Understanding financial statements

Mammen Mathews, DPT (IPT), FCA, gave a lecture on ‘Understanding Financial Statements’, at Anna University, Chennai, recently. In his hour long presentation, he made the topic simple to understand with his long experience in the field. Communicating that these statements are like Mark Sheets for Students and Salary Sheets for Employees reveal the performance of a company.

“The two statements universally adopted are Income Statement and Balance Sheet. Any entrepreneur has to learn to interpret the Statements to take a corrective action. For an employee, the knowledge about these Statements makes it imperative now-a-days to go up the ladder while one talks about technically oriented cadre. Whatever the size of a company, the two statements Income & Balance Sheet, tell you about the health of your company,” he said. The speaker explained the nitty gritty of interpretation with the help of a case study.

In general discussion, he pointed out that the trend is towards a wise employer who must not tend to order but lead the employee. This he has to do with his own acquired knowledge. This is another reason why especially a technical person should learn the technique of interpreting the Financial Statements which has been made easy with internet around. –D Ramalingam