8Financial statements are designed to show the performance, financial condition, and cash flows of a business. The Interpretation of Financial Statements reveals how to convert these statements into an open book that can be explored in depth, giving crucial insights to investors, lenders, and creditors. It does so by describing the structure of the financial statements, noting a number of tools for extracting information from the statements, and providing a wealth of additional insights into the reasons for the presence of or changes in certain numbers within the statements. In short, this book contains the complete set of tools for breaking down and examining a set of financial statements.