Accounting is one of today’s fast-growing professions, with numerous career path options. This certificate program will help you establish an in-depth understanding of foundational accounting principles and how to apply them in practice.
4 CoursesThis course will help you distinguish between credits and debits while examining the pros and cons of cash-basis accounting versus accrual accounting. You will use the basic steps of the accounting process to make balancing account entries for a variety of transactions.
You will consider the ethical side of accounting: why promises matter and how that translates to accruals, adjusting closing entries, ensuring the accuracy of your statements, correcting errors and estimates, and what to do when accounting goes wrong. You will examine cash inflows and outflows and then analyze this data to create an accurate depiction of a company's economic reality. This will be crucial information for potential investors, partners, creditors etc. You will know when to use a direct cash flow statement versus an indirect cash flow statement and how to accurately reflect transactions.
This course will enable you to interpret the financial statement line items that capture the most central and important operations of any enterprise: the revenue and other cash inflows earned from customers and the related expenses or losses.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed Foundations of Financial Statements or Accruals and Cash Flows or have equivalent experience.
This course will help you interpret financial statement line items that capture the investments an enterprise makes in its future and claims that long-term investors hold on the enterprise.
You will explore the differences between tangible and intangible assets along with the ways in which each can be capitalized and their costs can be allocated to the income statement. You will apply concepts to long-lived assets, such as the “Day Zero” assumption, depreciation (tangible assets), amortization (intangible assets), and cost allocation. Taking this a step further, you will delve into accounting methods used for depreciation and amortization and then look at ways to address impairments, fair value, and the three levels of input. Finally, these concepts will be applied to different aspects of capital such as stocks, bonds, and related valuations.
It is recommended to only take this course if you have completed Foundations of Financial Statements or Accruals and Cash Flows or have equivalent experience.