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Despite the limitation； it is still possible to glean some valuable
information on financial performance using these sources：
。 panies House （wwwpanieshouse。gov。uk） is the official repository
of all pany information in the UK。 Their WebCHeck service
50 The Thirty…Day MBA
offers a free…of…charge searchable pany Names and Address Index；
covering 2 million panies； searchable by either the pany’s name
or its unique pany registration number。 You can use WebCHeck
to purchase a pany’s latest accounts giving details of sales； profits；
margins； directors； shareholders and bank borrowings at a cost of ￡1
per pany。
。 Credit reports such as those provided by ukdata；
checksure。biz； business…inc。uk cost around ￡8； are available
online and provide basic business performance ratios。
。 FAME （Financial Analysis Made Easy） is a powerful database that
contains information on 3。4 million panies in the UK and Ireland。
Typically the following information is included： contact information
including phone； e…mail and web addresses plus main and other trading
addresses； activity details； 29 profit and loss account and 63 balance
sheet items； cash flow and ratios； credit score and rating； security and
price information （listed panies only）； names of bankers； auditors；
previous auditors and advisers； details of holdings and subsidiaries
（including foreign holdings and subsidiaries）； names of current and
previous directors with home addresses and shareholder indicator；
heads of department； and shareholders。 You can pare each pany
with detailed financials with its peer group based on its activity codes；
and the so。。ware lets you search for panies that ply with your
own criteria； bining as many conditions as you like。 FAME is
available in business libraries and on CD from the publishers； who also
offer a free trial （bvdep/en/panyInformationHome。html
》 pany data … national 》 FAME）。
。 Keynote （keynote。uk） operates in 18 countries； providing
business ratios and trends for 140 industry sectors and sufficient information
to assess accurately the financial health of each industry
sector。 Using this service you can find out how profitable a business
sector is and how successful the main panies operating in each
sector are。 Executive summaries are free； but expect to pay between
￡250 and ￡500 for most reports。
。 London Stock Exchange’s website （londonstockexchange）。
。 Proshare （proshareclubs。uk 》 Research Centre 》 Performance
Tables） is an Investment Club website； which； once you have registered；
which you can do for free； has a number of tools that crunch public
pany ratios for you。 Select the panies you want to look at； then
the ratios you are most interested in： EPS； P/E； ROI； Dividend Yield and
so forth。 Press the bu。。on and in a couple of seconds all is revealed。 You
can then rank the panies by performance in more or less any way
you want。
。 Yahoo （h。。p：//uk。finance。yahoo 》 Free annual reports） has direct
links to several thousand public panies’ ‘Report and Accounts’
Accounting 51
online； so you can save yourself the time and trouble of hunting down
pany websites。
RATIO ANALYSIS SPREADSHEETS
biz/ed （bized。uk 》 pany Information 》 Financial Ratio
Analysis） and the Harvard Business School （h。。p：//harvardbusinessonline。
hbsp。harvard。edu/b02/en/academic/edu_tk_acct_fin_ratio。jhtml） have free
tools that calculate financial ratios from your financial data。 They also
provide useful introductions to ratio analysis as well as defining each ratio
and the formula used to calculate it。 You need to register on the Harvard
website to be able to download their spreadsheet。
BREAK…EVEN ANALYSIS
This is a technique that straddles several business disciplines。 It requires
the student to grasp that there are fundamentally two different types of
cost。 Fixed costs are those that don’t vary with the volume of output。 So
the rent on say a retail outlet remains ‘fixed’ irrespective of the amount
of sales actually achieved。 It doesn’t mean； of course； that the cost itself is
fixed as the landlord could change the rent。 Variable costs are those that do
change with sales levels。 So a retailer would need to buy in stock to meet
rising demand and a manufacturer will need more raw materials and more
worker hours。
The break…even equation is：
Break…even point = Fixed costs
Selling price – Unit variable cost
So if； say； the rent was ￡10；000 （fixed costs） and the selling price was ￡5 and
the cost of buying in the only produce we sell was ￡3； then the break…even
point in 5；000 units。 If you goal was to make ￡10；000 profit then by adding
that to the fixed costs you can see that sales need to reach 10；000 units。
There are a number of online spreadsheets and tutorials that will take you
through the process。 biz/ed （bized。uk 》 Virtual Worlds 》 Virtual
Learning Arcade 》 Break…even Analysis） is a simulation that lets you see
the effect of changing variables on a fairly plex breakeven calculation。
Score （score 》 Business Tool 》 Template Gallery 》 Break Even
Analysis） and BizPep （bizpeponline/PricingBreakeven。html） sell
a so。。ware programme that calculated your break…even for prices plus or
minus 50 per cent of your proposed selling price。 You can tweak costs to see
how to optimize your selling price and so hit your profit goal。
Finance
。 Where business gets its money
。 The difference between debt and shareholders’ investment
。 Understanding the role of private equity
。 Floating on a stock market
。 Calculating the cost of capital
。 Budgeting for the future
The dividing line between accounting and finance is blurred。 In basic
terms accounting is considered to be everything concerned with the process
of recording financial events and ensuring that such recordings are
in pliance with the prevailing rules。 Finance is the area concerned
with where the money to run a business actually es from in order
to be accounted for。 In order to be able to understand and interpret the
accounts using such tools as ratios you need a reasonable grasp of both
these areas； though the ratios themselves are gen