Earnings Per Share (EPS) refers to net income (profit after tax) divided by outstanding shares. Appearing on income statements, it shows us the earnings of the company after all expenses have been paid off and adjustments made for all depreciation of assets.

As a result of accounting gimmicks, the earnings of a company can be easily manipulated. Therefore, if an investor just focuses on EPS, he may misread the value of a stock and end up making bad investment decisions. However, it will be much harder to manipulate the cash flow statement even tough it can still be done.

High quality EPS refers to earnings that are a relatively true representation of what a company actually earns. Increasingly, cash EPS is being used to evaluate earnings. Also known as operating cash flow per share, it gives us the net effect of the inflow and outflow of money in a company’s day to day operation. A cash flow statement breaks down cash flow into operation, investing and financing. A good company will normally display a growing trend of higher cash EPS against EPS.

Cash EPS measures the net operating cash flow of a company on a per share basis. A higher cash EPS implies that the business is getting more inflows than outflows. Even tough getting more cash inflows doesn’t necessarily mean that the business is making a lot of profit, basically, if a company is consistently getting excess operating cash flow, the business is surely generating extra cash from its sales after deducting all required payments related to the sales. The excess cash can be used to buy new assets, repay shareholders in the form of dividends or reduce outstanding bank borrowings.

Investors need to be extra careful when a company’s EPS is positive but has negative cash EPS. A negative cash EPS means the company has more operating cash outflows than inflows. It also implies that the company may have high inventory that isn’t selling or receivables that aren’t being collected. This requires extra financing either from shareholders’ money or banker’s loans. If this situation persists for a long period, shareholders or bankers may stop financing and want to be repaid.

Conversely, if a company has negative EPS but has positive cash EPS, investors need not be too worried about the losses incurred. Certain financial experts also define cash EPS as ‘EPS plus all non cash items’ like amortization and depreciation. Even though a company’s income can be affected by depreciation, amortization and other non-cash exceptional items, it can still generate positive cash flow from operations. If the company has zero borrowings, the extra cash flow can be used to reward shareholders with higher dividend payments.

It will be good of can compare a company’s cash with its own historical trend or those of other companies. Due to the cyclical nature of certain industries, investors shouldn’t be too worried about a temporary negative cash EPS when the whole industry is on a downtrend.

Investors will have a better picture of a company’s performance when they analyze the difference between the trend of cash EPS and EPS. If a company’s EPS and cash EPS are growing higher and cash EPS is always higher than EPS in most periods, this shows high quality in EPS.

Cash EPS is a powerful tool to use in determining the quality of a company’s earnings. Companies with a growing stream of cash EPS are better investments than those with higher EPS growth but negative cash EPS. Investors may be rewarded with higher dividend payments from the excess cash. However, if cash EPS is always lower than EPS, investors need to investigate whether it’s only temporary or due to high trade receivables, which may later result in high bad debts.

So you’re looking for free retirement planning advice to help you achieve your retirement goals? Of course, many people want this information to help them live out the retirement plans of their dreams in their golden years.

Quite simply, the vast majority people never achieve their retirement goals because they simply lacked having a plan in place before they retired. Don’t be one of these. Follow these important tips, and you’ll achieve the retirement planning goals you’ve always wanted.

Here’s the first bit of free retirements planning advice you need: keep in mind that the absolute most important part of achieving your retirement planning goals is to have a plan in place beforehand. You’d be amazed how many people don’t do this. Quite simply, how can you ever get somewhere when you don’t even know where you want to go?

For this, sit down and write out exactly what you want to achieve during your retirement years. For instance, what kind of house do you want to live in? What kind of car do you want to drive? Where do you want to travel? Again, leave no stone unturned.

I know I’ve said it many times before, but you can never have your goals too specific in your retirement planning process. Once you understand this, then figure out how much money all this will cost you in your retirement years. Now comes the most crucial point: figuring out exactly what kind of investment vehicle will help you get there.

