The percentages reflects the changes that have occurred over successive periods. With vertical analysis, one can see the relative proportions of account balance. This simplifies the process of comparing the financial statement of the company against another or to even do it across the industry. This analysis also gives a better picture of the performance metrics of the company and if it’s improving or on a decline. That is done by looking at the annual or quarterly figures of the company and comparing it over a number of years. The horizontal analysis evaluates trends Year over Year or Quarter over Quarter .

Horizontal analysis is one approach used in financial statement analysis that helps to compare information over a specific time horizon. The approach is used to assist in identifying trends or patterns in a company’s business cycle. A horizontal analysis is used to see if any numbers are unusually high or low in comparison to the information for bracketing periods, which may then trigger a detailed investigation of the reason for the difference. It can also be used to project the amounts of various line items into the future. Through horizontal analysis of financial statements, you would be able to see two actual data for consecutive years and would be able to compare every item. Vertical analysis involves taking the information on the financial statements and comparing all the numbers to a single number on the statement.

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When the same accounting standards are used over the years, the financial statements of the company are easier to compare and trends are easily analyzed. For example, a horizontal analysis of the cost of insurance might list the cost on a quarterly basis for the past few years, while a vertical analysis would present it as a percentage of sales only for the current period. A horizontal analysis is most useful when the underlying financial information is consistently reported, based on the applicable financial reporting framework. Examples of these frameworks are generally accepted accounting principles and international financial reporting standards. Ideally, every business within an industry should apply an accounting framework in the same way, so that their reported financial information can be compared. When a business takes an unusual position in regard to reporting standards, its financial statements will not be as readily comparable to those of its competitors. The unusual application of accounting standards may be described in the footnotes that accompany a firm’s financial statements.

• This increase in relation to total assets of $3.95 million is only 1% and could easily be just one piece of equipment, or a vehicle.
• Comparative financial statements place two years of the same statement side by side.
• This can be useful in checking whether a company is performing well or badly, and identify areas where it may improve.
• This means revenue will be set at 100% and all other line items within the income statement will represent a percentage of revenue.
• The decrease in sales has a bigger impact on the net income decline, when dollars are considered.
• For example, in this illustration, the year 2012 is chosen as a representative year of the firm’s activity and is therefore chosen as the base.
• In order to evaluate the profitability of companies in a specific industry, an average range must first be determined, as well as the factors that positively impact profit margins.

Likewise, the following is a horizontal analysis of a firm’s 2018 and 2019 balance sheets. Again, the amount and percentage differences for each line are listed in the final two columns and can be used to target areas of interest. For instance, the increase of $344,000 in total assets represents a 9.5% change in the positive direction. There seems to be a relatively consistent overall increase throughout the key totals on the balance sheet.

Advantages of Horizontal Analysis

Ideally, the horizontal and vertical analysis are combined to paint a comprehensive picture of a company’s financial performance over time. The process of comparing data points over time obviously requires at least two data sets to be available.

In our sample Balance Sheet, we want to determine the percentage or portion a line item is of the entire category. A Vertical Analysis can be completed on both an Income Statement and a Balance Sheet. Unlike Horizontal Analysis, a Vertical Analysis is confined within one year ; so we only need one period of data to derived the percentages and completed the analysis. To calculate 2014, we DO NOT go back to the baseline to do the calculations; instead, 2013 becomes the new baseline so that we can see percentage growth from year-to-year.

Income Statement Example

This resulted in only a slight increase in net income for 2019 over 2018. In this discussion and analysis of operations, Safeway’s management noted that the increase was due to a growing trend toward mortgage financing. This increase in capital expenditures is also reflected on the liability side of the balance sheet. Like the prior step, we must calculate the dollar value of the year-over-year variance, followed by dividing the difference by the base year metric. In contrast, picking the earliest period for the comparison can show the most positive improvement over time, but the usefulness is somewhat limited considering the extent to how much the company can likely grown and changed given time .

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• We repeat this process for the third quarter, calculating the difference between this and the second quarter until we have compared all four quarters.
• Likewise, a large change in dollar amount might result in only a small percentage change which will not cause concern for the business owner.
• Trends are used when projecting future performance and analysts use them to identify where they believe the business is within the business cycle.
• Based on the above analysis we see that the sales has increased resulting in increase in retained earning and dividend payout.
• No two companies are the same, and this analysis shows only a very small piece of the overall pie when determining whether a company is a good buy, or not.

Although a company wants to have a liquidity ratio that allows it to easily meet its current obligations, it does not want to have one that is so high that it reveals an inability to efficiently deploy cash into revenue-producing assets. This type of analysis is mostly used by investors, financial analysts, and business managers. However, anyone who is interested in the future of a company will be interested in conducting a trend analysis to determine its likely trajectory. This may include creditors, regulatory authorities, and industry observers like business journalists, among others. Ratio analysis refers to a method of analyzing a company’s liquidity, operational efficiency, and profitability by comparing line items on its financial statements.

Horizontal or trend analysis of financial statements

Accountants, investors, and business owners regularly review income statements to understand how well a business is doing in relation to its expected performance, and use that understanding to adjust their actions. A business https://www.bookstime.com/ owner whose company misses targets might, for example, pivot strategy to improve in the next quarter. Similarly, an investor might decide to sell an investment to buy into a company that’s meeting or exceeding its goals.

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• Depending on their expectations, Mistborn Trading could make decisions to alter operations to produce expected outcomes.
• It is important to understand the concept of horizontal analysis because of the following reasons.
• For instance, the increase of $344,000 in total assets represents a 9.5% change in the positive direction.
• To calculate 2014, we DO NOT go back to the baseline to do the calculations; instead, 2013 becomes the new baseline so that we can see percentage growth from year-to-year.
• For example, to find the growth rate of net sales for 2015, the formula is (Net Sales 2015 – Net Sales 2014) / Net Sales 2014.
• The horizontal analysis technique uses a base year and a comparison year to determine a company’s growth.

This means that future projections don’t take into account possibilities like new technologies, changes in regulations, and/or new competitors horizontal analysis disrupting the space. Again, it is important to look at the footnotes in the statement to determine if this is the case.

The horizontal analysis compares the figures under the head of the financial statement and the vertical analysis compared the numbers and percentage change in line up the total of items with reference to the previous year. It’s used in the review at a company financial statement over multiple periods it’s usually depicted as percentage growth over the same line items from the base year.

In above analysis, 2007 is the base year and 2008 is the comparison year. All items on the balance sheet and income statement for the year 2008 have been compared with the items of balance sheet and income statement for the year 2007. In this sample comparative income statement, sales increased 20.0% from one year to the next, yet gross profit and income from operations increased quite a bit more at 33.3% and 60.0%, respectively. Changes between the income from operations and net income lines can be reviewed to identify the reasons for the relatively lower increase in net income. 17,0007.4%A horizontal analysis of Jonick’s 2018 and 2019 income statements appears above. The first two columns show income statement amounts for two consecutive years. The amount and percentage differences for each line are listed in the final two columns, respectively.

Tammy teaches business courses at the post-secondary and secondary level and has a master’s of business administration in finance. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in oureditorial policy.