Investment Banking Interview Guide PDF

Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Table of Contents – Accounting Questions & Answers Overview & Key Rules of Thumb............................................................2 Key Rule #1: The Income S...

Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Table of Contents – Accounting Questions & Answers Overview & Key Rules of Thumb............................................................2 Key Rule #1: The Income Statement.......................................................2 Key Rule #2: The Balance Sheet...............................................................5 Key Rule #3: The Cash Flow Statement..................................................8 Key Rule #4: How to Link the 3 Statements....................................... 11 Key Rule #5: Changes on the Statements............................................ 12 For Further Learning.............................................................................. 18 Accounting Interview Question 3-Statement Model......................... 19 Accounting Interactive Quiz................................................................... 20 Accounting Questions & Answers – Basic........................................... 21 Basic Concepts......................................................................................... 21 Single-Step Scenarios............................................................................. 34 Multi-Step Scenarios.............................................................................. 45 Accounting Questions & Answers – Advanced.................................. 52 Advanced Concepts............................................................................... 52 Advanced Changes and Scenarios....................................................... 62 1 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Overview & Key Rules of Thumb Accounting interview questions never go out of style, and for good reason: they’re the quickest way to tell if you understand the bare minimum required to work in finance. There are a few categories of questions to know about when it comes to Accounting: 1. Conceptual Questions (“What’s the difference between Accounts Receivable and Deferred Revenue?”) 2. Single-Step Scenarios (“What happens on the 3 statements when Depreciation goes up by $10?”) 3. Multi-Step Scenarios (“Walk me through what happens when you buy inventory using debt, turn it into products, and then sell the products.”) 4. More Advanced Accounting (“Walk me through what happens when you acquire a 70% stake in another company and pay $70 for it.”) This guide is divided into Basic and Advanced questions and then several categories within both of those – Conceptual, Single-Step Changes, and Multi- Step Scenarios. The Advanced section is more focused on Conceptual questions because at that level, interviewers assume that you know how the 3 statements link together. Before jumping into these questions and answers, you need to understand key Accounting rules. You could always get questions that aren’t covered here – but if you understand the rules, you’ll be able to answer them anyway. Key Rule #1: The Income Statement The Income Statement lists a company’s revenue, expenses, and taxes, with its after-tax profit at the very bottom, over a period of time (one quarter, one month, or one year). 2 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide To appear on the Income Statement, each item must meet the following criteria: 1. It must correspond to the period shown on the Income Statement only – if you’re paying for an asset that will last for 10-20 years, it would not appear on a 1-year Income Statement. 2. It must affect the company’s taxes. For example, interest paid on debt is tax-deductible so it appears on the Income Statement… but repaying debt principal is not tax-deductible, so it does not appear on the Income Statement. To the right, you can see a screenshot Income Statement demonstrating common items on the Year 1 Year 2 Income Statement. Revenue: $ 1,300 $ 1,500 Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): 100 150 The 4 main sections to be aware of: Gross Profit: 1,200 1,350 Operating Expenses: 200 250 1. Revenue and Cost of Goods Sold Depreciation: 20 25 (COGS): Revenue is the value of the Stock-Based Compensation: 10 15 products/services that a company Amortization of Intangibles: 15 20 sells in the period (Year 1 or Year 2), Operating Income: 955 1,040 and COGS represents the expenses Interest Income: 5 6 that are linked directly to the sale of (Interest Expense): (3) (4) Gain / (Loss) on Sale of PP&E: 1 - those products/services. Other Income / (Expense): 2 3 2. Operating Expenses: Items that are Pre-Tax Income: 960 1,045 not directly linked to product sales Income Tax Provision: 384 418 – employee salaries, rent, marketing, Net Income: $ 576 $ 627 research and development, as well as non-cash expenses like Depreciation and Amortization. 3. Other Income and Expenses: This goes between Operating Income and Pre-Tax Income. Interest shows up here, as well as items such as Gains and Losses when Assets are sold, Impairment Charges, Write-Downs, and anything else that is not part of the company’s core business operations. 4. Taxes and Net Income: Net Income represents the company’s “bottom line” – how much in after-tax profits it has earned. Net Income = Revenue – Expenses – Taxes. 3 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide A few points on Income Statement revenue, expenses, and taxes: 1. They do not need to be related to a company’s operational activities – Gains and Losses on asset sales, Depreciation, and Interest Expense still appear on the IS but are not related to everyday business. 2. They do not need to be cash expenses (or cash revenue) – for example, Depreciation and Amortization are both non-cash expenses. Also, companies often record revenue and expenses here before they receive or pay them in cash. 3. Sometimes, items may be embedded in other items – for example, sometimes Depreciation is included in COGS or Operating Expenses; other times it is a separate item. Here are more rules of thumb about what appears on the Income Statement: Always Appears: Revenue, COGS, Operating Expenses, Depreciation, Amortization, Stock-Based Compensation, Interest, Gains / (Losses), Write-Downs, Other Income / (Expenses) Never Appears: Capital Expenditures, Purchasing or Selling Investments and PP&E (Plants, Property & Equipment), Dividends, Issuing or Repaying Debt Principal, Issuing or Repurchasing Shares, Changes to Balance Sheet Items such as Cash, Debt, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and so on. The items on the “Always Appears” list meet the criteria above because: 1. They do affect the company’s taxes (e.g. paying an employee’s salary reduces the company’s taxable income); and 2. They correspond to the period shown on the Income Statement (e.g. revenue in Year 1 refers to all sales to customers in Year 1… not Year 2). The items on the “Never Appears” list fail the criteria above because: 4 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 1. They do not affect the company’s taxes (e.g. Dividends or Purchasing Inventory); or 2. Because they do not correspond to the period listed on the Income Statement (e.g. Capital Expenditures refers to purchasing Assets that often last for 10-20 or more years). Key Rule #2: The Balance Sheet The Balance Sheet shows the company’s resources – its Assets – and how it acquired those resources – its Liabilities & Equity – at a specific point in time. Think about what a personal Balance Sheet might look like: maybe you’ve invested $50K in the stock market, you have $30K in cash in your bank account, and you own a house that’s worth $500K. Those are your Assets because they can all be sold for cash, and they may even increase in value over time, which would result in more money for you. How did you get that cash, your house, and your investments? Part of it’s from your saved up, after-tax earnings from your job – you’ve saved $200K, cumulatively, after taxes, over the years. And then part of it is also from debt in the form of the mortgage on your house, which is worth $380K. Your Assets = $50K in Investments + $30K in Cash + $500K House = $580K Your Liabilities = $380K Mortgage Your Equity = $200K in After-Tax, Saved Up Job Earnings Your Assets are worth $580K, and so are your Liabilities + Equity – that’s no coincidence, because both your personal Balance Sheet and companies’ Balance Sheets must always remain in balance. 5 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide In other words, if you have $580K in “resources,” you must have gotten that $580K from somewhere. Assets don’t just appear out of thin air. Balance Sheet Here are the key Balance Sheet rules: Year 1 Year 2 Assets: Current Assets: 1. Assets must always equal Cash & Cash-Equivalents: $ 722 $ 1,391 Liabilities + Equity – no Short-Term Investments: 99 95 Accounts Receivable: 95 97 exceptions. Prepaid Expenses: 102 99 2. An Asset is an item that will Inventory: 103 101 Total Current Assets: 1,121 1,783 result in, directly or indirectly, additional cash in the future. Long-Term Assets: Plants, Property & Equipment (PP&E): 986 974 3. A Liability is an item that will Other Intangible Assets: 185 165 result in, directly or indirectly, Long-Term Investments: 103 106 Goodwill: 100 100 less cash in the future. Most Total Long-Term Assets: 1,374 1,345 Liabilities are related to external Total Assets: $ 2,495 $ 3,128 parties – payments owed to Liabilities & Equity: suppliers, or borrowed money, for example. Liabilities are used Current Liabilities: Revolver (Short-Term Debt): $ 101 $ 102 to fund a business. Accounts Payable: 204 199 4. Equity line items are similar to Accrued Expenses: 201 198 Total Current Liabilities: 506 499 Liabilities (used to fund a business), but they refer to the Long-Term Liabilities: Deferred Revenue: 209 214 company’s own internal Deferred Tax Liability: 200 200 operations rather than external Long-Term Debt: 103 106 Total Long-Term Liabilities: 512 520 parties. Total Liabilities: $ 1,018 $ 1,019 To the right, you’ll see a screenshot of Shareholders' Equity: Common Stock & APIC: 616 637 what a company’s Balance Sheet might Treasury Stock: (105) (110) look like, with the most common items Retained Earnings: 866 1,482 Accumulated Other Compr. Income: 100 100 shown. Total Shareholders' Equity: 1,477 2,109 Total Liabilities & Equity: $ 2,495 $ 3,128 You can see that it’s split into Current Assets (anything that lasts for under 1 year) and Long-Term Assets (anything that lasts for more than 1 year) and similar categories for Liabilities. 