Interpreting Company Reports For Dummies

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About the Authors

Alan Bonham: Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, most of Alan’s time has been spent training others. He was a Director at Anderson’s Tutors Limited where he prepared students for ICAEW exams. From there, he joined Neville Russell where he became Training Manager. He then spent 16 years as a freelance lecturer and training consultant specialising in audit and accounting topics.

Most recently, Alan was Director of Training for SWAT Ltd. As part of his role, he was responsible for the development of SWAT’s national programme of CPD training as well as presenting a number of courses himself. Alan had been Managing Director of Pentagon Training Ltd until the company was acquired by SWAT in October 2005.

Alan is now working again as a freelance lecturer – he is one of the few lecturers who can make auditing interesting. He also advises firms on their audit procedures and offers practical help in achieving compliance in a cost-effective manner. He has also worked with non-accountants, and is the co-author with Ken Langdon of Smart Things to Know about Business Finance which also demystifies the language of finance.

Ken Langdon: With a background in technology, Ken has been a trainer and consultant to many of the computer majors around the world. He has lectured in the USA, Australia, and all over the Far East and Europe.

In particular he has taught finance for non-financial managers and worked hard on explaining how the slightly esoteric world of finance reflects the real life world of businesses.

He is the author of a number of books on this and related topics.

Lita Epstein ran the financial accounting lab when she worked as a teaching assistant as she completed her MBA programme at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. After receiving her MBA, she managed finances for a small, non-profit organisation, and the facilities management section of a large medical clinic.

Now she enjoys helping people develop good financial, investing, and tax planning skills. She designs and teaches online courses on topics such as investing for retirement, getting ready for tax time, and finance and investing for women. She is the author of Streetwise Crash Course MBA and Streetwise Retirement Planning (Adams Media Corporation). Lita is the co-author of Trading For Dummies (Wiley), and Teach Yourself Retirement Planning in 24 Hours (Penguin Putnam).

Lita was the content director for a financial services Web site, MostChoice.com and managed the Web site Investing for Women. She also wrote TipWorld’s Mutual Fund Tip of the Day in addition to columns about mutual fund trends for numerous Web sites. As a Congressional press secretary, Lita gained first-hand knowledge about how to work within and around the federal bureaucracy, which gives her great insight into how government programmes work. In the past, Lita has been a daily newspaper reporter, a magazine editor, and an associate director for development at The Carter Center.

For fun, Lita enjoys scuba diving and is certified as an underwater photographer. She hikes, canoes, and enjoys surfing the Web to find its hidden treasures.

Dedication

Alan and Ken: We would like to acknowledge the loyal support of our good friends Britney and Sol.

Lita: I would like to thank my father, Jerome Kirschbrown, an auditor and savings and loan examiner, who helped to hone my financial skills and taught me to be leery of what I see in financial reports.

Authors’ Acknowledgements

Alan and Ken: We would like to thank our acquisitions editor, Samantha Spickernell, our development editor, Simon Bell, and the team at Wiley for the huge contribution they have made to this book. We would also like to thank our Technical Reviewer, Paul Gee of Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare LLP, for his help and suggestions.

Lita: I would like to thank all the people at Wiley who helped to make this book possible, especially my acquisitions editor, Stacy Kennedy, who first discussed this topic with me; my project editor, Traci Cumbay, who did a wonderful job of steering this book through the entire process and was always available to help me with any problems; and my copy editors, Michelle Dzurny and Trisha Strietelmeier, for their excellent work cleaning up the copy.

I also want to thank my agent, Jessica Faust, who finds all these great projects for me, and my outstanding technical editor, Shellie Moore, who helped keep all the technical accounting stuff accurate for this book. This is third time we’ve worked together on a book. And a special thank you to HG Wolpin who puts up with all my craziness as I rush to meet deadlines.

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

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Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Acquisitions Editor: Samantha Spickernell

Development Editor: Simon Bell

Content Editor: Nicole Burnett

Developer: Kelly Ewing

Copy Editor: Martin Key

Proofreader: Christine Lea

Technical Reviewer: Paul Gee, Technical Director Smith & Williamson Solomon Hare LLP

Publisher: Jason Dunne

Assistant Production Manager: Daniel Mersey

Cartoons: Ed McLachlan

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Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, Alissa D. Ellet, Melissa K. Jester, Christine Williams

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