This is the most important part, because without the right an investment vehicle, you’ll never achieve your retirement planning goals. For this, you can either find the right investment vehicle yourself if you are financially educated, or you can hire financial planning advisor to do this for you.

Financial planning advisors are great because they’ve studied a lot about investments, and can help you find the right one for you. Their retirement planning advice certainly isn’t free, but is well worth paying for in most cases. Of course, it’s always advisable to do your own research and become financially educated yourself; this way, when a great investment opportunity arises, you can jump on it yourself.

Just about every wealthy person in the world knows at least something about money in order to build to profit themselves. If you are relying totally on your financial planning advisor, you will always be limited in the amount of money you can earn. Follow this free retirement planning advice and you’ll achieve the retirement plans of your dreams, and you’ll live out exactly what kind of lifestyle you’ve always wanted to in your golden years.

Are you in the habit of whipping out your plastic for every purchase?

Now days, most people have the same problem.

With gasoline and other everyday expenditure on a steady rise in cost, most Americans turn to credit cards to pay for their everyday expenses.

But with this influx of credit card use comes an influx of bills that become harder and harder to pay each month.

Sources of cash for many Americans are withering away, says Dick Reed, of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Atlanta. Reed has noticed a rise in business as more and more clients are mounting up credit card debt. He goes on to say that customers simply do not have a place to go and get cash. They are digging further into debt in order to pay for, not only standard everyday expenditure, but in order to make the minimum payment on existing debt.

National statistics exemplify this growing trend as the Federal Reserve reports that the average amount of credit card debt in America jumped 6.7 percent in quarter one this year and totaled around 957 billion dollars. Perhaps most troubling is that this increase developed in spite of the fact that most financial institutions are tightening the reins on lending.

In Atlanta, Georgia debtors reported, on average, 29,300 dollars worth of unsecured debt. The most of which was wrapped up in credit cards. This number is up over 4,000 dollars since the 2007 report. Debtors spend an average of 335 dollars on groceries and 242 dollars on gas, whereas one year earlier, those expenses averaged only 291 dollars and 181 dollars.

Many people admit that they’d rather not rack up credit card debt, but other options, like refinancing for lesser interest rates, are no longer readily available due to collapsing housing markets. This leaves many consumers with little option.

When faced with the rising prices of gas and food, many people find that they have no choice but to “charge it” in order to make ends meet.

People are unable to upgrade their income, yet expenses are increasing exponentially. Credit cards become the best way to compensate, says Sara Gilbert of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Lois Eldridge, a retiree in Arizona, has looked on in horror as her credit card bill doubled to 2,000 dollars in the last several months. High gas and food costs required her to charge these rudiments for the very first time last year.

She has been forced to reduce extra expenditures like entertainment, clothing, and eating out. Although this tactic has helped, she still charges an average of 100 dollars each month.

Lois was also forced to ‘come out of retirement’, so to speak, when she attempted to secure a job at the college in her area to complement her income from Social Security. Unfortunately, she learned that employers offered too little money, or informed her that she was ‘overqualified’ for the available position. Her only other option was a minimum wage job with a local retailer.

My earnings have remained the same even though my expenses are way higher than they were last year even taking into account my attempts at cutting back, says Eldridge, now 71, who has a plan to put her tax refund toward her outstanding debt. I am incredibly overwhelmed by the fact that I’ve had to use my credit cards. I’ve never needed to before. The last 6 months have been a constant worry.

She is not the only one in worry. Analysts declare that card balances and late payments are increasing dramatically, a sure sign that a large group of Americans cannot afford what they spend each month.

It seems that the most trouble seems to be in areas with a weak housing market where a large number of people are already under pressure with mortgage payments. With unemployment on the rise and employers unable to offer overtime, many people find they just don’t make enough to cover their bills.

Many claim they only use their cards for expediency sake and that they do in fact pay their statements on time, but it seems some fractures are appearing in that scenario.

Credit card delinquency rates reached a four-year in February, according to Moody’s debt ranking agency.