6 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Definitions of key Assets: Cash: Just like cash in your bank account. Short-Term Investments: Less liquid than cash – Certificates of Deposit (CDs) and money-market accounts and such. Accounts Receivable: The company has recorded this as revenue on its Income Statement but hasn’t received it in cash yet. It’s like an “IOU” from a customer. And it will turn into cash when the customer pays. Prepaid Expense: The company has paid these expenses in cash but hasn’t recorded them as expenses on the Income Statement yet. Inventory: What they need to manufacture and sell products – for a company like Apple, all the parts that go into iPhones and iPads. PP&E: Factories, buildings, land, equipment, and anything else that will last for over a year and contribute to the company’s core business. Other Intangible Assets: Patents, trademarks, intellectual property… usually the result of acquisitions. Similar to Goodwill, but this balance amortizes (decreases) over time as these items “expire.” Long-Term Investments: Less liquid and longer-lasting investments than Cash or Short-Term Investments. Goodwill: The premium that the company has paid over other companies’ Shareholders’ Equity when acquiring them. Now, the definitions of key Liabilities: Revolver: Similar to a “credit card” for a company; it borrows money as needed and must repay it quickly. Accounts Payable: The company has recorded these as expenses on the Income Statement, but hasn’t yet paid them out in cash yet – used for one-time items with specific invoices, such as payment for legal services. Accrued Expenses: The company has recorded these as expenses on the Income Statement, but hasn’t yet paid them out in cash yet – used for recurring monthly items without invoices, such as employee wages, utilities, and rent. 7 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Deferred Revenue: The company has collected cash in advance from customers for products/services yet to be delivered, and it will recognize this as real revenue over time. Deferred Tax Liability: The company has paid lower taxes than what it really owes, and needs to make it up by paying additional taxes to the government in the future. Long-Term Debt: Similar to a mortgage or a car loan: debt that is due and must be repaid in over a year’s time. And finally, Equity line items: Common Stock & Additional Paid-In Capital (APIC): This represents the market value of shares at the time those shares were issued by the company. When a company goes public, the total dollar value of shares issued shows up here. This does not change even if the share price changes afterward. Treasury Stock: This represents the cumulative value of shares the company has repurchased from investors. This does not change even if the share price changes afterward. Retained Earnings: This represents the company’s saved up, after-tax profits (minus any dividends it has issued). This is like the $200K you saved up, after-taxes, in our “personal Balance Sheet” example above. Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (AOCI): This is a section for “miscellaneous saved-up income” – you see items like the effect of foreign currency exchange rate changes here, as well as unrealized gains and losses on certain types of securities (i.e. if their values go up or down but the company has not yet sold them). Key Rule #3: The Cash Flow Statement Similar to the Income Statement, the Cash Flow Statement tracks changes over a period of time (one month, one quarter, or one year). It exists for 2 reasons: 8 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 1. You may have shown non-cash revenue or expenses on the Income Statement. These need to be adjusted on the Cash Flow Statement to determine how your cash balance actually changes. 2. There may be additional cash inflows and outflows that have not appeared on the Income Statement. For example, Capital Expenditures and Dividends are both real cash expenses. You need to factor these in to figure out how your cash balance really changes by. Cash Flow Statement The Cash Flow Statement is separated into Year 1 Year 2 Operating Activities: 3 main sections (see diagram on the left). Net Income: $ 576 $ 627 Non-Cash Expenses & Other Adjustments: Depreciation: 20 25 Stock-Based Compensation: 10 15 1. Cash Flow from Operations (CFO) Amortization of Intangibles: 15 20 – Net Income from the Income (Gain) / Loss on Sale of PP&E: (1) - Changes in Operating Assets & Liabilities: Statement flows in at the top. Then, Accounts Receivable: 5 (2) Prepaid Expenses: (2) 3 you adjust for non-cash expenses, Inventory: (3) 2 Accounts Payable: 4 (5) and take into account how Accrued Expenses: 1 (3) operational Balance Sheet items such Deferred Revenue: 9 5 Cash Flow from Operations: 634 687 as Accounts Receivable and Investing Activities: Accounts Payable have changed. Purchase Short-Term Investments: (2) (1) Sell Short-Term Investments: 3 5 2. Cash Flow from Investing (CFI) – Purchase Long-Term Investments: (4) (5) Anything related to the company’s Sell Long-Term Investments: 1 2 Capital Expenditures: (10) (15) investments, acquisitions, and PP&E Sale Proceeds: 5 2 Cash Flow from Investing: (7) (12) PP&E shows up here. Purchases are Financing Activities: negative because they use up cash, Dividends Issued: (10) (11) and sales are positive because they Issue Long-Term Debt: 4 5 Repay Long-Term Debt: (1) (2) result in more cash. Issue Short-Term Debt: 2 3 Repay Short-Term Debt: (1) (2) 3. Cash Flow from Financing (CFF) – Repurchase Shares: Issue New Shares: (5) 6 (5) 6 Items related to debt, dividends, Cash Flow from Financing: (5) (6) and issuing or repurchasing shares Beginning Cash: $ 100 $ 722 show up here. Increase / Decrease in Cash: $ 622 $ 669 Cash & Cash Equivalents: $ 722 $ 1,391 Some accounting textbooks (and some interview guides…) claim that CFO is for Current Assets and Current Liabilities, CFI is for Long-Term Assets, and CFF is for Long-Term Liabilities and Equity. 9 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide That definition isn’t completely wrong, but it’s not 100% accurate because there are many exceptions: Deferred Revenue is often a Long-Term Liability, but never shows up in Cash Flow from Financing – because it’s related to customers paying the company for products/services. Short-Term Investments is a Current Asset, but it appears in Cash Flow from Investing, not Cash Flow from Operations – since it’s an investment and has nothing to do with accepting customer payments or paying for employees or other expenses. The Revolver is a Current Liability, but it appears in Cash Flow from Financing, not Cash Flow from Operations – because it’s related to how the company is financing its operations, not its actual operations. So you need to be careful when using this commonly cited “rule” – it’s better to associate each section of the Cash Flow Statement with types of items rather than strict categories from the Balance Sheet. If an item was already recorded on the Income Statement and it is a true cash revenue or expense, it will not appear on the Cash Flow Statement… with one exception. Sometimes, you use the Cash Flow Statement to “re-classify” income or expenses. The most common example is Gains or Losses on Asset Sales – those are most certainly cash income or expenses … so why do you list them in Cash Flow from Operations? Because you’re re-classifying that cash flow – you’re subtracting it out of Cash Flow from Operations and instead including it as part of the full selling price of the assets in Cash Flow from Investing instead. 10 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide This is an advanced point and it is unlikely to come up in interviews, but we’re pointing it out because you see it with a few other, more advanced accounting concepts as well. Key Rule #4: How to Link the 3 Statements In real life, this process gets complicated because of many exceptions and unusual items on the statements. Luckily for you, interviews are not real life and those scenarios are unlikely to come up – so we can create a step-by-step process for linking the statements: 1. First, Net Income from the bottom of the Income Statement becomes the top line of the Cash Flow Statement. 2. Second, you add back non-cash expenses from the Income Statement (and flip the signs of items such as Gains and Losses). 3. Third, you reflect changes in operational Balance Sheet line items – if an Asset goes up, cash flow goes down and vice versa; if a Liability goes up, cash flow goes up and vice versa. 4. Fourth, you reflect Purchases and Sales of Investments and PP&E in Cash Flow from Investing. 5. Fifth, you reflect Dividends, Debt issued or repurchased, and Shares issued or repurchased in Cash Flow from Financing. 6. Sixth, you calculate the net change in cash at the bottom of the CFS, and then link this into cash at the top of the next period’s Balance Sheet. 7. Seventh, you update the Balance Sheet to reflect changes in Cash, Debt, Equity, Investments, PP&E, and anything else that came from the Cash Flow Statement. A few more rules to keep in mind as you link the statements: 1. Reflect each Balance Sheet item once and only once on the Cash Flow Statement, and vice versa. 11 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 2. If an Asset goes up, cash flow goes down; if a Liability goes up, cash flow goes up, and vice versa. 