Courtesy of the CFA Institute blog:
http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2015/05/12/the-top-five-accounting-mistakes-analysts-make/
Using Generalized Financial Statements
Not Understanding the Reflexibity/Interactivity of the Three Major Financial Statements
Not Creating Apples to Apples Comparisons in Time
Note Adjusting Statements for Distortions
Not Reading the Footnotes
Good article.
I should check that CFA blog more. Seems to have some good stuff on it.
Great article. I’ve actually caught similar shennanigns made be companies AND accounting firms when developing models/reviewing statements. In my opinion, some of the best analysts have an excellent working knowledge of the statements and notes.
A pet peeve of mine has been that my model results have to mirror the reported results of the company, even if I get a different number using their numbers. Sometimes I copy the table directly from the release and the numbers just don’t produce what they claim to produce (and it is consistenly off several bps). But I guess if it doesn’t match, then people think we are the ones off because everyone else is pulling in the as reported data
When I was in IR, we calculated everything (growth rates, margins, etc) in unrounded dollars but reported in millions. So, the math didn’t always foot.
If we re-calculated everything in millions, we would unnecesarily force ourselves to learn two sets of numbers and potentially open ourselves up to management looking silly by quoting a wrong number. It’s a whole lot easier to just use one set of numbers.