Accounting is the language of business. If you are learning accounting for the first time, embracing its foundational concepts may be challenging. Mastery of accounting primarily rests in your ability to think critically and synthesize the information as it applies to a given situation. You should approach the learning of accounting the same way you would approach learning a foreign language; it will take time and practice to ensure you remember the concepts.
Many sub-disciplines fall under the umbrella of accounting, but this course will focus on financial accounting. Accounting as a business discipline can be viewed as a system of compiled data. Data should not be confused with information. In accounting, data is the raw transactions or business activity that happens within any business entity. For example, if someone uses $30,000 of their savings to start a business, that is a point of data. Now that you have this data, what will you do with it? Of course, the answer is accounting!
This course will introduce you to financial accounting in preparation for more advanced business topics. Recording financial information in a standard format allows managers, investors, lenders, stakeholders, and regulators to make appropriate decisions. In this course, we will look at the Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and Statement of Shareholders' Equity. You will learn how to compile and analyze these financial statements from the accounting data you have created.
There is a specific way that financial data is recorded, so a foundational understanding of this process is necessary. Understanding the meaning and use of concepts like journals, journal entries, ledger, trial balance, debits and credits, and vertical/horizontal analysis is an important part of studying financial accounting.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 8 hours.
By now, you should understand the guiding principles and concepts of accounting. You will now need to learn how to synthesize this information, which often requires an adjusting journal entry. Before you can learn about adjusting entries, you will need to be able to distinguish between cash- and accrual-based accounting. There is some distinction between the two methods, and while some smaller businesses may be able to effectively use a cash basis of accounting, most organizations use an accrual basis of accounting. Because of this, we will use the accrual basis in this course. Adjusting entries are needed in order to convert the activities that happen in your business to meet the rules that govern the accounting system. For example, if you paid for a year's rent up front, you need to make an adjusting entry to show one month of rent expense. If you did not make this adjustment, your results for this month would be artifically high, and you might make poor business decisions as a result.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
So far, you've learned how to process the raw data of the transactions that happen in a business entity into useable information in the form of the financial statements. This unit will explain how to review and summarize the accounting cycle and prepare the income statement, the statement of retained earnings, and the balance sheet. All businesses have to prepare financial statements, both for internal decision making, and for external stakeholders (including the IRS!), so understanding this important concept is critical for any manager.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
In this unit, you will learn about financial reporting and examine the financial statements of a public company. Public companies are required to file their financial statements with the SEC on a quarterly and annual basis. The SEC has a standard format for presenting financial information that helps us read and interpret financial information. Understanding financial reports can help you in a variety of important ways: judging the financial health of the company you work for, looking into investment options, analyzing a potential vendor, customer, or partner, and even considering employment options. Knowing how to read and analyze financial statements is a must for anyone in business.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.
Many businesses have to buy merchandise for their end-users to conduct their daily activities. There are a number of ways to account for the purchasing and integration of this merchandise within a business, and the decision on how a business will account for this rests on a number of factors. This unit introduces the inventory valuation concepts FIFO (First in First Out), LIFO (Last in First Out), and the weighted average. Choosing an inventory valuation method is a major decision a merchandising business entity will have to make before the merchandise is purchased. It also dictates the valuation of the merchandise on hand within the business. Understanding how inventory valuation method choice impacts the reported financial results is also important in analyzing financial statements.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.
During the course of regular business, it is common to provide credit to some customers. Once a business provides an extension of credit, it now owns a promise that it will be paid back. As part of this agreement, the business entity will charge interest at varying rates, which are typically imposed based on the customer's creditworthiness. It is also common that the business will not be able to collect some of these credit extensions. In accounting, we identify these promises someone makes to a business entity as accounts receivable. This unit discusses accounts receivables and highlights specific information on what to do when a business extends credit to its customers.
During the regular course of business, there will also be times where the business entity needs to make specific purchases to support the regular business activity when they do not have enough cash on hand from a current asset perspective. In these situations, the business should have lines of credit, where the business has promised to pay someone else as a result of being extended a particular line of credit or goods on credit. These transactions are considered payables and create liabilities for the organization. Liability can also be considered a promise to pay.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Property, plant, and equipment require the largest amount of investment for a company. This unit introduces the life cycle of tangible long-term assets: acquisition, depreciation, and disposal. This unit also includes other long-term assets like natural resources and intangible assets. Businesses like mines and lumber companies account for resources that are extracted from the environment. The most common intangible asset is goodwill, which is recorded when acquiring a company. Major asset purchases can have a large impact on cash flow, taxes, and long-term profitability. It is important to understand how the accounting is handled,and what options a company has within the accounting rules, so smart strategic decisions can be made.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 8 hours.
This unit addresses the two ways a company can raise funds: debt and equity. To finance long-term assets, companies issue long-term debt in the form of bonds. Equity is most often issued when companies begin operations to raise startup capital. If you want to learn more about debt and equity, you may be interested in BUS202: Principles of Finance. Understanding financing better, whether debt or equity, can help you understand your investment options, as well as the choices your company is presented with. Stocks and bonds are fundamental to both personal and corporate finance..
Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.
The balance sheet and income statement are prepared using the accrual basis of accounting. The statement of cash flows is prepared using information from accrual-basis statements to tell what cash was received and how cash was spent. The statement of cash flows classifies business transactions as operating activities, investing activities, or financing activities. Cash management is crucial to business survival. Just as you might make enough on an annual basis to pay all your bills, you need to know if you will have enough in your checking account when your school tax bill is due. The timing of cash flows is critical for all businesses to survive.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 6 hours.
This study guide will help you get ready for the final exam. It discusses the key topics in each unit, walks through the learning outcomes, and lists important vocabulary. It is not meant to replace the course materials!
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Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.
To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.
Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.
Take this exam if you want to earn college credit for this course. This course is eligible for college credit through Saylor Academy's Saylor Direct Credit Program.
The Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam requires a proctoring fee of $5. To pass this course and earn a Credly Badge and official transcript, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the Saylor Direct Credit Final Exam. Your grade for this exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again a maximum of 3 times, with a 14-day waiting period between each attempt.
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Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a Credly Badge and can request an official transcript.
In this introductory unit, you will learn about a variety of the foundational elements of accounting that are crucial to understanding the material in this course. To understand financial accounting, you will need to know the purpose of each of the four basic financial statements, how data is captured and transformed into information, and how the accounting equation seeks to ensure that you are properly recording the data. Throughout this course, we will introduce you to several career opportunities. Consider this information as you explore the viability of accounting as a career and use it to reinforce how significant these concepts are to the success of business operations.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.