Business case guide FAQ > Business case finance > Financial statement metrics: confusing economics with accounting
Search the glossary for business case terms often ill-defined, confused, or prone to misinformation:
Beware of business case trainers bearing "25 MS Excel worksheets filled with...every relevant cash flow and financial statement metric." Measuring cash is the point, but financial statement metrics?
Business cases are an economic decision: Should we invest in this project? It's not an accounting decision. No debits or credits needed.
You don't need to give much thought to financial statement metrics. Project-related cash flows will impact the balance sheet (especially, working capital) and income statement (costs and, hopefully, benefits will show up there). All this is secondary to doing a cost benefit analysis based on the cash going out and the cash coming back in.
