Preface ix
Acknowledgments xii
Part 1 Evaluating the Cost of Bank Loans, Business Loans, Trade Credit, and Other Financing 1
Part 2 Budgeting and Profit Planning 21
Part 3 Business Forecasting Methods 49
Part 4 Managing Cash and Receivables 89
Part 5 Controlling Inventory 121
Part 6 Buying and Selling Products and Services 141
Part 7 Putting Money to Work 179
Part 8 Scheduling, Planning, and Efficiency Measures 213
Part 9 Preparing Financial Statements and Charts 223
Part 10 How Healthy is the Business? 237
Part 11 Measuring Business Performance 281
Part 12 Averages, Expectations, and Variability in Business Activities 303
Part 13 Adequacy and Cost of Insurance Coverage 319
Part 14 Hiring and Compensating Employees 329
Part 15 Buying or Selling a Business 345
Glossary 363
Index 383

This book is a comprehensive, one-stop desk reference for managers and owners of small businesses who must use quantitative calculations to make daily operating and investing decisions. Its purpose is to provide the fundamentals of business math techniques that can be quickly applied to real-word problems. This unique resource will save countless hours of research time by making sound financial planning truly easy. It provides analyses as well as clear and understandable explanations of complex small business problems. Basic mathematical techniques are presented in a step-by-step fashion that takes the reader through each stage of the problem-solving process. The examples in this book provide an invaluable and effective operating tool. This book also contains user-friendly personal computer techniques. The examples enable the businessperson to measure results and to report the data in an easy-to-understand format.