Financial statements reflect the fundamentals of listed companies and are an important reference for investment decisions. However, for various purposes, some companies use the discretionary space of accounting standards to whitewash or even forge statements, which affects the comparability and comparability of statements and makes many investors misled by whitewashing performance or unable to believe accounting information. In fact, whitewashing statements often reveals clues in many aspects. As long as investors are willing to make more efforts, take out the shopping spirit of selecting carefully and shopping around, and make a comparative analysis of the company's financial situation in many ways, they can make a better judgment on the current situation of the proposed investment object, thus effectively defending their own interests. Generally speaking, the periodic reports of listed companies mainly disclose three tables: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. If a listed company has controllable subsidiaries, it shall also disclose the consolidated balance sheet, consolidated income statement and consolidated cash flow statement. Because the consolidated financial statements reflect the overall situation of listed companies and holding companies, we pay more attention to the use of consolidated financial statements. In order to better judge the company's situation, investors can adopt the following report analysis methods: First, the inter-table analysis method. That is, comprehensively measure the related items between the company's financial statements and pay attention to whether there are unreasonable doubts, so as to understand the real profit quality and asset quality of the enterprise and prevent misleading of a single statement. The second is the financial ratio analysis method. Compare the relevant items in the financial statements of the company in the same accounting period, calculate the ratio, and judge its solvency, capital structure, operating efficiency and profitability. The third is the periodic analysis method. Make a dynamic comparative analysis of the company's report items in different periods to judge the changing trend of its asset-liability structure and profitability. The fourth is the inter-company comparison method. Compare and analyze the financial situation with other listed companies in the same industry and type, and understand the advantages, disadvantages and anomalies of the company in the group. Balance sheet: focus on bank loans. The easiest way to know a company's operating conditions is to look at its inventory and accounts receivable. If its growth is much faster than the growth of operating income, it often means that the company may have problems in sales, such as weak sales, careless sales policies, inventory depreciation losses and bad debt losses will rise. Generally speaking, the more monetary funds in the balance sheet, the less bank loans, which means the better the quality of the company. For example, in Kweichow Moutai, the amount of monetary funds has continued to grow for many years, reaching 4.7 billion yuan at the end of 2007, and the amount of bank loans is zero; The company's accounts receivable and notes receivable are only 65.438+0.47 billion yuan, but the accounts received in advance are 65.438+0.10.25 billion yuan. The above signs fully show that Kweichow Moutai is a money-making machine, and its own accumulation has been able to meet the rapid development of the company, and there is still a surplus. In addition, bank loans are also an important indicator of the company's quality. If the bank loan is too large relative to the company's sales revenue, total profit and other indicators, it means that the company may occupy a high proportion of funds in accounts receivable, inventory, fixed assets and other projects, and the profit quality and future solvency are in doubt. If the bank loans have been increasing and the amount is huge over the years, and the company has gone too fast for a long time, it may indicate that the company is a "money-swallowing machine", and its performance may continue to increase in vain over the years, and there may be big trouble in the future. Income statement: beware of inflated income. The income statement is the statement that most investors are most concerned about, and it is also the statement that is most easily deceived by the illusion of statements. To objectively analyze this statement, we should not only understand the composition of various items in this statement, but also make a comparative analysis with related items in the balance sheet and cash flow statement, so as not to be deceived by the aura of "excellent performance" of some companies. If accounts receivable and bills receivable rise abnormally, and the cash received from selling goods and providing services does not match the operating income, investors should be vigilant. Because the company has to carry forward the operating costs while confirming the operating income. Therefore, operating income and operating costs should also be commensurate. The analysis of operating costs can be combined with inventory, prepayments, accounts payable, cash for goods and services in the balance sheet to judge its change and rationality. Some companies deliberately engage in commodity circulation or trade agency business with large transaction volume but low gross profit margin in order to whitewash their operating income. Although these businesses are generally unprofitable or have low profits, they can make the operating income and its growth in the income statement look moving. When companies classify and disclose operating income in the notes to statements, they will deliberately not distinguish between industry and commerce to confuse investors. The rationality of sales expenses and management expenses in the income statement should be judged according to the scale of the company's operating income and other listed companies in the same industry. Some companies failed to increase their operating income significantly, but the profits of the current period increased rapidly through the sharp decline in sales expenses and management expenses, which may damage the long-term interests of the companies, especially those enterprises that implement the big advertising marketing strategy. In addition, there is a very important point. That is to say, it is necessary to analyze how much of the company's net profit during the reporting period is caused by non-recurring gains and losses, so as to judge the company's profitability under normal operating conditions and prevent some companies from generating huge profits or turning losses into profits by disposing of illiquid assets, debt restructuring, government subsidies, investment income, and huge amounts of assets impairment reserves. Cash flow statement: testing the gold content of performance In order to find clues from the cash flow statement, it is sometimes necessary to combine the cash flow statement with the income statement. If the operating income in the income statement increases, but the actual amount of cash received from operating activities is lower than before, this shows that part of the company's income is still in accounts receivable, there is the possibility of bad debts, and there is the possibility of inflated or surprise sales at the end of extreme measures, then the next income may decrease. To know whether a company is playing a number game, we can compare the growth rate of net profit with the growth rate of net cash flow generated by operating activities. If the growth rate of net profit is significantly higher than the growth rate of net cash flow generated by operating activities, and the growth rates of the first two data are similar, this shows that the growth rate of net profit may not be that high in fact. In addition, the amount of cash paid to employees and used for employees also has special purposes. We can roughly estimate the per capita annual income of employees by dividing this figure by the number of employees disclosed in the company's annual report, because it is difficult for poor enterprises to pay high wages. Therefore, the higher this figure is, the higher the industry and regional average, which means that the quality of the company may be higher. Notes to the statements: The notes to Gan Kun's statements often reveal the hidden situation behind the data, and also contain many valuable information that may affect the company's prospects, so investors have reason to study it in depth. Generally speaking, the company will disclose its holding subsidiaries and shareholding companies in the notes to the statements. Investors can understand these situations, pay attention to the consolidation scope of the company's statements, and thus judge the quality of the company's parent company and subsidiaries. Historically, some notorious fraudulent companies used individual subsidiaries in different places to falsify their performance. For example, the financial items in the consolidated statement of the company are abnormal, and the profits mainly come from individual subsidiaries, so investors should be cautious. In addition, the notes will also disclose the related parties and related transactions of the company in detail, so that investors can analyze whether the company's production, supply and marketing systems, fixed assets and intangible assets for operation are complete, and whether the listed company has any economic interest transfer behaviors such as guaranteeing or providing funds to related parties. The company's operation relies heavily on related parties, and there is a lot of room for profit adjustment. Some fake companies may also set up some potential related parties, that is, special purpose entities to trade with the company to whitewash the statements and conceal these related relationships and their transactions. Insert: Generally speaking, the periodic reports of listed companies mainly disclose three tables: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement.