What We Teach and What They Do: A Comparative Analysis of Ratios Dr Jennifer L. Harrison Southern Cross University, Tweed Heads, Australia Email:
[email protected] Dr Anja Morton Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia Email:
[email protected] Preferred Stream: Stream 7 (Management Education and Development ) i What We Teach and What They Do: A Comparative Analysis of Ratios ABSTRACT Financial statement analysis is a skill most business/commerce bachelors’ and masters’ degree graduates will need in their workplace, irrespective of their specialisation. For this reason, most related degrees are structured so that financial statement analysis is covered in one of the compulsory first year or core subjects. As educators of future managers we have an obligation to provide our students, at this introductory level, with the opportunity to learn the latest, simple, financial statement analysis ratios. To achieve some measure of the degree to which we fulfil this obligation, a survey was carried out of the financial statement analysis chapters of Australian introductory accounting textbooks to determine the extent to which: 1. the ratios recommended in them are consistent; 2. they include the ratios recommended by Carslaw and Mills (1992) (the only other related prior research known to the authors); and 3. they include ratios used in practice. All of the textbooks surveyed recommended traditional ratios such as the current ratio, return on equity, debtors and inventory turnovers, earnings per share and debt ratio. However, cash flow ratios were found to be covered inconsistently with very limited coverage in most books surveyed. Other ratios, such as the net debt to equity ratio and net tangible asset backing, were also found to be missing, but were found to be commonly disclosed in company annual reports and were covered in other reflections of practice.