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Keep shoppingHow to read a Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet
618 students
How to read a Profit & Loss Account and Balance Sheet
Understand your financial statements with confidence - for your business and your personal finances
Created byLisa Newton
Last updated 6/2026
English
What you'll learn
- Read and interpret a Profit & Loss Account line by line with confidence
- Read and interpret a Balance Sheet including assets, liabilities, and equity
- Identify and define key accounting terms used in financial statements
- Analyse real business case studies to assess financial health and spot warning signs
- Apply financial statement analysis to your own business or personal finances
- Use financial information to make more informed business and management decisions
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Course content
5 sections • 13 lectures • 1h 52m total length
Requirements
- No accounting experience required
- Have your last 3 months of bank statements to hand - you'll use them during the course
Description
Most business owners receive a set of accounts every year and have no idea what they're looking at. This course changes that.
I'll teach you how to read and interpret a Profit & Loss Account and a Balance Sheet - clearly, practically, and without the jargon. Whether you're a business owner, a bookkeeper, an accounting student, or simply someone who wants to understand their own financial position, this course gives you the skills to make sense of the numbers.
What you'll learn:
How to read a Profit & Loss Account and understand what every line means
How to read a Balance Sheet and interpret assets, liabilities, and net assets
The key accounting terminology you need - profit, loss, income, expenses, equity, and more
How to spot trends and identify whether a business is financially healthy or heading for trouble
How to apply what you learn to real case studies: Portman Meadow IT Ltd and Grangeworth Kitchens Ltd
How to read your own personal financial position - not just your business accounts
How to use financial information to make better, faster business decisions
The course includes downloadable templates for a Profit & Loss Account and a Balance Sheet that you can fill in with your own figures. You'll come away with a real understanding of your financial report card - and what to do with it.
I've spent over 25 years working with business finances as a bookkeeper and entrepreneur. This course is built around what every business owner actually needs to know - not what an accounting textbook tells you.
No prior accounting knowledge needed. If you have bank statements and a set of accounts, you're ready to start.
Enrol today and finally understand what your accountant has been sending you.
Who this course is for:
- Business owners who want to understand the accounts their accountant sends them
- Bookkeepers, accounting students, and finance professionals building their core skills
- Anyone who wants to understand their own financial position more clearly