3. The Balance Sheet must always balance (Assets must always equal Liabilities + Equity), no matter what else happens. Those 3 rules above are universal and there are no exceptions. If you remember them and what goes in each section of the Cash Flow Statement, you’ll be in better shape than 99% of interviewees. Key Rule #5: Changes on the Statements At this stage, you are much better off looking at the free 3-statement model we provide (see the next section) so you can see how everything changes visually. To provide more structure, though, you can put most changes into 4 different categories: 1) Changes to True Cash Item on the Income Statement These are all straightforward – Pre-Tax Income and Net Income change, and so do Cash and Retained Earnings. Examples: Revenue, COGS, Operating Expenses, Interest Income / (Expense) What Changes as a RESULT of These Items Changing: Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Retained Earnings How the Balance Sheet Balances: Cash and Retained Earnings both change 2) Changes to Non-Cash or Re-Classified Item on Income Statement These are relatively straightforward because they follow a set pattern: Pre-Tax Income and Net Income change, but you need to add back or subtract the charge on the Cash Flow Statement. 12 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide So Cash and Retained Earnings change, but something else on the Balance Sheet will also change. The tricky part is what that “something else” is, but most of the time it is intuitive. The corresponding Balance Sheet items that change are shown in parentheses below: Examples: Depreciation (PP&E), Amortization (Other Intangible Assets), Stock-Based Compensation (Common Stock & APIC), Gains / (Losses) on PP&E (PP&E), Write-Downs (The Asset that you are writing down), Impairment Charges (The Asset that you are impairing) What Changes as a RESULT of These Items Changing: Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Retained Earnings, Something Else on Balance Sheet How the Balance Sheet Balances: Cash and Retained Earnings both change, and something else on the Balance Sheet makes up the difference 3) Changes to Operational Balance Sheet Item These consist of items like Inventory, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Accrued Expenses, Prepaid Expenses, and Deferred Revenue changing. Non-operational items such as Cash, Investments, and Debt are not counted because they are simpler to think through and are part of category #4 below. You need to understand the 2 following points with these questions: 1. Whether or not changes to these items will impact the Income Statement. 2. How an item increasing vs. that same item decreasing are different. There is no good “rule” you can apply for all of these items, but if you take a look at the 3-statement model we’ve included, a lot of this will become intuitive. Let’s go through the most common items in interviews: Accounts Receivable 13 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide What It Means Going UP: If AR goes up, it means that you have recorded revenue but not collected it in cash from customers yet. You’ve delivered the product/service, but they haven’t paid you in cash yet… but you record it as revenue anyway. Changes on the Statements: Revenue, Pre-Tax Income, and Net Income change; Cash, Accounts Receivable, and Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings) all change. See the diagram on the left for an AR increase of $100. What It Means Going DOWN: If AR goes down, that means you’ve collected the cash from customers that owe you. So nothing on the IS changes – it’s only a cash collection, and your cash goes up. Changes on the Statements: Cash (up) and Accounts Receivable (down). Prepaid Expenses What It Means Going UP: When Prepaid Expenses goes up, you pay in advance, in cash, for a future product or service but you do not record the expense on the Income Statement yet because it hasn’t been delivered yet. For example, prepaid insurance plans often fall under this category. Changes on the Statements: Cash (down) and Prepaid Expenses (up). What It Means Going DOWN: When Prepaid Expense goes down, you now record on the Income Statement the expense that you previously paid in cash. So the IS changes, and so do a number of BS items. Changes on the Statements: Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Shareholders’ 14 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Equity (Retained Earnings), Prepaid Expenses. See the diagram for an example of a $100 decrease in Prepaid Expenses. Inventory What It Means Going UP: When Inventory goes up, that means that you’ve purchased products but have not manufactured or sold anything yet. Therefore, nothing on the IS changes and only Inventory and Cash on the BS change. Changes on the Statements: Cash (down) and Inventory (up). What It Means Going DOWN: When Inventory goes down, that means that you’ve now turned it into finished products and sold it to customers… so expenses on the IS increase to reflect the cost of these goods, and you (usually) have additional revenue as well from having sold them. Changes on the Statements: Revenue (Ask to confirm this), Additional COGS on the IS, Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings), Inventory. See the diagram for a $100 decrease in Inventory (representing a $100 increase in COGS – no additional revenue here). Accrued Expenses What It Means Going UP: When Accrued Expenses goes up, it means that we’ve recorded an expense on the Income Statement but haven’t paid it out in cash yet. For example, we pay an employee in cash at the end of each month but record it as an expense over each week of the month before paying it out at the end. The expense would be recorded on the weekly Income Statements and Accrued Expenses would increase until the payout at the end of the month. It’s the opposite of Prepaid Expenses. 15 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Changes on the Statements: Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings), Accrued Expenses. See the diagram for what happens after a $100 increase in Accrued Expenses. What It Means Going DOWN: When Accrued Expenses goes down, it means we’ve now paid out in cash an expense that was previously recorded on the IS… so nothing on the Income Statement changes. Changes on the Statements: Cash (down) and Accrued Expenses (down). Accounts Payable What It Means Going UP: The same as Accrued Expenses: we’ve received a product/service, recorded it as an expense on the IS, but haven’t paid for it in cash yet. Changes on the Statements: Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings), Accounts Payable. What It Means Going DOWN: The same as Accrued Expenses: when it decreases, that signifies a cash payout of an expense that was previously recorded on the IS. Changes on the Statements: Cash and Accounts Payable. Deferred Revenue What It Means Going UP: When Deferred Revenue goes up, it means that we’ve collected cash from customers for a product/service, but haven’t recorded it as revenue yet – so there are no changes on the Income Statement. 16 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Changes on the Statements: Cash (up) and Deferred Revenue (up). What It Means Going DOWN: When Deferred Revenue goes down, it means that now we’re recognizing this previously collected cash in the form of revenue, so the Income Statement changes. Changes on the Statements: Revenue, Pre- Tax Income, Net Income, Cash, Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings), Deferred Revenue. See the diagram for a $100 decrease in Deferred Revenue. 4) Non-Operational Balance Sheet Item or Cash Flow Statement Item Changes These items are simple because there are no Income Statement changes. All that happens is that there’s a net inflow or outflow of cash on the Cash Flow Statement, and both Cash and the corresponding Balance Sheet item change. Below, we list a few common examples with the corresponding Balance Sheet item that changes in parentheses: Examples: Purchasing or Selling Securities (Short-Term or Long-Term Investments), Capital Expenditures (PP&E), Selling PP&E (PP&E), Raising Debt (Debt), Paying Off Debt (Debt), Issuing Stock (Common Stock & APIC), Repurchasing Stock (Common Stock & APIC), Issuing Dividends (Retained Earnings) What Changes as a RESULT of These Items Changing: Cash and the corresponding Balance Sheet item. How the Balance Sheet Balances: Cash and the corresponding Balance Sheet item both change. 17 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Most of these changes are very straightforward – if you have any doubts at all, please see the 3-statement model we include and you’ll understand how everything works. For Further Learning The rules above are a great start, but sometimes you need more: if you’re in this position, click here to check out our Financial Modeling Fundamentals course. You receive a $50 discount as a Breaking Into Wall Street member, and you get 20 hours of video tutorials along with several bonus case studies on real M&A deals and leveraged buyouts. It has been one of our most popular courses year after year, and it’s a great way to extend your knowledge of accounting and prepare even more for interviews. 18 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Accounting Interview Question 3-Statement Model To help you understand everything above in more depth and see firsthand how the financial statements work, we’ve included a 3-statement model designed specifically to help you answer interview questions. You’ll need to be logged into the Breaking Into Wall Street site to access it – once you’re logged in, click the link below to access the model and the tutorial video: Accounting 3-Statement Model and Video Tutorial I strongly recommend going through this model, seeing what makes it tick, and entering different values to see how all the statements are impacted by various changes. We even use conditional formatting so that you can see exactly how all the line items on the statements change. This model is more complicated than what you will see in interviews, but that’s the point: would you rather be over-prepared or under-prepared? 