Preface : what is financial intelligence? - The art of finance (and why it matters to IT) - You can't always trust the numbers - Spotting assumptions, estimates, and biases - Why increase your financial intelligence? - Toolbox : getting what you want; the players and what they do - The (many) peculiarities of the income statement - Profit is an estimate - Cracking the code of the income statement - Revenue : the issue is recognition - Costs and expenses : no hard-and-fast rules - The many forms of profit - Toolbox : variance; percent calculations; line of sight - The balance sheet reveals the most - Understanding balance sheet basics - Assets : more estimates and assumptions (except for cash) - On the other side : liabilities and equity - Why the balance sheet balances - The income statement affects the balance sheet - Toolbox : employees as assets; expenses vs.capital expenditures - Cash is king - Cash is a reality check - Profit ? cash (and you need both) - The language of cash flow - How cash connects with everything else - Why cash matters - Toolbox: free cash flow - Ratios: learning what the numbers are really telling you - The power of ratios - Profitability ratios: the higher the better (mostly) - Leverage ratios: the balancing act - Liquidity ratios: can we pay our bills? - Efficiency ratios: making the most of your assets - Toolbox: ratios for the business; ratios for it; leading vs. lagging indicators; percent-of-sales analysis; ratio relationships - How to calculate (and really understand) return on investment - The building blocks of roi - Figuring roi: the nitty-gritty - Toolbox: the roi of an it project - Applied financial intelligence: working capital management - The magic of managing the balance sheet - Your balance sheet levers - Homing in on cash conversion - Toolbox: understanding accounts- receivable aging - Creating a financially intelligent it department (and organization) - Financial literacy and corporate performance - Financial literacy strategies - Appendix: putting it into practice - Notes - Acknowledgments - Index - About the authors