Once people have gotten behind, it’s growing more and more difficult for them to get back on track with their card payments again says William Black of Moody’s. We’re in a very taxing economic atmosphere. There’s a lesser amount of cash to go around.

In the meantime, credit card balances are sneaking up progressively, and have been since the beginning of 2006. They leaped nearly 9 percent during 2007. This is due to a growing number of people who spend more and pay less each month plus other exciting and attractive offers like Chase credit cards, 0% interest Visa card balance transfer, and more.

Another sad fact is, in spite of the troubles people incur with increasing credit card debt, the number of cards issued is also on the rise. At the close of 2007, there was a whopping 420 million credit cards in the marketplace, that’s up 7.6 percent from the year prior.

Growing balances and late payments are bad for the economy, which depends heavily on consumer expenditures, says Bill Hampel, of the Credit Union National Assn.

Many people will stop going to dinner or to the movies as they see their balances rise. This will injure the economy to a great extent.

If you’re buried in debt and can’t get out and would like to share your story, or if you’ve actually managed to climb out of the pit and want the opportunity to help others, let us know about situation, we want to help.

Some of the mid-market and smaller ERP customers are still deploying Great Plains Accounting version 9.5, or 9.2 for DOS, Windows or Macintosh.  There are numerous GPA installations frozen for data inquiry only, this is also helpful if you may expect future audit.  From time to time we hear requests to open GPA database for ODBC connection, typically when your IT programmer has the project to create several reports out of the old accounting database.  Of course, internet is the place where you are looking for free advice or instructions.  We’ll try to give you both:

1. DDF files.  Btrieve opens its tables via so called Data Definition Files (DDF).  If you still have your old GPA installation media, diskettes, please read Btrieve manuals, available on documentation folder on your Great Plains Accounting CD.  There you should be able to find instructions on DDF files creation for your version of the Accounting application.  There is of course some inconvenience, as you will have to mount floppy drive, and run DDF generation from one of the installation floppies

2. Pervasive SQL 2000 Server and Client installation.  We have not tested GP for DOS on 64 bit platform, we know that it is compatible with 32 bit Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7.  We also tested ODBC connection for earlier versions of Pervasive SQL 2000 on 32 bit operating system.  Most of the computers sold in the warehouses are on 64 bit Windows 7.  We recommend you to get something really tiny, netbook on Intel Atom with Windows XP 32 bit, for example to do the job.  Go ahead and install Pervasive SQL 2000 Server and Workstation (Pervasive Control Center with SQL query tool).  Then, be sure, that you copied DDF files into GPData folder (or if you have multiple companies, in the root of the targeted company).  Open Pervasive Control Center and create new database with your GPA company name and specify the folder, when transferred to ODBC DDF creation, check DDF files available checkbox.  If you did everything right, new DB will be created and you are now able to see its tables listed in the right panel

3. ODBC connection from Crystal Reports, MS Access, Excel.  Please, note that there are older modules of GPA where it was deploying one Btrieve file per table (GL, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable) and newer modules, where several tables might be hosted in single Btrieve file (Order Entry module, for example).  One table-file Btrieve is open for being connected via ODBC, including Crystal, MS Access.  For multitable hosting files there is the chance that ODBC driver will give you error message in connection and you have to do the job directly in Pervasive SQL Control Center Query Screen.  Here the technology is the following.  Try first exporting table into the text file and import it into Excel, or Access, but chances are high, that you will get into column shifting mess.  If this approach doesn’t work, try creating SQL query, where you are selecting only required columns (please, be aware that date columns might be screwed in your DB, especially when you see error message in ODBC connection “Invalid Date”).  Through Pervasive SQL Control Center the goal is to export your table into the text file (with the good columns only) and then import this text into MS SQL, Access, MySQL, Oracle, or another database platform for reporting purposes

Question: Should I negotiate with the insurance adjuster myself without the help of an attorney in order to settle a Rhode Island personal injury, slip and fall or automobile / auto / car accident case?