19 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Accounting Interactive Quiz We also include an interactive quiz on accounting questions that will let you test your knowledge of everything – even if you don’t have a banker friend who can quiz you 24/7. The format is the same as all the other quizzes that are included in this guide: multiple choice and true / false questions on the major accounting topics you need to know, divided into basic and advanced questions (technically there are two quizzes, for each level). If you score above 90% on both quizzes, you know more about accounting than most investment bankers (I’m not joking – many bankers have poor knowledge of accounting) and you’ll be well-prepared to dominate your interviews. Once you’ve logged into the Breaking Into Wall Street site, click the links below to take the quizzes: Basic Accounting Quiz Advanced Accounting Quiz 20 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Accounting Questions & Answers – Basic Please see everything above in the “Key Rules” section if you haven’t already been through that. As you go through these questions, make sure you pull up the 3-statement model included via the link above because that will make it far easier to understand everything. Basic Concepts 1. Walk me through the 3 financial statements. The 3 major financial statements are the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. The Income Statement shows the company’s revenue and expenses over a period of time, and goes down to Net Income, the final line on the statement. The Balance Sheet shows the company’s Assets – its resources – such as Cash, Inventory and PP&E, as well as its Liabilities – such as Debt and Accounts Payable – and Shareholders’ Equity – at a specific point in time. Assets must equal Liabilities plus Shareholders’ Equity. The Cash Flow Statement begins with Net Income, adjusts for non-cash expenses and changes in operating assets and liabilities (working capital), and then shows how the company has spent cash or received cash from Investing or Financing activities; at the end, you see the company’s net change in cash. 2. Can you give examples of major line items on each of the financial statements? Income Statement: Revenue; Cost of Goods Sold; SG&A (Selling, General & Administrative) Expenses; Operating Income; Pre-Tax Income; Net Income. 21 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Balance Sheet: Cash; Accounts Receivable; Inventory; Plants, Property & Equipment (PP&E); Accounts Payable; Accrued Expenses; Debt; Shareholders’ Equity. Cash Flow Statement: Cash Flow from Operations (Net Income; Depreciation & Amortization; Stock-Based Compensation; Changes in Operating Assets & Liabilities); Cash Flow from Investing (Capital Expenditures, Sale of PP&E, Sale/Purchase of Investments); Cash Flow from Financing (Dividends Issued, Debt Raised / Paid Off, Shares Issued / Repurchased) 3. How do the 3 statements link together? To tie the statements together, Net Income from the Income Statement becomes the top line of the Cash Flow Statement. Then, you add back any non-cash charges such as Depreciation & Amortization to this Net Income number. Next, changes to operational Balance Sheet items appear and either reduce or increase cash flow depending on whether they are Assets or Liabilities and whether they go up or down. That gets you to Cash Flow from Operations. Now you take into account investing and financing activities and changes to items like PP&E and Debt on the Balance Sheet; those will increase or decrease cash flow, and at the bottom you get the net change in cash. On the Balance Sheet for the end of this period, Cash at the top equals the beginning Cash number (from the start of this period), plus the net change in cash from the Cash Flow Statement. On the other side, Net Income flows into Shareholders’ Equity to make the Balance Sheet balance. At the end, Assets must always equal Liabilities plus Equity. 22 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 4. If I were stranded on a desert island and only had one financial statement and I wanted to review the overall health of a company, which statement would I use and why? You would use the Cash Flow Statement because it gives a true picture of how much cash the company is actually generating – the Income Statement is misleading because it includes non-cash expenses and excludes actual cash expenses such as Capital Expenditures. And that’s the #1 thing you care about when analyzing the financial health of any business – its true cash flow. 5. Let’s say I could only look at 2 statements to assess a company’s prospects – which 2 would I use and why? You would pick the Income Statement and Balance Sheet because you can create the Cash Flow Statement from both of those (assuming that you have “Beginning” and “Ending” Balance Sheets that correspond to the same period the Income Statement is tracking). 6. Let’s say I have a new, unknown item that belongs on the Balance Sheet. How can I tell whether it should be an Asset or a Liability? An Asset will result in additional cash or potential cash in the future – think about how Investments or Accounts Receivable will result in a direct cash increase, and how Goodwill or PP&E may result in an indirect cash increase in the future. A Liability will result in less cash or potential cash in the future – think about how Debt or Accounts Payable will result in a direct cash decrease, and how something like Deferred Revenue will result in an indirect cash decrease as you recognize additional taxes in the future from recognizing revenue. Ask what direction cash will move in as a result of this new item and that tells you whether it’s an Asset or Liability. 23 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 7. How can you tell whether or not an expense should appear on the Income Statement? Two conditions MUST be true for an expense to appear on the IS: 1. It must correspond to something in the current period. 2. It must be tax-deductible. Employee compensation and marketing spending, for example, satisfy both conditions. Depreciation and Interest Expense also meet both conditions – Depreciation only represents the “loss in value” of PP&E (or to be more technically precise, the allocation of the investment in PP&E) in the current period you’re in. Repaying debt principal does not satisfy both of these conditions because it is not tax-deductible. Advanced Note: Technically, “tax-deductible” here means “deductible for book tax purposes” (i.e. only the tax number that appears on the company’s Income Statement) – see the Advanced Accounting section for more on this topic. 8. Let’s say that you have a non-cash expense (Depreciation or Amortization, for example) on the Income Statement. Why do you add back the entire expense on the Cash Flow Statement? Because you want to reflect that you’ve saved on taxes with the non-cash expense. Let’s say you have a non-cash expense of $10 and a tax rate of 40%. Your Net Income decreases by $6 as a result… but then you add back the entire non-cash expense of $10 on the CFS so that your cash goes up by $4. 24 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide That increase of $4 reflects the tax savings from the non-cash expense. If you just added back the after-tax expense of $6 you’d be saying, “This non-cash expense has no impact on our taxes or cash balance.” 9. How do you decide when to capitalize rather than expense a purchase? If the purchase corresponds to an Asset with a useful life of over 1 year, it is capitalized (put on the Balance Sheet rather than shown as an expense on the Income Statement). Then it is Depreciated (tangible assets) or Amortized (intangible assets) over a certain number of years. Purchases like factories, equipment and land all last longer than a year and therefore show up on the Balance Sheet. Employee salaries and the cost of manufacturing products (COGS) only “last” for the current period and therefore show up on the Income Statement as normal expenses instead. Note that even if you’re paying for something like a multi-year lease for a building, you would not capitalize it unless you own the building and pay for the entire building in advance. 10. If Depreciation is a non-cash expense, why does it affect the cash balance? Although Depreciation is a non-cash expense, it is tax-deductible. Therefore, an increase in Depreciation will reduce the amount of taxes you pay, which boosts your cash balance. The opposite happens if Depreciation decreases. 11. Where does Depreciation usually appear on the Income Statement? It could be in a separate line item, or it could be embedded in Cost of Goods Sold or Operating Expenses – each company does it differently. Note that the end result for accounting questions is the same: Depreciation always reduces Pre-Tax Income. 12. Why is the Income Statement not affected by Inventory purchases? 25 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide The expense of purchasing Inventory is only recorded on the Income Statement when the goods associated with it have been manufactured and sold – so if it’s just sitting in a warehouse, it does not count as Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) until the company manufactures it into a product and sells it. 13. Debt repayment shows up in Cash Flow from Financing on the Cash Flow Statement. Why don’t interest payments also show up there? They’re a financing activity! The difference is that interest payments correspond to the current period and are tax-deductible, so they have already appeared on the Income Statement. Since they are a true cash expense and already appeared on the IS, showing them on the CFS would be double-counting them and would be incorrect. Debt repayments are a true cash expense but they do not appear on the IS, so we need to adjust for them on the CFS. If something is a true cash expense and it has already appeared on the IS, it will never appear on the CFS unless we are re-classifying it – because you have already factored in its cash impact. 