Read Financial Statements and Understand the Numbers

This webinar, that was recorded 17 August 2023, provides an introduction to reading financial statements, understanding accounting principles and, more importantly, understanding the story that the financial statements tell.

You give advice on the law, but the detail will often be in the numbers (the financial statements).  The objective of this webinar is to make reading financial statements as easy as reading a book (albeit, a boring book).

That means working through the income statement (are sales increasing or decreasing? what about the gross margin? are overhead expenses out of control?), understanding the balance sheet (it’s just a list of assets and liabilities at a particular date), and understanding imputation credits and current accounts.

Who Should Attend?

All legal practitioners who want to add value to the services they provide to clients by better understanding fundamental accounting principles and financial statements.

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the purpose of accounting and its basic principles.
• Understand the difference between the financial reporting for a company, trust, and a sole trader. 
• Understand the income statement and the balance sheet.
• Understand the different standards that financial statements are required to be prepared to and when these apply.
• Understand quick ways to (improperly) inflate or deflate profits (what to look out for).
• Become aware of some red flags and key areas to look out for in financial statements.
• Understand a shareholder or beneficiary current account.
• Understand retained earnings, the importance of imputation credits and how to avoid the disastrous consequences of losing imputation credits.
• Learn more about shareholder exits – how to read the financial statements and advise a shareholder in relation to an exit, what to watch out for, and how to ensure that they get what is owed to them.
• Become aware of accounting software packages which clients commonly use and what information you can obtain from the client’s accounting system.

Presenter Details

Shane Hussey, Director and Principal, Hussey & Co
Sian Heppleston, Analyst, Hussey & Co 

Presenter Details