Understanding and Interpreting Financial Statements

This was a very important event in the calendar of the events of the college as together with the ICAI, EIRC, the college was able to organise a much focused discussion on 11^th December and 13^th December, 2020.

The event became more significant as on its eve Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) was on the campus interviewing the students who could understand financial statements. The theme of the two day workshop was interpretation of financial statements. Many of our students who had attended the workshop could clear the test with TCS which was a matter of pride for both the collaborating bodies.

The workshop also gave an opportunity to three faculties of the college namely CA Ankit Patwari, CA Priti Modi and CA Harshvardhan Sanghi who for the first time got a chance to speak at the platform of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The students who attended were overwhelmed. All in all it became a win-win situation for the speakers, the participants, the organiser and the recruiter.

On 11^th December, 2020 CA Nitesh Kumar More, the Chairman of ICAI, EIRC and Prof. Dilip Shah were present. On this day, CA Hari Ram Agarwal, Regional Council Member, ICAI, EIRC briefed the participants on the following aspects –

• Importance of Financial Statements, Auditor’s Report and Director’s Report for the investors
• Discussion on the disclosures given in the Director’s Report
• Understanding Auditor’s Report – Audit Opinion, Basis for Opinion, Auditor’s Responsibility, Report on Other Legal & Regulatory Requirement
• Elements of Companies (Auditor’s Report) Order, 2016
• Interpretation of Notes on Financial Statements

On 13^th December, 2020, faculties from the college CA Ankit Patwari, CA Priti Modi and CA Harshvardhan Sanghi shared valuable inputs on the components of Financial Statements. The Financial Statements of a Public Limited Company was taken as a reference through which the various parameters of Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement and Cash Flow Statement were explained –

• Balance Sheet – discussion on various components of Balance Sheet, understanding of financial ratios for making fundamental analysis and investor’s perception for stock market
• Profit and Loss Statement – parameters like Sales and Other Income, Purchase of goods, Employee Benefit expenses, Finance Cost, PBT, EPS and the like were discussed
• Case studies of Flipkart and Paytm were used to explain that even if Companies are incurring losses, their valuation can be high and in case of IPO, shares can be oversubscribed and that too at a premium. Hence, profits are important but what also matters is the vision of Company and their penetration in the market.
• Cash Flow Statement – making risk assessment, understanding leveraging position, use of ratio analysis for fundamental analysis by the investors.

The Workshop ended with a note of thanks to all concerned.