14. What’s the difference between Accounts Payable and Accrued Expenses? Mechanically, they are the same: they’re Liabilities on the Balance Sheet used when you’ve recorded an Income Statement expense for a product/service you have received, but have not yet paid for in cash. They both affect the statements in the same way as well (see the model). The difference is that Accounts Payable is mostly for one-time expenses with invoices, such as paying for a law firm, whereas Accrued Expenses is for recurring expenses without invoices, such as employee wages, rent, and utilities. 15. When would a company collect cash from a customer and not record it as revenue? 26 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Typically this happens when the customer pays upfront, in cash, for months or years of a product/service, but the company hasn’t delivered it yet. Cases where you see this: 1. Web-based subscription software. 2. Cell phone carriers that sell annual contracts. 3. Magazine publishers that sell subscriptions. You only record revenue when you actually deliver the products / services – so the company does not record cash collected as revenue right away. 16. If cash collected is not recorded as revenue, what happens to it? It goes into the Deferred Revenue balance on the Balance Sheet under Liabilities. Over time, as the services or products are delivered, the Deferred Revenue balance turns into real revenue on the Income Statement and the Deferred Revenue balance decreases. 17. Wait a minute… Deferred Revenue reflects cash that we’ve already collected upfront for a product/service we haven’t delivered yet. Why is it a Liability? That’s great for us! Remember the definitions of Assets and Liabilities: an Asset results in more future cash, and a Liability results in less future cash. Think about how Deferred Revenue works: not only is the burden on us to deliver the product/service in question, but we are also going to pay additional taxes and possibly recognize additional future expenses when we record it as real revenue. It’s counter-intuitive, but that is why Deferred Revenue is a liability: it implies additional future expenses. 27 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 18. Wait, so what’s the difference between Accounts Receivable and Deferred Revenue? They sound similar. There are 2 main differences: 1. Accounts Receivable has not yet been collected in cash from customers, whereas Deferred Revenue has been. 2. Accounts Receivable is for a product/service the company has already delivered but hasn’t been paid for yet, whereas Deferred Revenue is for a product/service the company has not yet delivered. Accounts Receivable is an Asset because it implies additional future cash whereas Deferred Revenue is a Liability because it implies the opposite. 19. How long does it usually take for a company to collect its Accounts Receivable balance? Generally the Accounts Receivable Days are in the 30-60 day range, though it can be higher for companies selling higher-priced items and it might be lower for companies selling lower-priced items with cash payments only. 20. How are Prepaid Expenses (PE) and Accounts Payable (AP) different? It’s similar to the difference between Accounts Receivable and Deferred Revenue above: 1. Prepaid Expenses have already been paid out in cash, but haven’t yet shown up on the Income Statement, whereas Accounts Payable haven’t been paid out in cash but have shown up on the IS. 2. PE is for product/services that have not yet been delivered to the company, whereas AP is for products/services that have already been delivered. 21. You’re reviewing a company’s Balance Sheet and you see an “Income Taxes Payable” line item on the Liabilities side. What is this? 28 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Income Taxes Payable refers to normal income taxes that accrue and are then paid out in cash, similar to Accrued Expenses… but for taxes instead. Example: A company pays corporate income taxes in cash once every 3 months. But they also have monthly Income Statements where they record income taxes, even if they haven’t been paid out in cash yet. Those taxes increase the Income Taxes Payable account until they are paid out in cash, at which point Income Taxes Payable decreases. 22. You see a “Noncontrolling Interest” (AKA Minority Interest) line item on the Liabilities side of a company’s Balance Sheet. What does this mean? If you own over 50% but less than 100% of another company, this refers to the portion you do not own. Example: Another company is worth $100. You own 70% of it. Therefore, there will be a Noncontrolling Interest of $30 on your Balance Sheet to represent the 30% you do not own. NOTE: There are more questions on this topic in the Advanced section. At a basic level, you should just understand what it means. 23. You see an “Investments in Equity Interests” (AKA Associate Companies) line item on the Assets side of a firm’s Balance Sheet. What does this mean? If you own over 20% but less than 50% of another company, this refers to the portion that you DO own. Example: Another company is worth $100. You own 25% of it. Therefore, there will be an “Investments in Equity Interests” line item of $25 on your Balance Sheet to represent the 25% that you own. NOTE: There are more questions on this topic in the Advanced section. At a basic level, you should just understand what it means. 29 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 24. Could you ever have negative Shareholders’ Equity? What does it mean? Yes. It is common in 2 scenarios: 1. Leveraged Buyouts with dividend recapitalizations – it means that the owner of the company has taken out a large portion of its equity (usually in the form of cash), which can sometimes turn the number negative. 2. It can also happen if the company has been losing money consistently and therefore has a declining Retained Earnings balance, which is a portion of Shareholders’ Equity. It doesn’t “mean” anything in particular, but it might demonstrate that the company is struggling (in the second scenario). Note: Note that EQUITY VALUE – AKA Market Cap – is different from Shareholders’ Equity and that Equity Value can never be negative. 25. What is Working Capital? How is it used? Working Capital = Current Assets – Current Liabilities. If it’s positive, it means a company can pay off its short-term Liabilities with its short-term Assets. It is often presented as a financial metric and its magnitude and sign (negative or positive) tells you whether or not the company is “sound.” You use Operating Working Capital more commonly in finance, and that is defined as (Current Assets Excluding Cash & Investments) – (Current Liabilities Excluding Debt). The point of Operating Working Capital is to exclude items that relate to a company’s financing and investment activities – Cash, Investments, and Debt – from the calculation. 30 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide “Changes in Working Capital” (more commonly called “Changes in Operating Assets and Liabilities”) also appears on the Cash Flow Statement in Cash Flow from Operations and tells you how these operationally-related Balance Sheet items change over time. 26. “Short-Term Investments” is a Current Asset – should you count it in Working Capital? No. If you wanted to be technical you could say that it should be included in “Working Capital,” as defined, but left out of “Operating Working Capital.” But the truth is that no one lists Short-Term Investments in this section because Purchases and Sales of Investments are considered investing activities, not operational activities. “Working Capital” is an imprecise idea and we prefer to say “Operating Assets and Liabilities” because that’s a more accurate way to describe the concept of operationally-related Balance Sheet items – which may sometimes be Long-Term Assets or Long-Term Liabilities (e.g. Deferred Revenue). 27. What does negative (Operating) Working Capital mean? Is that a bad sign? Not necessarily. It depends on the type of company and the specific situation – here are a few different things it could mean: 1. Some companies with subscriptions or longer-term contracts often have negative Working Capital because of high Deferred Revenue balances. 2. Retail and restaurant companies like Amazon, Wal-Mart, and McDonald’s often have negative Working Capital because customers pay upfront, but they wait weeks or months to pay their suppliers – this is a sign of business efficiency and means that they always have healthy cash flow. 3. In other cases, negative Working Capital could point to financial trouble or possible bankruptcy (for example, when the company owes a lot of money to suppliers and cannot pay with cash on-hand). 31 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide 28. What’s the difference between cash-based and accrual accounting? Cash-based accounting recognizes revenue and expenses when cash is actually received or paid out; accrual accounting recognizes revenue when collection is reasonably certain (i.e. after an invoice has been sent to the customer and the customer has a track record of paying on time) and recognizes expenses when they are incurred rather than when they are paid out in cash. All large companies use accrual accounting because it more accurately reflects the timing of revenue and expenses; small businesses may use cash-based accounting to simplify their financial statements (you no longer need a Cash Flow Statement if everything is cash-based). 29. Let’s say a customer pays for a TV with a credit card. What would this look like under cash-based vs. accrual accounting? Under cash-based accounting, the revenue would not show up until the company charges the customer’s credit card, receives authorization, and deposits the funds in its bank account – at which point it would add to Revenue on the Income Statement (and Pre-Tax Income, Net Income, etc.) and Cash on the Balance Sheet. Under accrual accounting, it would show up as Revenue right away but instead of appearing in Cash on the Balance Sheet, it would go into Accounts Receivable at first. Then, once the cash is actually deposited in the company’s bank account, it would move into the Cash line item and Accounts Receivable would go down. 30. Why do companies report GAAP or IFRS earnings, AND non-GAAP / non- IFRS (or “Pro Forma”) earnings? Many companies have non-cash charges such as Amortization of Intangibles, Stock-Based Compensation, and Write-Downs on their Income Statements, all of which negatively impact their Net Income. 