Edlintics Journal
Exam-targeted writing on accounting, finance & the spreadsheet.
Documentation-style notes for European business students. Read the concept, see the diagram, then take it into a working session before your exam.
VAT is not your money
A bank balance can look better than the profit figure for a reason that has nothing to do with a good quarter. Part of that extra cash is VAT you collected on the tax office's behalf — and it comes due at the return, worked through with a real quarter at a small bookshop.
Markup is not margin
A 50 percent markup does not give a 50 percent margin. It gives 33 percent. Here is the arithmetic behind the confusion, and the habit that stops it from quietly underpricing a business.
What an invoice actually proves
An auditor does not want your receipts. They want an answer to three questions about every euro you booked: did it happen, is the amount right, and does it belong in this year. A proper invoice answers all three at once — which is why the missing fields, not the missing paperwork, are what usually cost you.
Build a cash-flow forecast
Most owners find out they are short of cash the week it happens. A one-page spreadsheet — a column per month, each closing balance feeding the next — shows the squeeze weeks earlier. Here is how to build one.
Depreciation for business owners
You pay for a van once, but its cost reaches your profit slowly, year by year. Here is how depreciation spreads the price of a big purchase over the years it earns — worked through with real numbers.
What an income statement shows
An income statement narrows revenue down to a single profit figure, one cost layer at a time. Here is how to read each rung — and the three things it deliberately leaves out.
Buy or lease? Use present value
Buying an asset outright often looks cheaper than leasing it — until you account for when the money moves. Present value settles the argument, and it can flip the answer.
What contribution margin tells you
A price can sit below what a product seems to 'cost' and still make you money. Contribution margin — price minus variable cost — shows what each sale actually adds, and it beats a flat markup as a basis for pricing.
Working capital, explained
A business can be sold out, growing, and still have nothing in the bank. Here is what working capital really measures — and why growth can drain the account faster than a bad month does.
How to read a balance sheet
A balance sheet shows what a business owns, owes, and is worth on a single day. Here is how to read one in about a minute — and the one equation that always holds.
Fixed and variable costs
The same price can be a profit on one shelf and a loss on the next. Here is how fixed and variable costs behave — and why your cost per unit falls as you make more.
Break-even in practice
Before a business earns a cent of profit, it has to sell enough to cover its costs. Here is the one calculation that tells you exactly how much — worked through a candle studio, euro by euro.