Answers: No. Representing yourself and negotiating with an insurance adjuster is usually not a good idea! Because you are not an attorney and have not handled personal injury matters before, you are often not aware of the full value of your case. The insurance adjuster may take advantage of your inexperience. Insurance adjusters typically will offer a lot less money to a person representing themselves than they would to an attorney representing a client. (Article by David Slepkow 401-437-1100)

Furthermore, when you are representing yourself in a Rhode Island personal injury or slip and fall case, the insurance company knows that you do not know how to litigate a lawsuit. Therefore you don’t have as much leverage with the insurance adjuster.

Question: How do Rhode Island personal injury lawyers charge for personal injury /automobile/ car accident and slip and fall cases?

Answer: Most lawyers In Rhode Island take personal injury, premises liability, dog bite cases, slip and fall and auto / car accidents on a contingent fee basis. Article by David slepkow (401-437-1100) This means that the lawyers do not collect any fees unless they are successful in settling your personal injury case or winning a verdict at trial. The lawyer typically will take the case costs from the settlement or verdict at the end of the case. Most attorneys advance case costs.

Question: If I hire a Rhode Island personal injury attorney, how does the process work?

Answer: You should retain a RI personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after the automobile or other accident. At the first meeting, the attorney typically will get all the important information concerning the accident including, but not limited to, the names of the witnesses, all injuries and the treating physician and doctors.

The attorney may want to visit the actual scene of the accident or slip and fall so that he can get further prospective on how the accident occurred. If the case is a slip and fall case, the lawyer should visit the scene of the accident if possible and interview potential witnesses. If you have any pictures of the accident scene, your damaged automobile, or of the resulting injuries, it is usually a good idea to show those to the lawyer.

If your lawyer is interested in taking the case, he or she will typically enter into a contingent fee personal injury fee agreement with you. You will need to provide a list of the names and addresses of all witnesses. Your lawyer will also ask you for the names and addresses of all treating physicians and the names and addresses of all hospitals and treating facilities. The lawyer will ask you to sign medical releases pursuant to federal law which will allow your lawyer to collect your medical bills and medical records from your health care provider concerning your injury.

The attorney will be very interested in knowing whether or not you have health insurance and the extent of your health insurance coverage. If your health insurance plan is covering your medical bills, they typically have a lien against any settlement proceeds you receive. It is necessary for your lawyer on your behalf to repay your health insurance company from the proceeds of any settlement or verdict that you receive. These liens typically can be negotiated with the health insurance company. Some insurance companies will typically lower their lien 25% to 33% to account for the work that your attorney has done on the case.

Sometimes, if liability or damage are in dispute, you can get a further reduction of the lien. Typically your lawyer will not be able to disburse any monies to you until he has paid the insurance company for the lien amount.

After the initial consultation and after you have retained the personal injury lawyer, the lawyer will typically do an investigation, if necessary, by calling witnesses, reviewing police reports, or doing anything else that is necessary to further your case. The attorney may need to read relevant Rhode Island negligence case law to evaluate the merits of your perspnal injury case. The attorney will collect your medical records and billing records. Obtaining your billing records for the accident from the medical providers is extremely important because the amount of medical bills that you have is a very important factor in determining the ultimate value of your case for settlement or trial purposes.

Your attorney typically will wait until he/she believes that you have reached a certain point in your medical treatment before he makes an offer to the insurance company to settle your personal injury case. Attorneys are typically concerned that they will settle the case prior to knowing the full extent of a person’s injuries. After an automobile accident case is settled and the release is signed, there is no way to get paid any further damages even if your injuries become substantially more severe. Therefore, it is usually not a good idea to settle the personal injury case prior to having some idea as to the extent of your injuries in the future. Your back, neck, shoulder or leg injury could get worse as time goes bye.

