Stan: A dynamic web-based application for financial statement analysis

In a globalized ever-changing world, financial analysis systems should be flexible and extensible in terms of accounting standards, financial expertise and languages. In this paper a new web-based tool for financial statement analysis is proposed which exhibits all the preceding attributes. The proposed tool named STAN (Statement Analysis) is a fully automated, multilingual, flexible and extendable platform, and it can be efficiently used even by non-financial experts. The core system can perform a thorough financial statement analysis by employing Trend Indicators, Vertical analysis and financial ratios simultaneously. Data from different accounting standards can be processed and the resulting financial ratios are presented as plain text based on decision tree analysis. The rules and the text of the decision tree are fully customizable from the user interface. The application is developed using exclusively free and open source software tools. The reliability of the results of the application is examined in a case study analysis of a well-known enterprise which reveals its advantages – disadvantages. Topics for future research are also proposed.