preview

Horizontal and Vertical Analysis

Good Essays

Financial Analysis

XACC280

June 28, 2012

Accounting is the way all companies keep track of their out-going and in-coming finances. Applying accounting principles in any business is incredibly important because it allows for the least amount of mistakes and gives a comprehensive view of all transactions. There are many tools used in accounting, each with it’s own unique function. Statements are used to show a specific time period’s overview of assets, liabilities, and all transactions. These statements allow for easier comparing of months, years, or even different companies accounts. Two of the tools of financial statement analysis are called vertical analysis and horizontal analysis. Much like the definitions of vertical and …show more content…

According to “Accounting Coach” (2012), “This method involves financial statements reporting amounts for several years. The earliest year presented is designated as the base year and the subsequent years are expressed as a percentage of the base year amounts. This allows the analyst to more easily see the trend as all amounts are now a percentage of the base year amounts,” (Dictionary). Horizontal analysis is used to show profitability over certain time periods. When a company is able to tell the public or it’s investors that it’s assets increased by 12% since the previous year, that company is using horizontal analysis to show where that 12% came from. This is especially helpful in comparing two companies like PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola Company. The reason it is helpful is quite simple. As previously explained, horizontal analysis allows for analysts to show how much an account has increased of decreased since the previous time period, ("Investopedia", 2012). When comparing PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, using horizontal analysis, we can view how much the revenues for each company have increased or decreased in 2004 or 2005. This enables investors to see the profit of a company and gives insight into which companies are best to invest in.

To perform a horizontal analysis of PepsiCo we will compare accounts from the year 2004 to 2005.

Get Access