Considering these factors along with horizontal analysis, vertical analysis, and trend analysis should provide a reasonable basis for predicting future performance. It helps show the relative sizes of the accounts in the financial statement. This can also help compare the companies within the industry with those performing the vertical law firm bookkeeping analysis. Comparative financial statements reflect the profitability and financial status of the concern for various accounting years in a comparative manner. It should be kept in mind that the data of two or more financial years can be compared only when the accounting principles are the same for the respective years.

Vertical analysis is a way to compare each line item on a financial statement to some percentage of the total for that category. The first line item might be sales revenue, which totaled $100,000 last year. A vertical analysis is also the most effective way to compare a company’s financial statement to industry averages.

Gather Data

By doing this, we’ll build a new income statement that shows each account as a percentage of the sales for that year. As an example, in year one we’ll divide the company’s « Salaries » expense, $95,000 by its sales for that year, $400,000. That result, 24%, will appear on the vertical analysis table beside Salaries for year one. To calculate a vertical analysis percentage, divide the statement line item by the total base figure amount. The formula to perform vertical analysis on the income statement, assuming the base figure is revenue, is as follows.

The placement is not much of a concern in our simple exercise, however, the analysis can become rather “crowded” given numerous periods. In contrast, the process is practically the same for the balance sheet, but there is the added option of using “Total Liabilities” instead of “Total Assets”. But we’ll utilize the latter here, as that tends to be the more prevalent approach taken.

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The standard base figures for the income statement and balance sheet are as follows. Expressing changes as percentages is usually straightforward as long as the amount in the base year or period is positive—that is, not zero or negative. Analysts cannot express a  $30,000 increase in notes receivable as a percentage if the increase is from zero last year to $30,000 this year (remember, you cannot divide by zero). Nor can they express an increase from a loss last year of – $10,000 to income this year of  $20,000 in a realistic percentage term. The horizontal or “trend analysis” considers all the amounts in financial statements over many years. Common-size analysis enables us to compare companies on equal ground, and as this analysis shows, Coca-Cola is outperforming PepsiCo in terms of income statement information.

Performing vertical analysis creates the so-called “common size” income statement and the “common size” balance sheet. For example, you can create a report that shows operating expenses as a percentage of total revenue for each department. For the balance sheet, the total assets of the company will show as 100%, with all the other accounts on both the assets and liabilities sides showing as a percentage of the total assets number. In accounting, a vertical analysis is used to show the relative sizes of the different accounts on a financial statement. Horizontal and vertical analysis are two types of analysis you can do that use simple mathematical formulas.

Disadvantages of Vertical Analysis:

Both assets and liabilities/equity have a base number assigned, which is always 100%. The assets section is informative with regard to understanding which assets belonging to the company constitute the greatest percentage. Don’t worry that I got the number 1 for $1 autofill that down there your numbers I’m about to make and percentages I would highlight this-this is this is my method go to the Home tab. If you’re a laptop person you may need to hold down the FN key and then press the f4 function key but you don’t want to make it absolute.

• Another form of financial statement analysis used in ratio analysis is horizontal analysis or trend analysis.
• Once you know what time period to focus on, you need to choose the documents and values you want to analyze.
• Vertical analysis states financial statements in a comparable common-size format (i.e., percentage form).
• While performing a vertical analysis, every line item on a financial statement is entered as a percentage of another item.
• The figure below shows the common-size calculations on the comparative income statements and comparative balance sheets for Mistborn Trading.
• It can help a company make sense of finances, identify comparative trends, and in conjunction with multiple years of data, determine the direction for the business.
• She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities.

However, you can do this quickly for multiple years, particularly if you use a balance sheet template. Get instant access to video lessons taught by experienced investment bankers. Learn financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel shortcuts. The sum of the current assets equals 50%, confirming our calculations thus far are correct.

Starting from the revenue line item, each line item on the income statement – if deemed appropriate – is divided by revenue (or the applicable core metric). The rise and fall of a trend concerning an item are recorded, and based on that, a plan of action is taken to decide how to help the thing grow in popularity and grab the company’s interest. The two analysis are helpful in getting a clear picture of the financial health and performance of the company. Whoops, went too far, right there, I still got that one dollar, don’t worry about it and pull it down, so this is just like before except I’m keeping all my percentages down. Here highlight – I’m gonna undo one time, my bad – autofill down and then just tell it right here to fill without formatting. Now go make a percentage – there you go and once again you get rid of those.