BUS103: Introduction to Financial Accounting

Read this chapter, which discusses how to define accounting and what the result of accounting (accounting information) is used for. It also considers potential employment opportunities associated with accounting for business and the difference between financial and managerial accounting.

This chapter also introduces the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, and the various organizations that have a significant impact on how GAAP is administered, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and the American Accounting Association (AAA).

It is essential to be ethical in applying accounting principles and managing your reputation. Be mindful of this, especially if you are considering a career in accounting.

This chapter introduces the principles of managerial accounting and points out the differences between managerial accounting and financial accounting. Outside parties do not use managerial accounting; it is primarily used internally by management to make decisions that affect the organization's efficiency.

In this article, you will learn about the rules that govern accounting. GAAP sets the rules that accounts follow when making journal entries and standardizes accounting so outside parties can make comparisons between companies. Investors, creditors, even employees count on the consistency of financial reporting to evaluate operations.

This video introduces basic accounting principles. Pay attention to the various accounting entries and how transactions affect businesses.

In this chapter, you will learn why accounting is important to the business community. You will learn the different types of businesses and how daily transactions are posted and how they affect the financial statements. This chapter also demonstrates how to prepare the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of stockholders' equity. Pay close attention to the steps involved in the accounting cycle from beginning to end. This chapter will introduce you to the framework of the entire accounting process, which may also be called the accounting equation. The fundamental accounting equation is the basic equation that accountants use to record business transactions. The equation states "assets = liabilities + owners' equity". This section gives the direct and alternative identifications of these elements to help you speak the language of accounting. Assets are things that expect to have future value to the company. For example, if the company buys a new car, this car has future value to the company. Liabilities are promises to pay. Some companies may not have all of the money to pay cash for the car, so they will typically finance, or obtain credit for, and borrow the difference between the down payment and the final price of the car. If approved, the company now promises to pay back the bank or business entity who gave the company money. Owners' equity is the owners' claims on assets. This basically means that, as an owner of the company, you have a claim on the asset that is now identified as the new car the company owns.

This short introduction explains the complete accounting cycle in theory, from journal entries to financial statements. Some of this is a repeat, but this short refresher can help you understand a bit better now that you've had a little hands-on work.

This video demonstrates how transactions lead to the creation of financial statements. Vendors, creditors, and investors are only a few of the people who look at and analyze the company's financials. A company's financial statements distill all the economic activities of a company into summarized documents. Learning how to read and analyze financial statements can help you when choosing a company to work for, assessing the long-term prospects of your own company, choosing a company to invest in, and understanding the financial health of companies that play a big role in the community you live in.

Read this article, which walks through the foundational elements of basic accounting and reading financial statements. Some terms have not been covered fully yet, but will be further explained later.

Read each section in this chapter, which explains the purpose of the balance sheet, income statement, and the cash flow statement. It also is a guide to where you will find financials on publicly traded companies. You should get as much practice working on these statements as you can, since they are the fundamental information on any organization. Make the connections between each financial statement. The more you understand the connectivity of these statements, the better understanding you will have of how the entire accounting system works, which is important if you want to understand the overall operations of any company.

This chapter will introduce you to the fundamental theories and rules that guide the system of accounting. The key tenets of accounting are explained, including: double entry, substance over form, the matching principle, the revenue recognition principle, cost-benefit, materiality, and conservatism, as is their impact on the overall application of GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). The underlying intent behind creating financial reports is for the information in the reports to be reliable enough to support sound business decision-making. By the time you finish this chapter, you should have a better understanding of the overall structure of accounting rules and guiding principles.

This reading provides an overview of fraud risk and internal control systems to mitigate them in the corporate world. Barely a day goes by when the news does not include a story about embezzelement or other fraud at companies throughout the US. Part of the role of the accounting system is to help prevent and detect fraud. This information is extremely important for non-accountants to understand as well. If your company does not have strong internal controls, fraud could impact your bottom line or even get you involved in an investigation into criminal behavior.