32 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Companies therefore report alternative “Pro Forma” metrics that exclude these expenses and paint a more favorable picture of their earnings, under the argument that these metrics better represent “true cash earnings.” 31. A company has had positive EBITDA for the past 10 years, but it recently went bankrupt. How could this happen? There are several possibilities: 1. The company is spending too much on Capital Expenditures – these are not reflected in EBITDA but represent true cash expenses, so CapEx alone could make the company cash flow-negative. 2. The company has high Interest Expense and is no longer able to afford its Debt. 3. The company’s Debt all matures on one date and it is unable to refinance it due to a “credit crunch” – and it runs out of cash when paying back the Debt. 4. It has significant one-time charges (from litigation, for example) that have been excluded from EBITDA and those are high enough to bankrupt the company. Remember, EBITDA excludes investment in (and Depreciation of) Long-Term Assets, Interest, and Non-Recurring Charges – and any one of those could represent massive cash expenses. 32. Normally Goodwill remains constant on the Balance Sheet – why would it be impaired and what does Goodwill Impairment mean? Usually this happens when a company buys another one and the acquirer re- assesses what it really got out of the deal – customer relationships, brand name, and intellectual property – and finds that those “Assets” are worth significantly less than they originally thought. It often happens in acquisitions where the buyer “overpaid” for the seller and it can result in extremely negative Net Income on the Income Statement. 33 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide It can also happen when a company discontinues part of its operations and must impair the associated Goodwill. Single-Step Scenarios With these questions, keep in mind the 4 main categories of financial statement changes described above. Also remember that an Asset going up always decreases cash flow and a Liability going up always increases cash flow and vice versa, and that Assets must always equal Liabilities plus Equity. Always assume a 40% tax rate for these questions unless they tell you otherwise (state that upfront as you’re walking through the answer) – it makes the math a lot easier. You should always use this order when walking through these questions: 1. Income Statement 2. Cash Flow Statement 3. Balance Sheet This is so you can check yourself at the end and make sure the Balance Sheet balances. 1. Walk me through how Depreciation going up by $10 would affect the statements. Income Statement: Operating Income and Pre-Tax Income would decline by $10 and, assuming a 40% tax rate, Net Income would go down by $6. Cash Flow Statement: The Net Income at the top goes down by $6, but the $10 Depreciation is a non-cash expense that gets added back, so overall Cash Flow 34 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide from Operations goes up by $4. There are no changes elsewhere, so the overall Net Change in Cash goes up by $4. Balance Sheet: Plants, Property & Equipment goes down by $10 on the Assets side because of the Depreciation, and Cash is up by $4 from the changes on the Cash Flow Statement. Overall, Assets is down by $6. Since Net Income fell by $6 as well, Shareholders’ Equity on the Liabilities & Equity side is down by $6 and both sides of the Balance Sheet balance. Intuition: We save on taxes with any non-cash charge, including Depreciation. 2. What happens when Accrued Expenses increases by $10? For this question, remember that Accrued Expenses are recognized on the Income Statement but haven’t been paid out in cash yet. So this could correspond to payment being set aside for an employee, but not actually the employee in cash yet. Income Statement: Operating Income and Pre-Tax Income fall by $10, and Net Income falls by $6 (assuming a 40% tax rate). Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is down by $6, and the increase in Accrued Expenses will increase Cash Flow by $10, so overall Cash Flow from Operations is up by $4 and the Net Change in Cash at the bottom is up by $4. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $4 as a result, so Assets is up by $4. On the Liabilities & Equity side, Accrued Expenses is a Liability so Liabilities is up by $10 and Shareholders’ Equity 35 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide (Retained Earnings) is down by $6 due to the Net Income decrease, so both sides balance. Intuition: We record an additional expense and save on taxes with it… but that expense hasn’t been paid in cash yet, so our cash balance is actually up. 3. What happens when Accrued Expenses decreases by $10 (i.e. it’s now paid out in the form of cash)? Do not take into account cumulative changes from previous increases in Accrued Expenses. Assuming that you are not taking into account any previous increases (confirm this): Income Statement: There are no changes. Cash Flow Statement: The change in Accrued Expenses in the CFO section is negative $10 because you pay it out in cash, and so the cash at the bottom decreases by $10. Balance Sheet: Cash is down by $10 on the Assets side and Accrued Expenses is down by $10 on the other side, so it balances. Intuition: This is a simple cash payout of previously recorded expenses. 4. Accounts Receivable increases by $10. Walk me through the 3 statements. If AR “increases” by $10, it means that we’ve recorded revenue of $10 but haven’t received it in cash yet. For example, a customer has ordered a $10 product from us and we’ve delivered it, but we are still waiting on cash payment. Income Statement: Revenue is up by $10 and so is Pre-Tax Income, which means that Net Income is up by $6 assuming a 40% tax rate. 36 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is up by $6 but the AR increase is a reduction in cash (since we don’t have the cash yet), so we need to subtract $10, which results in cash at the bottom being down by $4. Balance Sheet: On the Assets side, Cash is down by $4 and AR is up by $10, so the Assets side is up by $6. On the other side, Shareholders’ Equity is up by $6 because Net Income has increased by $6. Both sides balance. Intuition: When AR increases, it means that we’ve paid taxes on additional revenue but haven’t received any of that revenue in cash yet… so our cash balance decreases by the additional amount of taxes we’ve paid. 5. Prepaid Expenses decreases by $10. Walk me through the statements. Do not take into account cumulative changes from previous increases in Prepaid Expenses. When Prepaid Expenses “decreases,” it means that expenses are now recognized on the Income Statement. For example, we’ve previously paid for an insurance policy in cash and have now recognized that same expense on the IS. Income Statement: Pre-Tax Income is down by $10, and Net Income is down by $6. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is down by $6 but since Prepaid Expenses is an Asset, a decrease of $10 results in an increase of 10 in cash. At the bottom of the CFS, cash is up by $4 as a result. Balance Sheet: On the Assets side Cash is up by $4 and Prepaid Expenses is down by $10, so the Assets side is down by $6 overall. On the other side, Shareholders’ Equity is down by $6 because of the 37 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide reduced Net Income, so both sides balance. Intuition: Here, we’re losing Net Income and paying additional taxes… but oh, wait, we’ve already paid out these expenses in cash previously! So our Cash balance goes up rather than down, despite the additional Income Statement expenses. 6. What happens when Inventory goes up by $10, assuming you pay for it with cash? This really just means, “Walk me through what happens on the statements when you purchase $10 worth of Inventory with cash.” Income Statement: No changes. Cash Flow Statement: Inventory is an Asset so that reduces Cash Flow from Operations – it goes down by $10, as does the Net Change in Cash at the bottom. Balance Sheet: On the Assets side, Inventory is up by $10 but Cash is down by $10, so the changes cancel out and Assets still equals Liabilities & Equity. Intuition: We’ve spent cash to buy Inventory, but haven’t manufactured or sold anything yet. 7. A company sells some of its PP&E for $120. On the Balance Sheet, the PP&E is worth $100. Walk me through how the 3 statements change. Income Statement: You record a Gain of $20 ($120 – $100), which boosts Pre-Tax Income by $20. At a 40% tax rate, Net Income is up by $12. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is up by $12, but you need to subtract out that Gain of $20, so Cash Flow from Operations is down by $8. 38 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Then, in Cash Flow from Investing, you record the entire amount of proceeds from the sale – $120 – so that section is up by $120. At the bottom of the CFS, cash is therefore up by $112. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $112, but PP&E is down by $100 since we’ve sold it, so the Assets side is up by $12. The other side is up by $12 as well, since Shareholders’ Equity is up by $12 due to the Net Income increase. Intuition: Gains and Losses are not non-cash, but they are re-classified on the CFS. The cash increase here simply reflects the after-tax profit from the Gain – if we had sold the PP&E at its Balance Sheet value, there would be no change on the IS. 8. Walk me through what happens on the 3 statements when there’s an Asset Write-Down of $100. Income Statement: The $100 Write-Down reduces Pre-Tax Income by $100. With a 40% tax rate, Net Income declines by $60. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is down by $60 but the Write-Down is a non- cash expense, so we add it back – and therefore Cash Flow from Operations increases by $40. Cash at the bottom is up by $40. Balance Sheet: Cash is now up by $40 and an Asset is down by $100 (it’s not clear which Asset since the question never stated it). Overall, the Assets side is down by $60. On the other side, since Net Income was down by $60, Shareholders’ Equity is also down by $60 – and both sides balance. 