With experience in healthcare and insurance auditing, Jeffrey Plotzker previously served as a program specialist with a New York State Department of Health program. Among Jeffrey Plotzker’s areas of extensive knowledge are data and financial analysis as it relates to forecasting for businesses and other organizations.
One of the fundamental techniques of forecasting is trend analysis, also known as time-series analysis. Incorporating historical data provided by past financial statements, this approach also takes data from forward-looking pro forma financial statements and employs ratio analysis to create a coherent, long-term organizational picture. With consistent trends and variations over time factored in, this analysis enables future cash flow, revenue, and profit prospects to be assessed with a reasonable amount of certainty.
Benchmarking expands the analytical scope to entire markets and industries and provides a financial snapshot of the company’s comparative strengths and weaknesses. This is critical in identifying inefficiencies and competitive advantages, which tie into the corporate bottom line and how attractive a company is to equity investors.
