別再說你看不懂財務報表
如果看不懂財務報表，你如何了解公司的財務狀況和經營績效？ 如何進行判斷及決策？ 有效分配資源，推動公司成長？ 別再說你看不懂財務報表！ 它是投資及風險管控的利器，也是營運團隊必備的能力。
| 知道何時該質疑和反駁數字 |
擁有財經知識以後，你就會有信心質疑財務和會計報表達成的結論。你將有能力區分硬資料、假設和會計估算。實際上這就代表你有能力分辨依可靠基礎做出的決策，以及缺乏支持基礎的決策。
重點在於當別人毫不遲疑、苛刻地評估你的公司和營運決策時，搶先他們一步是非常重要的。另一個重點在於如果你不質疑會計和財務部門說的話，其實就是任由他們控制所有決策。你允許決策的制訂是依據他們所提供的數字，而這些數字是以會計師們認為合適的假設和估算做為基礎。如果你選擇不質疑這些數字，你就是將決策的控制權交到他們手中。
組織的財經智慧愈高愈好，因為：
■ 每個人將學會如何做出更有效的決策──以企業整體的成功為基礎，而不是依據某個部門或單位的狹隘需求和喜好。
■ 經理人將了解事情發生的原因 ──以及他們可以做什麼來幫助公司成功。與其讓他們覺得自己像是資深管理階層決策的人質，不如讓他們有機會採用自己的提案。
■ 你將擁有更健全的企業 ──公司決策都是以穩健的財務理由為基礎制訂，而不是內部政治力和權力鬥爭的結果。
| 買企業，不是買公司的股票 |
決定買進一家企業應該根據下列財務原則：
■ 財務原則 1──重點是股東權益報酬率，不是每股盈餘。
股東權益報酬率是評量一家公司績效比較好的指標。股東權益報酬率是指，營業盈餘相對於股東權益的比率。這個比率可以衡量管理團隊運用資金的能力，是否能從企業的營運活動中創造報酬。
優秀的管理團隊能夠只運用極少的債務，或根本不靠舉債，仍然持續創造不錯的股東權益報酬率，又或者視業務的性質，運用管理能力所及的債務水準。
■ 財務原則 2──計算「業主盈餘」。
任何公司的根本價值，在於有能力創造剩餘現金。然而公司的固定資產相對於利潤的比率如果偏高，就必須提高保留盈餘的比率，如此和固定資產相對於利潤比率較低的公司比起來，才能維持獲利力。
「業主盈餘」反映公司真正的現金流量狀況。有些企業（如房地產開發公司）一開始需要大量的支出，但日後的支出很少。其他企業，如製造業的公司，則需要經常性開銷以支應廠房升級，否則業績會滑落。根據「業主盈餘」這個數據，可以進行跨產業的分析。
■ 財務原則 3──尋找獲利率高的公司。
矛盾的是，高成本公司的經理人經常有辦法不斷增加間接費用支出，而低成本公司的經理人，則以降低費用支出為豪。
把任何錢花在不必要的開銷上，會減損股東的額外利潤。高效能的經理人始終致力於消除不必要的開銷。
| 美化財報的會計手法 |
絕大多數財務報表的真正玄機，是在補充說明的備註欄。從備註欄可看到，公司經營階層因特定原因而不願提及的重大壞消息，這些附註項目說明帳目的背後故事，往往包含附帶負債、風險及其他不確定性相關的重要資訊。
備註欄也包含該公司會計手法，即公司如何認列收益及其他決策。此外，備註欄也包含租賃、退休基金、股票選擇權、稅賦等的重要細節相關資訊。不過，備註欄的撰寫文字往往使人困惑且閱讀困難，但萬萬不可因此卻步，仔細檢視這些資訊所透露的訊息，會令你大吃一驚。以恩龍案為例，那些現已頗富盛名的「特定用途項目」（special purpose entitles），只列在財務報表備註欄中，卻不在資產負債表的負債項下，等到這種帳務手法整個曝光，也使得這家公司徹底瓦解。
那麼，企業會以哪些手法美化財務報表？以下是一些常見手法：
■ 發佈合併案的「預估」財務報表，說明公司合併、正常營運後的財務情形。這種財務報表可能會遮掩合併案中，某家公司收入短缺實情，使合併的兩造獲利看來比實際還樂觀。
■ 使用「僅此一次」（one-off）的改造手法，藉此隱瞞實際已不健全的營運結果。就是把這些支出和其他壞消息結合在一起，過度膨脹「僅此一次」事件的成本與費用，讓公司可狡猾地避開固定支出過高的事實。
■ 高估成本帳面價值，然後在未來把當初高估的成本沖銷回來，當作收益。
| Know When to Question and Challenge the Numbers |
With financial literacy, you'll then have the confidence to challenge the conclusions reached by your finance and accounting department. You'll be able to differentiate between hard data, assumptions and accounting estimates. In practical terms that means you'll be able to say when decisions are on solid ground and when they are not.
