General Business News

The goodwill to assets ratio measures how much of a company’s total assets come from goodwill – an intangible asset like brand value or customer loyalty – and it plays a role in assessing the company’s overall value. It provides a ratio or percentage of the amount of intangible versus tangible assets. Understanding what the […]

When it comes to the risk of default, Moody’s found that during COVID-19, American businesses had a 7.8 percent chance of defaulting. This is compared to a low of 4 percent in 2021, but lower than the current 9.2 percent risk of default, according to a March 2025 report by the rating agency. Also known

When it comes to analyzing a company’s financials, there are many avenues we can take. One way is through multiples; calculating the EV/2P multiple is the focus of this analysis. This ratio looks at a business’ enterprise value against its proven and probable 2P reserves. While ratios or multiples are used in valuing companies, this

The subscription economy, according to Forbes, is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in revenue for businesses. With the potential likely realized this year, it’s vital to understand how it is tracked – and more importantly, how it’s able to be tracked on a separate basis. Also known as net dollar retention (NDR), this metric calculates

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is one way to help advertising and marketing professionals and investors analyze how well promotions do (or don’t) produce sales. It helps advertisers develop data based on their campaigns’ revenue production (or lack thereof). Understanding how this metric is calculated and how to analyze ROAS is essential for businesses to

The CAC Payback Period looks at how a business needs to recover its investment in attracting new customers. It is especially crucial for companies that are in industries with large marketing and sales costs. It’s an important metric because it helps businesses measure their performance in a number of ways. First, it shows how well

No matter the type of business or industry, being able to analyze and deduce patterns is essential to discovering a business’ financial health. Here are four commonly used calculations to help internal and external stakeholders determine an organization’s ability to manage its finances. Break-Even Analysis This formula analyzes fixed costs versus the profitability a business

This metric, which is also referred to as the cash cycle or the net operating cycle, looks at the time a business takes to recover its investment in inventory to eventually sell. The process starts from selling its goods, collecting on outstanding receivables or invoices, and satisfying its operating costs with the sale proceeds. It’s

Analyzing a company’s Accounts Receivables is an effective way to measure its current cash flows and the likelihood of maintaining healthy cash flows. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Index (Third Quarter 2024), 68 percent of small business owners reported being content with their third quarter cash flow performance. This illustrates the

Whether it’s a private equity transaction or an institutional or retail investor, analyzing a company’s financial statements is an important part of fundamental analysis. One important but basic way to analyze whether a company is worth investing in is through the expanded accounting equation. The most straightforward equation to analyze a business’ balance sheet is:

When it comes to running a business, there are a lot of expenses incurred during operations. As of January 2024, New York University’s Stern School of Business had recorded nearly $1.2 trillion in capital expenditures by U.S. sectors. Considering this, there are two important concepts that are imperative to study for effective accounting treatment: capital

With more than eight million small businesses in America, and more than $776 billion in net premiums issued by the insurance industry in 2022 for commercial policies (according to the Insurance Information Institute), business insurance is big business. Along with protecting businesses from a myriad of claims, insurance expenses also have to be accounted for

When it comes to businesses looking to mitigate risk, one concept that’s important to explore is reproduction costs. The first step is to distinguish between reproduction and replacement costs. Replacement cost refers to how much it would cost a company to replace an asset that will duplicate the performance of the beginning asset; however, it

When it comes to valuing a business, there are many ways to examine a company’s profitability. Looking at a business’ liquidation value and its breakup value are two of many approaches to see how a company is functioning and how it might run under different management and economic environments. Liquidation Value This type of valuation

When it comes to defining an impaired asset, its fair market value is worth less than the original cost of the asset – or, more formally, its carrying value. As a company re-evaluates its assets’ value, and when it determines there’s a discrepancy between the book or original value and the current market value, impaired

When it comes to businesses and their inventory and accounting methods for managing it, there are a few different ways to approach the task. The three different options to value inventory/implement cost flow assumptions, include: Last In, First Out (LIFO); First In, First Out (FIFO); and Weighted Average Cost Accounting (WAC). This article will focus

When there’s a question of the benefit that tangible or intangible assets provide businesses, there are many factors that must be weighed to make internal accounting procedures effective. Businesses must determine how the cost of business assets can be expensed each year over the asset’s lifespan. Looking at how amortization and depreciation work, implementing both

The Importance of Auditing Auditing typically refers to an objective review of a company’s financial statements, which consists of the cash flow statement, the income statement and the balance sheet. It analyzes the level of accuracy that the business has characterized its financial records. The process looks at how a business documents investing, financing and

Financial accounting is how accounting professionals document, compile and outline how a business performs financially over a discrete period of time. Unlike cost accounting, which is used primarily for internal short and long-term strategic planning, financial accounting focuses primarily on producing relevant documentation for outside parties interested in short- and long-term financial performance. Small businesses,

Cost accounting is a type of accounting that analyzes a business’ complete production costs by looking at both variable and fixed costs. This includes the concepts of marginal costing, lean accounting, standard costing and activity-based costing. It’s used by a business’ management to evaluate fixed and variable costs involved in the manufacturing operations. The initial

Whether it’s tariffs, trade wars or post-pandemic inflation caused by kink-ridden supply chains and what many experts believe to be excess money printing, inflation is an insidious drag on businesses’ operations. When it comes to energy’s contribution to inflation, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that crude and natural gas prices in 2022 have

Whether it’s tariffs, trade wars or post-pandemic inflation caused by kink-ridden supply chains and what many experts believe to be excess money printing, inflation is an insidious drag on businesses’ operations. When it comes to energy’s contribution to inflation, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that crude and natural gas prices in 2022 have

Whether it’s tariffs, trade wars or post-pandemic inflation caused by kink-ridden supply chains and what many experts believe to be excess money printing, inflation is an insidious drag on businesses’ operations. When it comes to energy’s contribution to inflation, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that crude and natural gas prices in 2022 have

Whether it’s tariffs, trade wars or post-pandemic inflation caused by kink-ridden supply chains and what many experts believe to be excess money printing, inflation is an insidious drag on businesses’ operations. When it comes to energy’s contribution to inflation, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that crude and natural gas prices in 2022 have

Whether it’s tariffs, trade wars, or post-pandemic inflation caused by kink-ridden supply chains and what many experts believe to be excess money printing, inflation is an insidious drag on businesses’ operations. When it comes to energy’s contribution to inflation, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that crude and natural gas prices in 2022 have

Corporate profits, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, grew by $20.4 billion in the final quarter of 2021, a 0.7 percent increase. For the first quarter of 2022, corporate profits fell by 2.3 percent or $66.4 billion. On an annualized basis, corporate profits fell 5.2 percent in 2022, but grew 25 percent in 2021.