What is the Difference Between Vertical Analysis and Horizontal Analysis?

Vertical analysis will be needed for performance comparison with other companies and the industry. Vertical analysis expresses each amount on a financial statement as a percentage of another amount. The two analysis are helpful in getting a clear picture of the financial health and What is the difference between vertical analysis and horizontal analysis? performance of the company. The latter two tend to go hand-in-hand because the most useful benchmark against which to compare recent performance is most often the preceding period. Per usual, the importance of completing sufficient industry research cannot be overstated here.

• The left hand side of the balance sheet shows asserts of Annapurna Textile Inc. whereas the right hand side shows the liabilities and equity as on Dec 2006.
• By dividing the net difference by the base figure, the percentage change comes out to 25%.
• Sales is assumed to be equal to 100, for income statement and total assets is assumed to be common based equal to 100 in case of balance sheet.

If analysis reveals any unexpected differences in income statement accounts, management and accounting staff at the company should isolate the reasons and take action to fix the problem(s). Financial Statement Analysis is a process wherein accounts in the financial statements are analyzed and compared in relation to other accounts. Vertical analysis and horizontal analysis are common methods of financial statement analysis.

Horizontal analysis helps you spot trends

The absolute change is determined by deducting the 2009 amount from the 2010 amount. If the change between two dates is an increase from 2009 to 2010, the change is a positive figure. If the change is a decrease, the change is a negative figure and is shown in parentheses.

• If cash is $8,000 then it will be presented as 2%($8,000 divided by $400,000).
• You can perform horizontal analysis on any financial statement metric, financial ratio, or financial statement line item.
• They can even have a complete picture of an operational result by analyzing financial statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement at the same time.
• This technique allows analysts to see the compositions of the different categories of financial statements.

While each has its distinct advantages and disadvantages, they are often used together to give a more comprehensive comparative picture to stakeholders. They, together, are key to understanding the financial position of a business entity. The difference between horizontal and vertical analysis is that the former considers the total amount as a percentage in the financial statement over many consecutive years. The latter discusses each amount separately in the financial information as a percentage for another amount. Horizontal analysis compares account balances and ratios over different time periods.

Horizontal analysis vs. vertical analysis: What’s the difference?

Depending on which accounting period an analyst starts from and how many accounting periods are chosen, the current period can be made to appear unusually good or bad. For example, the current period’s profits may appear excellent when only compared with those of the previous quarter but are actually quite poor if compared to the results for the same quarter in the preceding year. In the final section, we’ll perform horizontal analysis on our company’s historical balance sheet.

By dividing the net difference by the base figure, the percentage change comes out to 25%. The Vertical Analysis aims at showing an insight into the relative proportion of various items on a particular year’s financial statement. Thus, extraordinary items give companies somewhat of a „hall pass” with the markets, allowing them to sometimes report lower earnings but get credit for higher earnings. Obviously, it is tempting for companies to try to report every bad thing that happens as an extraordinary item.

Definition of Horizontal Analysis

This method is particularly useful for both internal analysis to identify areas of growth and external analysis by investors or lenders who want to see demonstrable growth before committing their resources to your business. For example, if Mistborn Trading set total assets as the base amount and wanted to see what percentage of total assets were made up of cash in the current year, the following calculation would occur. For example, the vertical analysis of an income statement results in every income statement amount being restated as a percent of net sales. If a company’s net sales were $2 million, they will be presented as 100% ($2 million divided by $2 million). If the cost of goods sold amount is $1 million, it will be presented as 50% ($1 million divided by sales of $2 million).

Using the comparative income statement above, you can see that your net income changed by $1,500 from 2017; a percentage increase of 5.3%, but what really stands out on the income statement is the 266% increase in depreciation expense. The comparative statement is then used to highlight any increases or decreases over that specific time frame. This enables you to easily spot growth trends as well as any red flags that may need to be addressed. Similar comparative statements are typically drawn out for income statement and cash flow statement as well to give a complete picture.