Application case of financial statement analysis: economic and financial indicators for decision making in SMEs

Abstract

The information provided by financial statements, which are mainly for external use, can become the input of a series of tools that will be developed in this research work. It is expected that accounting information will be more useful for internal users’ decision-making process. Based on financial statements analysis, the aim is to develop a series of ratios and information that will allow the organization to analyze the causes and effects of the data contained in the financial statements, and to compare this information with that obtained in previous years, with data from other organizations and even with information from the economic sector where it operates. A case study is described, analyzing the financial statements of a company taken as an example, through the application of tools of horizontal and vertical analysis for the analysis of the patrimonial structure and of analysis through ratios for the economic and financial structure. Finally, a report model is proposed with the aim of providing the accounting professional with a tool that will allow them to present to their clients a summary of the most relevant data and to explain the conclusions of the analysis as both a diagnosis of the closed exercise and a prediction for future years.