This video will help you understand the internal control systems that companies put in place in order to prevent fraud and ensure that corporate policies are being followed.

Watch this overview video which explains the fraud triangle and how large companies have abused accounting systems to create large frauds in the past.

Read this article that explains the basic principles of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, which was passed in response to a series of large accounting scandals. This will help you understand some of the rules which govern public companies you may work for or invest in.

Complete these practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

This chapter explains the rules regarding debits and credits. Debits and credit increase and decrease certain accounts. Spend some time learning the rules of debits and credits, since they are the foundation of accounting principles. Posting a debit where a credit should be, or vice versa, will cause you to be out of balance. You will then have to re-trace all of your postings to uncover your error, which would be very frustrating and time-consuming. Since accounting is the "language of business", it is very important that you understand the building blocks of the language.  Even if you hire a CPA to do your books, you need an understanding of what drives your results so that you can manage accordingly, and avoid becoming a victim of fraud.

Read the rules of debits and credits, and copy and keep handy as a quick reference. Then, read the section on the ledger and the chart of accounts again. Learning about financial accounting for the first time is all about building upon and refining your knowledge of accounting processes and methods step-by-step. Be sure to note which accounts are permanent and which accounts are temporary.

This video will help you understand the basic rules of debits and credits in accounting. Some easy acronyms are shown to help you remember the rules!

Since many of you may be confused about why the terms for debits and credits are "backwards", this video explains why! It will help you understand why we refer to a return to a store as a credit, and how common financial terms are based on the accounting equation.

Read each section on this page. You have been exposed to the concepts of recording and journalizing transactions previously, but this explains the rest of the accounting process. The accounting cycle is the repetitive set of steps that must occur in every business every period in order to meet reporting requirements.

This article will give you an introduction to the principles of accounting transactions. Accounting transactions record the amount of money spent and received by a given entity. Take notes while you read.

This video will take you through the various accounting transactions and explain the posting process. Take note of how each transaction affects accounts on the balance sheet and income statement. This section provides the fundamental steps for taking the business that your company does on a daily basis and translating it into accounting lanaguage, to eventually become your financial reports and results.

This video takes you through journal entries and posting to T accounts, and is a continuation of the accounting cycle. Sometimes, it's easier to "see" accounting in action rather than just read about it.

This video takes you deeper into the accounting cycle and walks through how to post transactions to the journal at T accounts.

This video discusses adjusting entries, which you will need to do to get your worksheet ready for the preparation of the financial statements.

This chapter explains the importance of using an accounting system, which will be especially important if you are interested in becoming an auditor.

Watch these short videos on the accounting cycle. If you need to, rewatch the videos for Steps 1 through 4 before you begin. These videos go through the entire accounting cycle: journals, postings, worksheets, adjusting entries, post-closing entries, and financial statements. You will see the process as one continuous activity. The method is slightly different between sole proprietorship companies and corporations. Learn both, since over the course of your career you may find yourself in both types of organization.

Complete these exercises and practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

This chapter dives deeper into the importance of making proper adjustments so that the financial statements reflect the current condition of the organization. One of the main principles of accounting is accurate and honest presentation of the financial condition of an organization. Without the proper posting of adjustments and correcting entries, the financial statements will be incorrect. Accounting is typically done within a specified period so that end users can assess the performance of a business entity. This section also discusses accounting periods, fiscal years, calendar years, adjusting entries, the matching principle, and the two classes and four types of adjusting entries.

This video goes into more detail about cash versus accrual based accounting. Compare it to what you read in the chapter previously. This will help to clarify the difference between these two methods of accounting.

You watched this video in Unit 2, but it may be good to review it now that you know more about adjustments. In accounting, you can't introduce new material without referencing the previous steps.

This article breaks down completing the accounting cycle. Pay attention to the section on adjustments, the section on closing out the accounting cycle process, and the steps involved in closing the books, which we will cover in greater detail in the next unit.

