Which parts of the balance sheet and Accounts of a company would a potential Creditor or Investor scrutinise?

A potential creditor or Investor, which areas of companies accounts would you scrutinise, what would you be looking for ?

Hello,

As a potential investor I would be most interested in seeing the companies Profit & Loss sheets of the annual accounts. Why? because it would reflect how funds were generated & how money was spent and how much money was spent inorder to generate this amount of profit.

This would prove how successful the company was in the last 12 months of trading. And wheather the company actually made a profit and wheather it looks capable of moving forwards into the future and repeating the profits again next year,etc.

**for example is the company viable in the future, what will its profits be next year, trading projections, value of its assests, value of its shares, value of any dividends,etc.

IR

All of them, all financial data relating to any one company must be available to any potential creditor or investor, if at a later date it found you had wit held vital information, you may find you may be liable, and end up with a law suit

It depends on the company, if its a small company with risk of liquidation you might be most interested in the cash flow statement, if its a potential value play u would look first at the balance sheet, if its a recovery play look at the profit loss acc.
Also read chair mans statement, look out for phrases such as "challenging"