After the lawyer meets with you, he will typically send a letter of representation to all the insurance companies involved giving them general information about the case. The insurance company will open up a personal injury case file and respond to your attorney. Insurance companies are required by law to investigate the facts and look into the potential personal injury cause of action. When the attorney is comfortable that the right time has arrived, he or she will typically send a settlement package to the insurance company. This settlement letter usually includes an evaluation of the permanency of the injury, if any, and describes the pain and suffering of the client as well as any lost wages and medical bills incurred. The attorney typically includes in the settlement package an initial demand for settlement of the case.

The insurance company will usually reply to the letter with either an offer to settle the case or a denial of liability. If the insurance company is denying liability in the persoanl injury case and refusing to pay anything, then the attorney will have no choice but to file a lawsuit to seek damages. In the event that a settlement offer is made to the attorney, there usually will be a period of negotiation to see if the parties can agree to a settlement amount.

If the parties cannot agree to a settlement amount, it may be necessary to file a personal injury/ negligence law suit in either any of the Rhode Island District Courts or Rhode Island Superior Court. In Rhode Island (RI), most personal injury, automobile accident, premises liability and slip and fall cases are handled in Rhode Island Superior Court because matters over $10,000.00 in Rhode Island must be heard in Superior Court.

Question: My Rhode Island personal injury attorney is unable to settle my car accident case with the insurance adjuster, then what happens next?

Answer: If the attorney is unable to settle the case with the insurance adjuster, then it is necessary to file a lawsuit in court. The process of a Rhode Island personal injury civil lawsuit can take up to a few years to resolve. Your lawyer will file a complaint in court alleging negligence or other causes of action asking the court to award you damages. After the complaint is filed, the insurance company will typically hire an attorney to represent their insured. The insurance company’s lawyer will file an answer to the case.

After the complaint and answer are filed, there is usually a discovery period. The parties can send interrogatories to each other which are written questions that the other party must answer. The parties can also take depositions of witnesses which is when the other lawyer asks you questions about the case in front of a stenographer. After the discovery period, there may be a motion to dismiss or motions for summary judgment that are filed by either of the parties.

If the case is not dismissed or summarily decided, then the case will proceed to trial. The average amount of time for a law suit in Rhode Island is about two years, although the amount of time for the law suit could vary depending on how complex the case is, availability of witnesses, and the amount of cases on the docket.

Question: How do I obtain evidence of my personal injury in Rhode Island?

Answer: Please take photographs of all injuries including , but not limited to, cuts, bruises and broken bones. Do not wait too long after the accident. Please do the best that you can to obtain the witness names, addresses, phone numbers, and other information to give to your Rhode Island personal injury attorney. Please keep records of your out-of-pocket expenses for your medical bills, lost wages and other expenses incurred such as medication and medical accessories. You need to keep accurate records because you will need to provide them to the insurance company. If your injury was caused by a whiplash injury caused by a rear end accident you may need to hire an expert to testify on your behalf as to the seriousness of upper and lower back injuries caused by whiplash.

Question: Will my Rhode Island personal injury lawyer keep what I tell him confidential?

Answer: In Rhode Island there is an attorney-client privilege. Your attorney is precluded from disclosing confidential information that you do not want him to disclose to others. There is certain limited exceptions to the attorney-client privilege which usually do not apply.

Question: What type of costs are typically incurred in Rhode Island (RI) personal injury cases?

Answer: Out-of-pocketcosts, are expenses that are incurred by your lawyer to properly settle or litigate your case. The out of pocket expenses are usually advanced by the lawyer. Medical providers usually charge a nominal fee to copy your medical records. Most doctors also charge a fee to write a comprehensive medical report detailing your course of treatment, injury prognosis and whether or not your injuries are permanent. If it is necessary to have a doctor testify at the trial of your case, then the doctor may charge a substantial fee for his attendance.

Another example of out-of-pocket expenses that you may incur is a filing fee to file the complaint in Providence / kent / Newport or Washington County Superior Court and the fee for service of process of the personal injury complaint.

The amount of costs incurred in your case varies from case to case and depend on how complex your persoanl injury case is. The more serious your injuries are the more out of pocket expenses that may be incurred. Most attorneys will get prior approval before incurring a substantial cost on your behalf.