39 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Intuition: The same as any other non-cash charge: we save on taxes, so our Cash goes up, and something on the Balance Sheet changes in response. Advanced Note: No, Write-Downs are not always tax-deductible like this – see the Advanced section for more. 9. Explain what happens on the 3 statements when a company issues $100 worth of shares to investors. Income Statement: No changes (since this doesn’t affect taxes and since the shares will be around for years to come). Cash Flow Statement: Cash Flow from Financing is up by $100 due to this share issuance, so cash at the bottom is up by $100. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $100 on the Assets side and Shareholders’ Equity (Common Stock & APIC) is up by $100 on the other side to balance it. Intuition: This one does not affect taxes and does not correspond to the current period, so it doesn’t show up on the IS – just like similar items, all that changes is Cash and then something else on the Balance Sheet. 10. Let’s say we have the same scenario, but now instead of issuing $100 worth of stock to investors, the company issues $100 worth of stock to employees in the form of Stock-Based Compensation. What happens? Income Statement: You need to record this as an additional expense because it’s now a tax-deductible and a current expense – Pre-Tax Income falls by $100 and Net Income falls by $60 assuming a 40% tax rate. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is down by $60 but you add back the SBC of $100 since it’s a non-cash charge, so cash at the bottom is up by $40. 40 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $40 on the Assets side. On the other side, Common Stock & APIC is up by $100 due to the Stock-Based Compensation, but Retained Earnings is down by $60 due to the reduced Net Income, so Shareholders’ Equity is up by $40 and both sides balance. Intuition: This is a non-cash charge, so like all non-cash charges it impacts the IS and affects one Balance Sheet item in addition to Cash and Retained Earnings – in this case, it flows into Common Stock & APIC because that one reflects the market value of stock at the time the stock was issued. The cash increase here simply reflects the tax savings. 11. A company decides to issue $100 in Dividends – how do the 3 statements change? Income Statement: No changes. Dividends count as a financing activity and are not tax-deductible, so they never appear on the IS. Cash Flow Statement: Cash Flow from Financing is down by $100 due to the Dividends, so cash at the bottom is down by $100. Balance Sheet: Cash is down by $100 on the Assets side, and Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings) is down by $100 on the other side so both sides balance. Intuition: This is another non-operational CFS / BS item, so it is a simple use of cash and nothing else changes. 12. A company has recorded $100 in income tax expense on its Income Statement. All $100 of it is paid, in cash, in the current period. Now we change 41 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide it and only $90 of it is paid in cash, with $10 being deferred to future periods. How do the statements change? Income Statement: Nothing changes. Both Current and Deferred Taxes are recorded simply as “Taxes” and Net Income remains the same. Net Income changes only if the total amount of taxes changes. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income remains the same but we add back the $10 worth of Deferred Taxes in Cash Flow from Operations – no other changes, so cash at the bottom is up by $10. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $10 and so the entire Assets side is up by $10. On the other side, the Deferred Tax Liability is up by $10 and so both sides balance. Intuition: Deferred Taxes save us on cash in the current period, at the expense of additional cash taxes in the future. 13. Walk me through a $100 “bailout” of a company and how it affects the 3 statements. First, confirm what type of “bailout” this is – Debt? Equity? A combination? The most common scenario here is an equity (or Preferred Stock) investment from the government, so here’s what happens: Income Statement: No changes. Cash Flow Statement: Cash Flow from Financing goes up by $100 to reflect this new investment, so the Net Change in Cash is up by $100. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $100 so the Assets side is up by $100; on the other side, Shareholders’ Equity goes up by $100 to make it balance (Common Stock & APIC for a normal equity investment or Preferred Stock for preferred). 42 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Intuition: It’s the same as a normal stock issuance: no Income Statement changes because nothing affects the company’s taxes. 14. Walk me through a $100 Write-Down of Debt – as in OWED Debt, a Liability – on a company’s Balance Sheet and how it affects the 3 statements. This one is counter-intuitive. When a Liability is written down you record it as an addition on the Income Statement (with an asset write-down, it’s a subtraction). Income Statement: Pre-Tax Income goes up by $100, and assuming a 40% tax rate, Net Income is up by $60. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is up by $60, but we need to subtract that Debt Write-Down because it was non-cash – so Cash Flow from Operations is down by $40, and Cash is down by $40 at the bottom. Balance Sheet: Cash is down by $40 so the Assets side is down by $40. On the other side, Debt is down by $100 but Shareholders’ Equity is up by $60 because the Net Income was up by $60 – so Liabilities & Shareholders’ Equity is down by $40 and both sides balance. If this seems strange to you, you’re not alone – click to read this Forbes article for more on why writing down debt actually benefits companies accounting-wise. Intuition: One way to think about this is that writing down Assets is “bad” for us because it reduces our ability to generate future cash flow, but writing down Liabilities is “good” because it reduces our future expenses… sort of. I don’t recommend presenting it like that in an interview. 15. Wait a minute – if writing down Liabilities boosts Net Income, why don’t companies just do it all the time? It helps them out! 43 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide This is like asking, “If declaring bankruptcy helps you relieve your obligations, why not do it whenever you rack up debt?!” And the answer is similar: Because it may help in the short-term, but in the long- term it hurts the company’s credibility and ability to borrow in the future. If a company continually writes down its Liabilities, investors will stop trusting it – and the inability to borrow again will hurt it far more than a reduced Net Income would. 16. What’s the difference between LIFO and FIFO? Can you walk me through an example of how they differ? First, note that this question does not apply to you if you’re outside the US because IFRS does not permit the use of LIFO. But you may want to read this anyway because it’s good to know in case you ever work with US-based companies. LIFO stands for “Last-In, First-Out” and FIFO stands for “First-In, First-Out” – they are 2 different ways of recording the value of Inventory and the Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). With LIFO, you use the value of the most recent Inventory additions for COGS, but with FIFO you use the value of the oldest Inventory additions for COGS. Here’s an example: let’s say your starting Inventory balance is $100 (10 units valued at $10 each). You add 10 units each quarter for $12 each in Q1, $15 each in Q2, $17 each in Q3, and $20 each in Q4, so that the total is $120 in Q1, $150 in Q2, $170 in Q3, and $200 in Q4. You sell 40 of these units throughout the year for $30 each. In both LIFO and FIFO, you record 40 * $30 or $1,200 for the annual revenue. The difference is that in LIFO, you would use the 40 most recent Inventory purchase values – $120 + $150 + $170 + $200 – for the Cost of Goods Sold, 44 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide whereas in FIFO you would use the 40 oldest Inventory values – $100 + $120 + $150 + $170 – for COGS. As a result, the LIFO COGS would be $640 and FIFO COGS would be $540, so LIFO would also have lower Pre-Tax Income and Net Income. The ending Inventory value would be $100 higher under FIFO and $100 lower under LIFO. If Inventory is getting more expensive to purchase, LIFO will produce higher values for COGS and lower ending Inventory values and vice versa if Inventory is getting cheaper to purchase. Note: See the Interactive Quiz and the answer key there for a detailed walkthrough of this, with screen shots. Multi-Step Scenarios These questions get tricky because you need to keep track of many numbers in your head. If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, you can ask the interviewer if it’s OK to write down a few figures as you’re moving along – it’s better to do that than to screw up the numbers. One really important point on these questions: always ask if you actually need to take into account cumulative changes. Sometimes it’s not necessary, and in the questions here and in the quiz we cover a mix of both question styles. Luckily, there aren’t too many crazy multi-step scenarios they can ask you about in interviews – if you understand all the questions below, the questions on our interactive quiz, and the 3-statement model, you’ll be in great shape. 1. Let’s say Apple is buying $100 worth of new iPad factories with debt. How are all 3 statements affected at the start of “Year 1,” before anything else happens? 