Complete these practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

This chapter will explain the steps required to complete the accounting cycle. This includes understanding the full accounting information cycle, and what is used to create the financial statements that will be provided to required and interested stakeholders. The accounting cycle happens every month for most companies, and requires distinct steps and cutoffs in order to create useful, consistent financial reports that managers can use to make decisions that improve the performance of the company. On a quartery and annual basis, financial statements are created for outside stakeholders as well.

You have already watched the first three videos here, but review them now and then watch the final two videos, which discuss using the perpetual method, the closing cycle, and the preparation of financial statements.

Complete these practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

This video is a reminder of what the 4 basic financial statements contain - the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Retained Earnings, and Cash Flow Statement.

Read these remarks from a former SEC Commissioner, which goes behind the scenes to discuss issues of reporting financial information for public companies. GAAP is integral in reporting transactions.

This is a great introduction to resources that you can use to research any public company. All public companies must report their financials; quarterly reports, end of year tax forms, changes in top management, and so on. If you ever need to look up a company, this will give you the tools you need to navigate the public records system.

Although learning how to read a report sounds daunting, you might be surprised at how much valuable information they offer.

Read this chapter, which discusses how to analyze financial statements and demonstrates the use of ratios and the horizontal and vertical analysis tools that everyone from creditors to investors, vendors, and top management use when they want to identify the strengths and weaknesses in an organization. Analysis tools can help you compare companies of different sizes, companies in different industries, and the same company over time.

This video, and the others that follow, will provide demonstrations of how to perform various aspects of financial statement analysis. These brief videos can help make learning the calculations very simple and save you a lot of time. This first video will describe how to do vertical analysis for financial statements.

Watch this series of brief videos, which will demonstrate how to calculate various financial ratios.

Read this chapter and pay attention to the comparison of the two income statements. This chapter reviews the difference in reporting and financial presentation of information for service and merchandising operations and compares recording inventories for two separate types of businesses.

Read this section, which focuses on the nature of inventory, categories of goods included in inventory, components of inventory cost, and the flow of inventory costs.

Read this section, which focuses on internal controls, perpetual verses periodic counting, conducting a physical inventory, and the impact of measurement error.

Read this chapter. For many organizations, inventory represents a large portion of their assets, so it is important to be familiar with measurement and reporting techniques. Inventory is a major cost for many businesses, and a big source of potential opportunity for firms looking to improve their financial results.

Read this section, which focuses on the four inventory costing methods and the impact each has on the financial statements. It is important to understand the impact of inventory valuation on your own company, and the companies that you partner with, sell to, buy from, and invest in.

This video, and the others that follow, will help you understand the calculations involved in inventory valuation. The differences between LIFO, FIFO, Average Cost and Specific Cost may seem difficult to grasp, but the videos will lay them out in an easy to follow, concise manner. Watching them should also help you with the practice problems at the end of the unit. This first video will introduce the four main inventory costing methods.

This video details the use of the FIFO method under a perpetual inventory system.

This video details the use of the LIFO method under a perpetual inventory system.

This video details the use of the Average Cost method under a perpetual inventory system.

This video details the use of the Specific Cost method.

In addition to the four inventory costing methods above, there are a couple more methods you should be aware of. This section discusses the lower of cost or market and methods in retail inventory.

This video will demonstrate how to apply the lower of cost or market rule in inventory valuation, which you just read about.

Read this section, which focuses on efficiency metrics and the impact of inventory method on financial statement analysis.

Read this section, which focuses on reporting inventories and inventory turnover ratio.

Complete the practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

This chapter discusses accounts receivable, uncollectible accounts, bad debts, and accounts payable.

Pay attention to aging schedules, how to write off receivables, and how credit card transactions should be identified and recorded from the business entity's perspective. Various forms of liabilities that a company might incur are described. Since most businesses operate mainly on credit sales, it is important to understand the implications of your credit and collections policies. Liabilities can be strategically important for a business, and are a necessary part of doing business. However, debt increases the risk of a company, and managing liabilites is crucial for business survival.