The point is others will have no hesitation in critically evaluating your company and its operational decisions, so it makes sense for you to beat them to the punch. Another point is if you don't challenge what the people from accounting and finance are saying, you are in effect letting them control all the decisions. You're allowing decisions to be made based on the numbers they have provided, and these numbers in turn are based on the assumptions and estimates the accountants feel comfortable with. If you elect not to challenge these numbers, you are ceding control over decision making to them
The higher the amount of financial intelligence there is in your organization, the better because:
■ Everyone will learn how to make better decisions – based on the success of the overall business rat her t han t he narrow demands and preferences of one department or unit.
■ Managers will understand w hy things happen – and what they can be doing to help the company succeed. Instead of feeling like hostages to senior management decisions, people will have the opportunity to use their own initiative.
■ You'll have a healthier business – with decisions being made based on sound financial reasoning rather than on the strength of internal politics and power struggles.
| Buy a Business, Not Its Stock |
When buying a business, base your decision on these financial tenets:
■ Financial Tenet 1 – Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.
A better measure of a company's performance is return on equity—the ratio of operating earnings to shareholder equity. This measures the management's ability to generate a return on the operations of the business given the capital employed.
A good management team will consistently achieve good returns on equity while employing little or no debt, or at least employing a managable debt level for the nature of the business.
■ Financial Tenet 2 – Calculate "Owner Earnings".
The ultimate value of any company is its ability to generate a surplus of cash. However, a company with a high fixed asset to profit ratio will require a larger share of retained earnings to stay profitable than a company with a low fixed assets to profit ratio.
"Owner earnings" reflects the true cash flow position of a company. Some enterprises（like a real estate development for example）require heavy expenditure at the start and very little later on. Others, like manufacturing, require regular expenditure on plant upgrades or the business slips. "Owner earnings" is an attempt to provide a cross-industry analysis measure.
■ Financial Tenet 3 – Search for companies with high profit margins.
Paradoxically, managers of high-cost companies tend to find ways to continually add to their overheads whereas the managers of low-cost operations take pride in lowering their expenses.
Any money spent on unnecessary costs deprives share-holders of extra profits. The culling of unnecessary expenses is a consistent theme of effective managers.
| Accounting Manipulation Tactics |
In most financial statements, the real action takes place in the footnotes to the account. It is here vital bits of bad information the management didn't seem to mention for some reason can be found. The footnotes tell the story behind the accounts and often contain valuable information about contingent liabilities, risks and other uncertainties.
The footnotes also detail the company's accounting policies──how it chooses to recognize revenue and other decisions. The footnotes also contain vital details about leases, pension funds, stock options and tax liabilities. The language used is often confusing and stilted, but that should not deter you from examining this information carefully. You'd be surprised what they can reveal. For example, Enron acknowledged the existence of its now famous "special purpose entities" where it pushed loads of debt off its balance sheet only in the footnotes to its financial statements. By the time the full impact of this practice came to light, the company was in full meltdown mode.
So how do companies try and enhance their financial statements? Some of the more common ploys are:
■ To issue"pro forma"financial statements in mergers──whichdetail what the merged company's financials would look like if it had already been operating as one corporation. This can cover up the lack of income for one of the companies and make both appear more profitable than they really are.
■ Using one-off restructuring charges to hide weak operational results──lumping them in with other bad news and overstating their one-time charges so they can sneak in some of their regular expenses as well.
■ Overestimating the cost of write-downs──and then bringingback in as income in future periods the amount of the excess write-downs.
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