45 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Income Statement: At the start of “Year 1,” there are no changes yet. Cash Flow Statement: The $100 worth of Capital Expenditures would show up under Cash Flow from Investing as a net reduction in Cash Flow (so Cash Flow is down by $100 so far). And the additional $100 worth of Debt raised would show up as an addition to Cash Flow in Cash Flow from Investing, canceling out the investment activity. So the cash number stays the same, for now. Balance Sheet: There is now an additional $100 worth of factories, so PP&E is up by $100 and Assets is therefore up by $100. On the other side, Debt is up by $100, so the entire other side is up by $100 and both sides balance. 2. Now let’s go out one year, to the start of Year 2. Assume the Debt is high- yield, so no principal is paid off, and assume an interest rate of 10%. Also assume the factories Depreciate at a rate of 10% per year. What happens now? Assume that we have already factored in the changes from Part 1 and are only tracking what happens AFTER those have taken place. After a year has passed, Apple must pay Interest Expense and must record the Depreciation. Income Statement: Operating Income decreases by $10 due to the 10% Depreciation charge each year, and the $10 in additional Interest Expense decreases the Pre-Tax Income by $20 altogether ($10 from the Depreciation and $10 from Interest Expense). Assuming a tax rate of 40%, Net Income falls by $12. 46 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Cash Flow Statement: Net Income at the top is down by $12. Depreciation is a non-cash expense, so you add it back and the end result is that Cash Flow from Operations is down by $2. That’s the only change on the Cash Flow Statement, so overall Cash is down by $2. Balance Sheet: On the Assets side, Cash is down by $2 and PP&E is down by $10 due to the Depreciation, so overall the Assets side is down by $12. On the other side, since Net Income was down by $12, Shareholders’ Equity is also down by $12 and both sides balance. Remember that the Debt number itself does not change since we’ve assumed that nothing is paid back. 3. At the end of Year 2, the factories all break down and their value is written down to $0. The loan must also be paid back now. Walk me through how the 3 statements ONLY from the start of Year 2 to the end of Year 2. After 2 years, the value of the factories is now $80 if we go with the 10% Depreciation per year assumption. It is this $80 that we will write down on the 3 statements. Also, don’t forget about the Interest Expense – it still needs to be paid in Year 2. Income Statement: We have $10 worth of Depreciation and then the $80 Write- Down. We also have $10 of additional Interest Expense, so Pre-Tax Income is down by $100. Net Income is down by $60 at a 40% tax rate. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is down by $60 but the Write-Down and Depreciation are both non-cash expenses, so we add them back and cash flow is up by $30 so far. 47 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide There are no changes under Cash Flow from Investing, but under Cash Flow from Financing there is a $100 charge for the loan payback – so Cash Flow from Financing falls by $100. Overall, cash at the bottom decreases by $70. Balance Sheet: Cash is now down by $70, and PP&E has decreased by $90, so the Assets side is down by $160. On the other side, Debt is down $100 since it was paid off, and since Net Income was down by $60, Shareholders’ Equity is down by $60. Both sides are down by $160 and balance. NOTE: Be very careful with this type of question because there are many variations – when in doubt, always ask to clarify before you begin answering. 4. Now let’s look at a different scenario and assume Apple is ordering $10 of additional iPad Inventory, using cash on hand. They order the Inventory, but they have not manufactured or sold anything yet – what happens to the 3 statements? Income Statement: No changes. Cash Flow Statement: Inventory is up by $10, so Cash Flow from Operations decreases by $10. There are no further changes, so overall Cash is down by $10. Balance Sheet: Inventory is up by $10 and Cash is down by $10 so the Assets number stays the same and the Balance Sheet remains in balance. 5. Now let’s say they sell the iPads for revenue of $20, at a cost of $10. Walk me through the 3 statements under this scenario. 48 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Income Statement: Revenue is up by $20 and COGS is up by $10, so Gross Profit, Operating Income, and Pre-Tax Income are all up by $10. Assuming a 40% tax rate, Net Income is up by $6. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income at the top is up by $6 and Inventory has decreased by $10 (since we just manufactured the Inventory into real iPads), which is a net addition to cash flow – so Cash Flow from Operations is up by $16 overall. These are the only changes on the CFS, so cash at the bottom is up by $16. Balance Sheet: Cash is up by $16 and Inventory is down by $10, so the Assets side is up by $6 overall. On the other side, Net Income was up by $6, so Shareholders’ Equity is up by $6 and both sides balance. Intuition: This simply reflects the sale of products at a certain cost, and the after- tax profit from that. The only tricky part is how Cash increases by $16, not $6 – that just reflects the “release” you get from selling off the Inventory. 6. A company raises $100 worth of Debt, at 5% interest and 10% yearly principal repayment, to purchase $100 worth of Short-Term Securities with 10% interest attached. Walk me through how the 3 statements change IMMEDIATELY AFTER this initial purchase. Income Statement: No changes yet. Cash Flow Statement: The $100 Purchase of Short-Term Securities shows up as a reduction of cash flow under Cash Flow from Investing, and the $100 Debt raise shows up as a $100 increase under Cash Flow from Financing. Cash at the bottom is unchanged. 49 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Balance Sheet: Short-Term Securities on the Assets side is up by $100, and Debt on the Liabilities side is up by $100 so both sides balance. 7. Now walk me through what happens at the end of Year 1, after the company has earned interest, paid interest, and paid back some of the debt principal. Income Statement: Interest Income is $10 ($100 * 10%) and Interest Expense is $5 ($100 * 5%), so Pre-Tax Income increases by $5, and Net Income increases by $3 assuming a 40% tax rate. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is up by $3. In Cash Flow from Financing, we repay $10 worth of debt ($100 * 10%), so cash at the bottom is down by $7. Balance Sheet: Cash on the Assets side is down by $7, so the Assets side is down by $7. On the other side, Debt is down by $10 due to the repayment and Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings) is up by $3 due to the Net Income, so this side is also down by $7 and the Balance Sheet balances. 8. Now let’s say that at the end of year 1, the company sells the $100 of Short- Term Securities but gets a price of $110 for them instead. It also uses the proceeds to repay the $90 worth of remaining Debt. Walk me through the statements after ONLY these changes. Income Statement: You record a Gain of $10 ($110 – $100), so Pre-Tax Income is up by $10 and Net Income is up by $6 with a 40% tax rate. Cash Flow Statement: Net Income is up by $6 but you subtract the Gain of $10, so Cash Flow from Operations is down by $4. 50 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Under Cash Flow from Investing, you record the $110 sale as an addition to cash flow, so cash is up by $106 so far. Then, under Cash Flow from Financing, you pay off $90 worth of Debt, which reduces cash by $90. Overall, Cash at the bottom is up by $16. Balance Sheet: Cash on the Assets side is up by $16 but Short-Term Securities is down by $100, so the Assets side is down by $84. On the other side, Debt is down by $90 but Shareholders’ Equity (Retained Earnings) is up by $6 due to the Net Income increase, so that side is also down by $84 and both sides balance. 51 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Accounting Questions & Answers – Advanced Only go through these Advanced Questions if you have significant full-time work experience in finance. If you don’t, don’t even worry about them – the topics here are not likely to come up in entry-level interviews. In fact, the chances are about 0.0001%. These questions are more conceptual than the Basic questions – if you’ve made it this far, you already know how the 3 statements work. So we go into the details of items like Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities, Unrealized Gains / (Losses), Noncontrolling Interests, and other fun topics. These topics are extremely broad so it’s almost impossible to come up with “Rules of Thumb” for this section as we did for the Basic Questions. But if you’re interviewing at this level you’ve probably learned these topics before and just need a review. If you want to learn the concepts behind everything, check out the Advanced Financial Modeling course and sign up at a discounted, members-only rate. Advanced Concepts 1. Explain what a Deferred Tax Asset or Deferred Tax Liability is. How do they usually get created? A Deferred Tax Liability (DTL) means that you need to pay additional cash taxes in the future – in other words, you’ve underpaid on taxes and need to make up for it in the future. A Deferred Tax Asset (DTA) means that you can pay less in cash taxes in the future – you’ve paid too much before, and now you get to save on taxes in the future. 52 / 73  Investment Banking Interview Guide Access the Rest of the Interview Guide Both DTLs and DTAs arise because of temporary differences between what a company can deduct for cash tax purposes and what they can deduct for book tax purposes. You see them most often in 3 scenarios: 1. When companies record Depreciation differently for book and tax purposes (i.e. more quickly for tax purposes to save on taxes). 2. When Assets get written up for book, but not tax purposes, in M&A deals. 3. When pension contributions get recognized differently for book vs. tax purposes. 2. Wait a minute, then how can both DTAs and DTLs exist at the same time on a company’s Balance Sheet? How can they both owe and save on taxes in the future? This one’s subtle, but you frequently see both of these items on the statements because a company can owe and save on future