Business reports about Balance Sheet and Income Statements

[FangFang]

Hi, friends:

To give a business report (English) is so different from essay writings. Many professional terms are needed ,besides you must give clear statements, figures and so on. Now i am about to make a small business reports about Balance Sheet and Income Statements. Hope to be given advice from you all.

Many thanks!

[Torsten]

Hi FangFan,

There are different things we can do together. We can start by brainstorming keywords related to your report. Or you can simply post all the materials and ideas you have collected so far and we will then organize the information.

Let me know what you think,
Torsten
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Yankee]

Hi FangFang

Are you planning to write these sorts of reports as part of a class/course? Or especially for us?

For now, a few of my thoughts:

Writing business reports is not completely different from essay writing. Lots of the same sorts of writing elements are still important. But if you have to write a report about a balance sheet or a P+L statement, then I'd say your first priority is to make sure you thoroughly analyze and understand the numbers before you even think about writing anything. You have to decide which bits of information can be omitted and which are significant. Determine in advance what should be compared and contrasted and why. The ideas and information need to be organized first.

You also need to know what the aim of the report is. Is it simply to report the results? Or are you expected to summarize and then make recommendations, for example? Do you have to compare this year's numbers with last year's? Also important is who the intended reader is.

One of the most typical mistakes that people make when writing reports (or giving presentations) about facts and figures is that they simply repeat what everyone can already read on the balance sheet (or P+L statement, or whatever). In other words, the numbers are simply spit back out verbatim --- in excrutiating, often nearly meaningless detail.

Another typical mistake is repeated use of a very limited number of nouns and verbs; adjectives and adverbs are also frequently ignored. Your job is to summarize, describe, compare, contrast, draw conclusions and possibly make predictions, etc. It's also nice to make your report at least half-way interesting. Using the correct terminology is important, but the report should not be so filled with specialist "jargon" that only a handful of specialists would be able to understand it. You have to paint a verbal picture out of crunched numbers. That's no small feat.

Now, it's your turn. What kind of information do you already have? Do you already know a lot of the basic terminology? Why don't you post some of what you've already collected here (as Torsten suggested)?

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[FangFang]

hi,friends:
Yeah, it is a part of courses . Now many companies are asked to give english financial statements because many investors are located around the world.

Our main job is to give financial analysis and discussion . In fact, we are lack of some internal information , so our job seems to be not perfect. What you can do is to give your viewpoints and lead possible investors the right directions( Though it is hard a bit sometimes) It is a big job when i try to write chinese reports let alone english , Just like what Yankee said , you can't copy others specially those data in their statements. In fact, they are too much for me when i read those long long pages over 200. So do you think that our investors would be still interested in falling into another "tedious journey"?

We begin with Balance Sheet and Income Statements , the data can be found easily . Just like the net assets ,liabilites , cash flows and changes in equity ,etc. Compare them with that of last year or more and draw your conclusions . Except those crucial finance terminologies you are expected to use some professional methods , just like the Do Pont Financial Analysis System or other ways to give clear statements. Sometimes i think their accountants have done that job very well , that's why you won't be shocked to find a big file over 200 pages. But our reports shouldn't be the same , it is very important to point problems out , specially those potential financial crisises (bosses don't want them to be revealed ) Because our job is mainly for the investors, it is a tough job ,too.

Yankee, you are right . This report can't be given another copy of others , meanwhile, it should be good. How good? I just have no experiences. Anyway, this kind of report isn't that made by auditors , it would be something that is published by some business magazines or periodicals.

[FangFang]

Now i post some data which are abstracted from an iron and steel company limited.

2006 First Quarterly Report
(Prepared under PRC accounting standards)

Main Accounting Data and Financial Indicators:
Unit(RMB) '000

Total assets : 42,015,815(reporting period)
38,878,377(previous year)

Net assets per share (Yuan): 2.97 (reporting period)
2.92 (previous year )


Net profit : 293,600,188 (reporting period)
1,126,937,313 (previous year )


Well, there are more materials left unmentioned in this small post. If you are interested i can provide more
They are the elemental materials for my reports,