Getting started with financial reports. Opening the cornucopia of reports ; Recognizing business types and their tax rules ; Public or private: how company structure affects the books ; Digging into accounting basics -- The big show: annual reports. Exploring the anatomy of an annual report ; Balancing assets against liabilities and equity ; Using the income statement ; The statement of cash flows ; Scouring the notes to the financial statements ; Considering consolidated financial statements -- Analyzing the numbers. Testing the profits and market value ; Looking at liquidity ; Making sure the company has cash to carry on -- How companies optimize operations. Turning up clues in turnover and assets ; Examining cash inflow and outflow ; How companies keep the cash flowing -- The many ways companies answer to others. How companies find errors: the auditing process ; Government regulations and reporting requirements ; Creating a global financial reporting standard ; Understanding the analyst-corporation connection ; How companies communicate with shareholders ; Keeping score when companies play games with numbers -- The part of tens. Ten financial scandals that rocked the world ; Ten signs that a company's in trouble.