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Horizontal Vertical And Ratios

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In a 2 to 3 page paper, evaluate the three methods of analysis: horizontal, vertical, and ratio as explained in Chapter 9 of your textbook. Summarize each method, and discuss how the financial information is used to make a particular decision. Provide a scenario in a health care situation in which a given method of analysis might be used.
Horizontal: "Horizontal analysis, also called trend analysis, refers to studying the behavior of indi- vidual financial statement items over several accounting periods. These periods may be several quarters within the same fiscal year or they may be several different years. The analysis of a given item may focus on trends in the absolute dollar amount of the item or trends in percentages. For example, a …show more content…

The application of appropriate techniques is often a mechanical process, although care should be taken that differences in ratio calculation, accounting policies, asset valuation, and so on are understood so that a valid comparison between companies can be made. Finally, interpretation of the results requires putting the results in context- for example, by comparing results with industry benchmarks.

One technique used for analyzing financial statements is vertical analysis. It can be difficult to see even basic financial relationships when looking at the numerical values in a company's financial statements. Therefore, it is helpful to construct common-size statements and perform a vertical analysis in order to look for any unusual percentages in the common-size statements that identify items that have an excessively large or small value when considered relative to other values reported in the same accounting period. Both single period and multiple period vertical analyses can be used.

Another technique used for analyzing financial statements is horizontal analysis. It involves making comparisons across two or more years of financial statements data. Although horizontal analysis techniques can be applied to the balance sheet to quantify the changes in current or total assets over time, this type of analysis is usually focused on quantifying the

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