What’s next?

This chapter looked at financial reporting as a whole. The main focus was on the annual report. Remember that you will find much interesting material in other reports, including reports to regulatory authorities (e.g. stock exchanges or securities and exchange commissions) and other published but unregulated reports and commentary. But beware that so-called pro forma (i.e. unregulated) financials can present a very different – and usually more rosy – picture from accounts prepared under generally accepted accounting principles. The next chapter looks more closely at analysing financial statements in concert. This is a very interesting topic and it will help you extract maximum value from any financials that happen to be lying around ...

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