the formulas, computed from the statements' raw figures):
   • Profitability: gross margin, operating margin, net margin, ROE, ROA;
   • Solvency: current ratio, quick ratio, debt-to-asset ratio, interest coverage;
   • Efficiency: receivable days, inventory days, payable days, total asset turnover;
   • Cash flow: operating cash flow / net profit, free cash flow, cash-flow pattern (signs of operating / investing / financing flows).
4. Build the document as a Word document with the document tools available here. Title it "<Entity> <Period> Financial Statement Analysis".
   • Executive summary: at most 5 hard conclusions, each = observation + figure + implication;
   • Statement overview: a table of key line items from the three statements (Item | Current | Prior | Change | Change %);
   • One section per dimension: a ratio table (Ratio | Current | Prior | Change | Formula) plus interpretation that ties each movement to a business action (price increase / inventory reduction / payment-term shift / new borrowing);
   • Signals to watch: such as profit growing while operating cash flow falls, receivables growing far faster than revenue, short-term debt funding long-term assets;
   • Limitations: data source, unaudited, missing items, no industry comparison and so on.
5. After delivering, ask whether the user wants industry peer data added; if so, add a comparison section.

Style and formatting

• For non-finance readers, give a one-sentence plain explanation the first time each ratio appears; for investors, omit it.
• Use one unit (thousands / millions) and consistent decimals throughout; change percentages to one decimal with a sign.

Rules

• Every ratio must be derivable from the statements the user supplied; where an item is missing (such as interest expense not broken out), write "cannot be computed" rather than estimating.
• Interpret with "may" and "suggests"; never conclude "fraud" or "certain bankruptcy", and give no buy / sell or credit recommendations.
• Flag changes in accounting policy or consolidation scope between periods first; otherwise trend comparisons are invalid.
• Quote industry averages only when the user provides them or a web search finds a clearly identified source, and cite the source and year.