These videos cover accounts receivable. Pay attention to accounts and how to show them on the balance sheet. Uncollectible accounts can be a real problem for an organization.

This article covers foreign currency, bad debts on receivables, gain or loss, net realized receivables, and how foreign currency is treated by U.S. organizations. Since business is global, it is important to the effect this has on the financials of any MNC.

This chapter introduces how organizations categorize and account for fixed assets. Assets are recorded at cost, not necessarily market value. It also covers the various methods of depreciation, why each method is used, and the "rate of return" expected by an organization when they purchase an asset. You should be able to explain fair market value, acquisition costs, historical costs, and which costs are capitalized. This chapter addresses the reality that all assets with the exception of land have a useful life. A business should expect some wear and tear on assets as a direct result of using them to support business activity. Depreciation is an allocation process that ensures the useful life of an asset is properly identified from accounting and company valuation.

This video will help explain the different categories of long term assets.

This video will show how to determine the cost of a long term asset that should be recorded in our accounting entries.

This video will explain how we should account for costs involved in the use of long-term assets after the initial purchase is recorded.

These videos will introduce depreciation and how to calculate depreciation using the various depreciation methods.

This chapter details the events that need to be dealt with when disposing assets. There are balance sheet and income statement entries that must be recorded when getting rid of equipment by scrapping it or selling it. It also discusses intangible assets, how to record them, and how to account for their diminishing value. Many business entities will eventually have to dispose of a plant asset. When this happens, the company will either have a loss or show a gain depending on the difference between the asset's sale price and its book value. You will learn the journal entries for a variety of situations, including a gain on the sale of an asset, a loss on the sale of an asset, how to realize loss, and what to do when a fire or flood that destroys an asset.

This video illustrates the disposal of an asset by scrapping. Your text also shows how to account for a sale or exchange.

This video explains how intangible assets, such as Goodwill, are created and accounted for.

Complete the practice problems. Check your answers after you finish.

Read this chapter, which introduces long-term bonds, their value, how they compare with stock. Some companies expand using stock, while some use debt (bonds). The example exercises refer to Appendix A, which is included here.

This video explains the valuation of various bond types and discusses finding the market price of a bond.

Read this chapter, which details stockholders' equity, specifically capital stock. You learn about the different classes of stock, their characteristics, how capital appears on the Statement of Stockholders' Equity, and the steps for issuing stock to the public.

This video will explain the characteristics of common stock and how to record accounting transactions dealing with common stock.

This video will explain the characteristics of preferred stock and how to record accounting transactions dealing with preferred stock. Pay attention to the differences between the two.

Read this chapter, which outlines the different sources of paid-in capital and how they are presented on the balance sheet. This chapter also covers treasury stock, dividends, stock splits, and price-per-share and price-per-earnings ratios.

This video will explain the contra-equity account, Treasury Stock, and the associated impact on the stockholder's equity statement.

This video will explain the accounting for cash dividends, including how to calculate a maximum cash dividend for for preferred stockholders.

Complete the demo problem, and self test true/false and multiple choice questions. Check your answers at the end after you finish.

Complete the demo problems, and self test true/false and multiple choice questions. Check your answers at the end after you finish.

Complete the demo problems, and self test true/false and multiple choice questions. Check your answers at the end after you finish.

Read this chapter, which shows how to record cash flow from operating activities on the statement of cash flows. The chapter also provides an overview of cash flows from operating activities and steps in preparing a statement of cash flows, which will be covered in more detail in the resources that follow.

This article shows the two different methods of preparing a statement of cash flows: direct and indirect.

This video provides an overview of the preparation of the cash flow statement using the indirect method.

Watch this video to learn how to complete the operating activities section of the cash flow statement using the indirect method.

Watch this video to learn how to complete the financing activities section of the cash flow statement using the indirect method.

Watch this video to learn how to complete the investing activities section of the cash flow statement using the indirect method.

This exercise quizzes you on your knowledge of the statement of cash flow and its components.