In the modern business world companies are faced with a numbers of opportunities and threats, and there is a slight difference between the two. Every opportunity can quickly become a threat, and vice versa. Each threat is also an opportunity for somebody. Regardless of the situation, companies have to react very quickly. Therefore, company owners and the management of the company are under great strain because they have to quickly make the right decision. The decision may be good and contribute to the creation of additional profits, but can also be bad and lead to certain financial problems and business difficulties. In order to facilitate the adoption of business decisions financial statements are prepared that provide insight into the state of assets, liabilities, capital, and show us the business results as well as movements and the cash balance at the end of the business period. The purpose, objectives and legal regulation which are used for the preparation of financial statements in the Republic of Croatia is shown in the second chapter of this thesis. Also, there is a short review of the basic financial statements that can be prepared for internal and external users. When financial statements are compiled, they can be further analyzed for internal purposes and call also beused for monitoring the trend of change in certain items in a report during the observed period. Changes in items can be identified by applying horizontal or vertical analysis, as well as specific indicators. The indicators can be used to determine how the company operates, its liquidity, indebtedness, profitability and so on. The basic instruments and analysis procedures will be discussed in the third chapter. The fourth section discusses the comparative analysis of the financial statements of selected companies in the meat industry in the Republic of Croatia in the period from 2010 to 2014. In this chapter financial reports of selected companies of the meat industry will be analyzed and compared on the basis of previously acquired knowledge. Using aforementioned methods, instruments and examples, the company's management should make business decisions more easily, provide that comparative analysis is properly conducted.