Financial Analysis Tools and Techniques: A Guide for Managers »

Erich A. Helfert, DBA, is an internationally recognized management consultant in corporate finance, strategic planning, and executive education in financial/economic decision making and value creation. The cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Modernsoft, Inc.­­developers of the knowledge-based financial analysis and business modeling software Financial Genome­­Dr. Helfert is the former corporate planning vice president at Crown Zellerbach Corporation, and previously was a faculty member of the Harvard Business School. He is the author of all ten editions of the best-selling college text Techniques of Financial Analysis.

Proven Techniques for All Managers and Financial Professionals to Generate, Understand, and Act Upon Key Financial Information

The syntax and "code" of financial analysis, along with the avenues for arriving at appropriate and useful answers, have long seemed like a foreign language to nonfinancial managers. Financial Analysis Tools and Techniques simplifies the process, and provides busy managers and professionals with the guidelines they need for conducting effective analyses and making sound economic trade-offs and business decisions.

In a business systems context, this essential book explains how to:

• Interpret financial statements
• Develop financial projections
• Evaluate business investment decisions
• Assess the implications of financing choices
• Derive the value of a business or security
• Understand the role of analysis in creating shareholder value

Financial Genome by Modernsoft, Inc.

This advanced knowledge-based business analysis and planning software is fully integrated with this book, allowing users to:

• Access data from databases, spreadsheets, user input
• Develop free-form or structured analyses with consistency
• Produce a wide variety of customizable financial statements
• Create integrated financial pro-forma projections

Download Financial Genome for a free 30-day trial from www.modernsoft.com (See Appendix I for details)

Since the first of its ten editions appeared in 1963, Erich Helfert's seminal Techniques of Financial Analysis has provided business students as well as financial practitioners with a concise and practical overview of financial analysis tools and concepts. What sets this classic text apart then, and continues to distinguish it today, has been its focus on the continuous interrelationship between management decisions and the economic value of a business, explained in a unique systems context.

Financial Analysis: Tools and Techniques adapts this seminal reference to today's fast-changing professional market and establishes a new benchmark for direct, concise, and practical financial analysis information and interpretation. Specifically addressing key analytical needs in the tumultuous twenty-first-century business environment, it comments on valuable business applications of the tools and concepts with insights from Erich Helfert and his consulting clients.

Providing focused analyses of the economics of business investments and valuation, presenting discussions of cash-flow trade-offs and time-value analysis against the strategic backdrop of the business system, and emphasizing enhancement of shareholder value through value-based management (VBM), Financial Analysis: Tools and Techniques will help all nonfinancial managers to make sound investment, operating, and financing decisions. Concise yet sufficiently detailed, it covers the full range of financial analysis issues, including:

• Managing the business as a system
• Financial statements
• Funds cycles for manufacturing, sales, and service
• Cash management
• Ratio analysis and performance
• Pro-forma financial statements
• Financial modeling
• Leverage
• Financial growth plans
• Time value of money
• Analysis of investment decisions
• Using return standards
• Cost of capital
• Financing choices
• Definitions of value
• Shareholder value and value-based methodologies

Financial Analysis: Tools and Techniques is a quick and easy read for the nonfinancial manager and an excellent refresher and reference for the financial professional. In conjunction with its companion software Financial Genome, it represents the next step in financial analysis­­one that gives financial analysis and economic decisions their proper importance and context in the successful operation of a business.

Erich A. Helfert, DBA, is an internationally recognized management consultant in corporate finance, strategic planning, and executive education in financial/economic decision making and value creation. The cofounder, chairman, and CEO of Modernsoft, Inc.­­developers of the knowledge-based financial analysis and business modeling software Financial Genome­­Dr. Helfert is the former corporate planning vice president at Crown Zellerbach Corporation, and previously was a faculty member of the Harvard Business School. He is the author of all ten editions of the best-selling college text Techniques of Financial Analysis.