It can be said quite categorically and without malice that in today’s knowledge economy the balance sheet and the P&L are no longer fit for purpose, if only because the balance sheet has to be a strange place to NOT find “our biggest asset”.

HPA and its partners have devised pinpoint measurements to assist Finance Directors with this challenge.

As an asset people aren’t owned by but only loaned to the business, with no guarantee of any fixed term to the loan. People leave the premises every evening and may not come back. They are also liable to physical and mental ill health, genuine and imagined. They are no better and no worse than anyone else when it comes to self interest. Yet some employees are clearly better than others.

HPA is finding ways to selectively report on these differences, and develop tools that allow the FD (and advisers to M&A specialists) to present an accurate picture of the true health of the business, quarter by quarter.

The P&L doesn't perform much better than the balance sheet. It logs people as “costs” which is a strange rubric for an asset - when there is no reason why the P&L could not be partially redesigned to reflect people as investments as well as costs. Additionally, there are ways in which all people costs can be more accurately reflected on the P&L, instead of being distributed among insurance, legal and pension liability expenses and buried even more deeply within HR and management time costs.

HPA’s goal is to move ever closer to an accurate financial picture of people in the workplace, as both liability and asset.

Download our Company Brochure, call 01908 524115 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.