Accounting

 Dive into concepts like financial analysis, accounting, and budgeting. Learn how to use financial data to diagnose business conditions, identify issues, and develop plans. Explore processes to determine how money will be spent to get work done and see how to set and maintain realistic budgets.  

 Anyone who needs to interpret financial statements or communicate financial results needs a solid understanding of financial accounting. This comprehensive, self-contained training course is designed to give business professionals—including managers, analysts, and entrepreneurs—the confidence they need to use financial data to drive strategic decision-making. Professors Jim Stice and Kay Stice use actual reports from real-world companies like Microsoft and Walmart to drive home ideas such as the difference between net income and cash flow and why the credits and debits system is so important to everyday accounting. They help you understand assets and liabilities; interpret balance sheets, income statements, and statement of cash flows; evaluate and adjust journal entries; and prepare your own financial statements. This is an MBA-level course, layered with case studies and insights that will help you bridge the gap between the academics of accounting and its real-world application.  

 While their products and services may differ wildly, successful companies have at least one thing in common: they're savvy with a financial report. Financial statements and reports allow accounting and finance professionals to peer into the inner workings of their organization, pinpointing key areas of risk before they evolve into issues that steer the company off course. In this course—the second installment in the Financial Accounting series—accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice take a deeper dive into the world of financial accounting. Jim and Kay discuss financial ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, forecasting financial statements, business valuation, and more. To wrap up the course, they use the different models covered in the course to estimate the value of McDonalds.  

 Whether you're a professional accountant or a manager at a small-sized firm, navigating business taxes can be intimidating. Business taxes are an ongoing process for most businesses, with multiple due dates throughout the year. This course was designed to unlock the mystery around these forms and deadlines. Join professor Michael McDonald as he dives into the foundations of business taxes, detailing what needs to be submitted to the IRS, when it needs to be submitted, and the essentials of completing these tax forms. Upon completing this course, you'll have a deeper understanding of the government's rules and requirements, as well as how to save time and funds when filing business taxes. 

 The cash flow statement is one of the three primary financial statements, but because it has only been around since 1988, many traditional business analysis models don't include it. And improper cash flow can mean the death of a business. This course reviews all the important topics you need to know for proper cash flow management and analysis. Professors Jim and Kay Stice review the difference between net income and operating cash flow, show how to interpret a cash flow statement, introduce the Jim Stice operating cash flow matrix, and describe some real cash flow catastrophes and triumphs at companies such as General Motors and Home Depot.  

 Accountants use the credits and debits recorded in ledgers or "books" prepared by bookkeepers to create a company's financial statements. In this course, accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice walk you through the four key steps in the bookkeeping process: analyzing, recording, summarizing transactions, and preparing financial reports. They explain the components of a journal entry (debits and credits) and the essential questions a bookkeeper/accountant asks in reviewing those transactions. They also explain how accountants translate ledger information into financial statements, and the role of computer programs such as Quicken in helping businesses manage their accounts.  

 Are you curious about the financial details of big companies like Walmart and Boeing, but shy away from further investigation because you don't consider yourself a numbers person? In this series, accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice—who have been exploring financial information for a combined 60 years—break down essential accounting and finance concepts into manageable, bite-sized chunks. They help you understand the balance sheet, debits and credits, company operating cycles, and more. In addition, they explain where to find accounting information in the real world, and what to do with it once you have it. 

 How can you make sure your financial statements accurately reflect the economic activities of your company? Put a great process in place and follow the accounting rules. Fortunately, we already have a process, the accounting cycle—we just need to learn it and implement it. And, the accounting rules already exist, too. In this course, you’ll master the accounting cycle and learn the rules of accrual-based accounting and how they differ from those of cash-based accounting, which is what you’re probably familiar with now.

By the end of this course, you'll know exactly how the financial statements came to be as well as how nearly every transaction your business makes will impact those financial statements. This course will set you apart and give your accounting and business acumen the boost it needs. 

 Managerial accounting helps managers make decisions using an organization's financial data. An understanding of managerial accounting helps you figure out how much a product costs, analyze when your company breaks even, and budget for expenses and future growth. In this course, accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice cover all the fundamentals, including costs and cost behaviors, cost-volume-profit (CVP) relationships, cost flows, standard costing and activity-based costing, and budgeting. 

 Bookkeeping—financial record keeping—is the cornerstone of a healthy business. Accurate records ensure you can make intelligent decisions, stay on the right side of the IRS, and demonstrate the value of your business should you decide to sell it. Join accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice for this overview of financial record keeping. Learn how to create forecasts and a quantitative business plan, capture rudimentary business data such as sales and expenses, understand income tax reporting, and prepare detailed reports to help you attract financing from banks and other investors. This is an introductory course—no prior accounting knowledge is required. After taking it, you should understand the basics of this critical business function.  

 Managing a company’s financial records entails a lot more than keeping track of money coming in and going out. Put one revenue stream in the wrong column, and you could grossly misrepresent your company’s financial health. In this course, accounting professors Jim Stice and Kay Stice dive deep into the accounting strategies behind more complex, higher-level bookkeeping practices. They cover topics such as adjusting entries, strategies for dealing with bookkeeping mistakes, closing entries, and making auditing of books easier.  

 Financial ratios—such as ROI (return on investment) or ROA (return on assets)— are a valuable tool for measuring a company's progress against a financial goal, a certain competitor, or the overall industry. In this course, professors Jim and Kay Stice explain the financial ratios found on balance sheets, income statements, and cash-flow statements and provide examples from real-world companies such as Walmart, Nordstrom, and McDonald's. They help you understand how to use financial ratios to analyze or benchmark your company against other companies. 

Does your job require you to create or interpret statements of cash flow? This document is a key part of the financial documents put together by both public and private organizations and is one of the best indicators of a business’s financial health. In this course, Jim and Kay Stice, professors of accounting, show you how to create a strong statement of cash flows for an organization. Jim and Kay explain the three categories of cash flow, typical cash flow patterns, and the difference between net income and operating cash flow. They examine best practices for creating a statement of cash flows and explore common places where the data you need for this statement can be found in other financial documents. Jim and Kay go over cash flow analysis, then conclude with several real company examples of statements of cash flow. 

 Running an organization without a proper budget (or serving as a manager without insight into your organization's budgeting framework) is an exciting and overwhelming existence. Harnessing the power of a budget gives you the ability to identify challenges and develop strategies on paper to avoid or adapt to those surprises in advance. This course covers the construction of purchase budgets, production budgets, hiring budgets, overhead budgets, and cash budgets. Professors Jim and Kay Stice help you weigh the impact of budgeting on employee morale and show how budgets pay off in the future when you can use them to evaluate your business performance.