Marks & Spencer

Introduction
This report analyses the financial position of Marks & Spencer, one of the UK's leading retailers of clothing, foods, home ware and financial services, serving 10 million customers a week in over 300 UK stores. The Company also trades in 30 countries worldwide, and has a Group turnover in excess of £8 billion.
Firstly, the financial analysis will outline Marks & Spencer's current financial position. Furthermore we will discuss the method in which the company makes financial decisions. The analysis will involve the evaluation of common accounting statements such as balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash flow statements.
The Accounting Cycle
Traditionally businesses operate on a twelve-month cycle which may be the same as the calendar year January to December or perhaps the same as the Tax year, 6 April of one year to the 5 of April of the next year. Alternatively, some businesses operate from the date the business first began to trade, for example 1 July of one year to the 30 June the next year.
During the twelve-month period the business receives many documents of a financial nature which have to be entered in the books of account using either a manual or a computer system.
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