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Topic outline
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Time: 63 hours
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Free Certificate
In BUS103: Financial Accounting, we learned that firms must keep detailed financial records so that they can distribute organized reports to managers, shareholders, and government regulators. This course will focus on what managers, investors, and government agencies do with this information. This introductory course serves several fields of finance and is comparable in content to courses that other institutions might call "corporate finance" or "financial management".
Finance is a broad term; you will find that both managers who compile the financial reports we discussed in financial accounting and stockbrokers working on Wall Street will claim that they "work in finance". So, what exactly is finance? Finance is the management of a company's money and scarce resources. It is distinct from accounting; while accounting aims to organize and compile past information, finance is geared toward deciding what to do with it.
You will be exposed to many different sub-fields within finance in this course. You will learn how to determine which projects have the best potential payoff and how to manage investments and value stocks. All finance boils down to one concept: return. In essence, finance asks: "If I give you money today, how much money will I get back in the future?" Though the answer to this question will vary widely from case to case, you will know how to find the answer by the time you finish this course.
You will learn to use financial concepts such as the time value of money, pro forma financial statements, financial ratio analysis, capital budgeting analysis, capital structure, and the cost of capital. This course will also provide an introduction to bonds and stocks. When you finish this course, you will understand financial statements, cash flow, time value of money, stocks and bonds, capital budgeting, ratio analysis, and long-term financing, and how to apply these concepts and skills to business decisions.
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