Learning Financial Statements

posted at 2025-04-20 • updated at -

Disclaimer

This post is part of my path learning and practice English. Maybe, not writing well, but I try my best. I open for suggestions and criticisms.

What I writing in this post only about learning financial statements with ChatGPT. I don't have any experience in business, finance, or accounting.

Background

I was to watch a video from endgame's YouTube channel about "Bagi dr. Tirta, Kepintaran Tidak Pernah Cukup | Endgame #218". I am triggered when dr. Tirta explain his experience reading financial statements from Unilever that great, because big expenses is for knowledge management.

That statement make me to think "what is the financial statements?, is it things that important?", after that I try to Googling and ask ChatGPT to get more information and practice in real-world.

Learning Financial Statements with ChatGPT

I start from prompting ChatGPT with some details to getting syllabus. I will use it for learning and practice in real-world. Below is the syllabus:

✅ General Course Goal (Main Goal)

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand, analyze, and apply core financial principles to plan, run, and grow a small business with confidence, whether it’s a physical shop or SaaS.

📘 Topic Breakdown

1. Foundations: Revenue, Costs & Profit

Sub-Goals:

  • Understand what revenue, cost, and profit mean in business.
  • Differentiate between fixed costs and variable costs.
  • Calculate gross profit, net profit, and profit margins.
  • Analyze whether a business is financially healthy from simple numbers.

Example Activity: Analyze a smoothie bar or salon using real prices and expenses.

2. Break-Even Point (BEP) & Unit Economics

Sub-Goals:

  • Understand the break-even point and why it matters.
  • Use the BEP formula to calculate how many units must be sold to make a profit.
  • Learn how to adjust pricing and costs to reach break-even faster.
  • Make financial decisions based on unit economics (profit per product/service).

Example Activity: Compare two scenarios: raising prices vs reducing costs.

3. Financial Statements

Sub-Goals:

  • Identify the three main financial statements:
    • Income Statement (P&L)
    • Balance Sheet
    • Cash Flow Statement
  • Understand what each statement shows and why it's important.
  • Practice building a mini financial report for your business idea.
  • Interpret whether a business is financially strong, weak, or risky.

Example Activity: Create a basic income statement for a real business.

4. Pricing & Strategy

Sub-Goals:

  • Learn different pricing strategies: cost-plus, value-based, tiered pricing.
  • Understand how pricing affects customer perception and profit.
  • Analyze whether you're underpricing or overpricing.
  • Practice creating pricing tiers (especially useful for SaaS).

Example Activity: Design a 3-tier pricing plan.

5. Cash Flow & Budgeting

Sub-Goals:

  • Understand why profit is not the same as cash flow.
  • Build a basic monthly cash flow forecast.
  • Learn to prepare for low-cash months.
  • Learn to manage salaries, rent, inventory, and savings wisely.

Example Activity: Create a monthly budget and forecast for the next 3 months.

6. Business Planning & Decision Making

Sub-Goals:

  • Use financial data to make smart business decisions (hire? expand? invest?)
  • Build a simple business plan with a budget and financial projection.
  • Understand basic startup terms: runway, burn rate, CAC, LTV.
  • Identify risk and learn how to reduce it.

Example Activity: Compare two businesses and decide which is safer to launch.

🧠 Soft Skill Goals (Throughout the Course)

  • Develop a problem-solving mindset using financial thinking.
  • Learn to ask the right financial questions before making decisions.
  • Build confidence in talking about money, even if you're not "a numbers person".