Financial analytics extracts past financial data of the company to help in making future investment decisions and analysis. It evaluates the business as a whole, projects and budgets with the help of balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. In financial analytics, the analyst calculates ratios with the collected data and compares it to own own past performance or to other competitor companies. Deep understanding of finance is very essential to run a successful business. The profit or loss, success or failure of a business depends on its financial success. Business goals and outcomes are set in terms of financial achievement. For this reasons many business analytics firms have embedded financial analytics and investment analytics as part of their services.
Handling finances in a business involves evaluating current markets, creating policies and making long term plans for it. It involves the handling of expenses, sales, purchases, investments etc. A thorough analysis can be done by assessing balance sheets and statements. A great deal can be learned when data from different accounts are put together. Let us see a few requirements at the core of financial analytics.
Balance sheet: The balance sheet outlines the available resources for the businesses' future use. This sheet plainly states these resources and does not make any conclusion of profit or loss or they the information must be used by analyst. Since you can use a balance sheet to analyze the current standing of the company by comparing it to previous ones and deciphering the expected performance. A balance sheet consists of two parts- assets and liabilities. Assets are the current assets, those that may be acquired through the year, and the ones that will be acquired at a later time too. Liabilities include all the debts, taxes etc that may need to be cleared in the current year and even those that may be due at a later date. Investment analytics can also be based on this sheet.
Income Statement: The income sheet comes close to being a company's performance indicator. It states the earnings, expenses and the profit or loss. The income sheet compiles all expenses and incomes and gives the bottom line ie "Net Income".
Cash flow statement: The cash flow statement records the inflow and outflow of cash and states the actual performance of a company. It describes the ability and extent of investments possible.
Each of these sheets of facts and figures is compared against a certain set or determined benchmarks. Finance being "the" most important factor of business, an analysis of the same helps in shaping the future success of the company.