Financial Statement Analysis places the practice of accounting in its international context through the examination of the financial statements and corporate reports of major, multinational corporations. To facilitate a better understanding of the interactions between accounting and the business environment, this text looks at the wider operational context, examining accounting’s relationship to the business environment both inside and outside the company. Financial Statement Analysis includes a wealth of real-world examples with actual statements from multinational companies to excerpts from financial journalism.

Acknowledgements Foreword PART 1: THE ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT 1. Financial Reporting and Regulation 2. Accounting and Accountants PART 2: BASIC FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 3. Measurement Concepts and the Balance Sheet Equation 4. Accruals Accounting 5. Fixed Assets and Depreciation 6. Refining the Database and Making Distributions 7. Making Financial Statements PART 3: INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS 8. A Framework for Interpretation 9. Financial Statement Analysis I 10. Cash Flow Statements PART 4: THE ACCOUNTS OF MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES 11. The Annual Report 12. Group Accounts 13. Foreign Operations 14. Issues in Financial Reporting by Multinationals 15. International Taxation 16. Auditing and Corporate Governance PART 5: ADVANCED FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS 17. Financial Statement Analysis II 18. Accounting Values

Peter Walton is Emeritus Professor of Accounting at The Open University and at the ESSEC Business School. He is a Chartered Certified Accountant and worked for British and French multinationals before becoming a researcher and journalist. He has taught in France, Switzerland, the USA and the UK.