The Definitive Guide to Business Finance: What smart managers do with the numbers, Second Edition

Ten hard questions to ask or be asked

1	Do you have a complete breakdown of costs by item for each functional area?
2	Are cost items correctly identified as spending on assets, cost of sales, overheads, etc.?
3	Are taxes properly accounted for?
4	Is management analysis based on common-sense costing?
5	Can you identify which costs are fixed, over what ranges, and which ones are variable?
6	Are spending projections realistic? Have seasonal factors been caught?
7	Is the timing of spending properly identified?
8	Is there proper control over spending, including items which are refundable (e.g. deposits, samples) and do such refunds end up in the company bank account?
9	Have bookkeeping entries been massaged (depreciation, inventory valuation, etc.)?
10	Is spending hunky-dory ...