Session:14 Using Financial Information and Accounting

Working the Net

Entrepreneurship | Leadership Development – Micro-Learning Session

Rice University 2020 | Michael Laverty, Colorado State University Global Chris Littel, North Carolina State University| https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-business

1. Visit the website of one of the following major U.S. public accounting firms: Deloitte (http://www.deloitte.com), Ernst & Young (http://www.ey.com), KPMG (http://www.kpmg.com), PricewaterhouseCoopers (http://www.pwc.com), Grant Thornton (http://www.grantthornton.com), or BDO (http://www.bdo.com). Explore the site to learn the services the firm offers. What other types of resources does the firm have on its website? How well does the firm communicate via the website with existing and prospective clients? Summarize your findings in a brief report.
2. Do annual reports confuse you? Many websites can take the mystery out of this important document. See IBM’s Guide to Understanding Financials at https://www.ibm.com/investor/help/guide/ Moneychimp’s “How to Read an Annual Report” features an interactive diagram that provides a big-picture view of what the report’s financial information tells you: http://www.moneychimp.com. Which site was more helpful to you, and why?
3. Corporate reports filed with the SEC are now available on the web at the EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system) website, https://www.sec.gov/edgar. First, read about the EDGAR system; then go to the search page. To see the type of information that companies must file with the SEC, use the search feature to locate a recent filing by Microsoft. What types of reports did you find, and what was the purpose of each report?