Basic Accounting Concepts for Non-financial Professionals
Finance and accounting are at the heart of every business. Even if your role isn’t directly related to finance, your activities may still have financial implications.
This course explains the basics of finance for non-finance professionals, and covers key accounting and finance essentials and concepts: the basic accounting equation, accrual-based accounting, and basic accounting principles.
It explores business finance, including how business transactions affect financial statements and the bottom line. You’ll walk through the four-step accounting process, and you’ll learn the fundamental principles of cash flow management and the four types of financial risk.
50 Minutes
- Recall the basic accounting equation
- Recognize the characteristics of cash- and accrual-based accounting
- Match financial activities to the appropriate phase of the accounting process
- Match each basic accounting principle to its description
- Classify examples of cash flow as operating, investing, or financing activities
- Recognize how to calculate the potential cash gain by reducing Economic Float
- Recognize the effect an increase or decrease in working capital has on cash flow
- Match each type of financial risk to a description
Comprehending Financials: A Guide to Financial Statements
The focus of any business is to make a profit, generate enough cash to operate effectively, and be financially viable. Financial statements are used to track a business’s financial information.
There are three basic financial statements used for this purpose: the Income Statement, the Cash Flow Statement, and the Balance Sheet.
In this course, you will learn about each of the three financial statements, their reporting requirements, and how information is arranged within them. You will also examine a few examples of financial statements and explore how each financial statement relates to the others.
50 Minuets
- Recognize the four types of financial data included in an Income Statement and the purpose of each
- Recognize how to calculate gross profit and income using the Income Statement
- Identify the strategies for managing cash flow
- Recognize in which section of a Cash Flow Statement each cash flow item belongs
- Recognize how to calculate cash flow values using the Cash Flow Statement
- Recognize how financial transactions affect the financial state of a company in a given scenario
- Recognize how to compile a Balance Sheet
- Recognize the impact a transaction has on the Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, and Balance Sheet
Basic Budgeting for Non-financial Professionals
It’s not only the Finance department that needs to understand budgeting and finance essentials. Given the importance of finance for non-finance professionals, it’s in everyone’s best interest to have some basic knowledge of one of the most important aspects of business finance – budgeting.
In this course, you’ll learn to identify the characteristics of an effective budget, the stages in planning one, and how to distinguish between budgets types. You’ll also explore budgeting concepts and techniques such as historical and zero-based budgeting, variance analysis, capital budgeting, and performing budgeting calculations.
50 Minutes
- Recognize the attributes of an effective budget
- Recognize the phases of the budgetary planning process
- Distinguish between different budget elements and the type of budget to which they apply
- Recognize the advantages and disadvantages of historical budgeting
- Recognize characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of zero-based budgeting
- Recognize variances that are worth analyzing
- Recognize the key characteristics of the three methods for capital budgeting
- Match the formulas for Payback Period and Net Present Value to the budget calculation each is used to perform
Financial Statement Analysis for Non-financial Professionals
50 Minutes
- Match key terms relating to the time value of money to their descriptions
- Recognize how to calculate the present and future values of a single amount
- Recognize how to calculate the value of key profitability ratios
- Recognize how to calculate the value of key efficiency ratios
- Recognize how to calculate the values of liquidity ratios
- Identify how to calculate the values of solvency ratios
- Recognize examples that are characteristic of horizontal analysis
identify examples that are characteristic of vertical analysis
Key Accounting Concepts and Principles
How do organizations communicate vital business and finance information? Achieving the utmost clarity in communication requires knowledge of financial management and a strong understanding of accounting basics. Accounting an internal function that involves identifying, recording, summarizing, and reporting business transactions and financial events in an organization.
In this course, you’ll learn the core concepts and financial essentials of accounting, such as the accounting equation and its components, as well as the rule of debits and credits. You’ll also develop your financial acumen by exploring the accounting cycle, and the effect of cash and accrual-based accounting systems.
40 Minutes
- Match basic accounting practices to their descriptions
- Recognize examples of assets, liabilities, and shareholder’s equity
- Determine how given transactions affect the accounting equation
- Determine how common transactions affect specific accounts using the debit and credit rule
- Sequence the steps of the accounting cycle
- Identify key characteristics of cash and accrual accounting
Recording, Posting, and Balancing the Books
If your organizational role is related to accounting or finance, you’ll most likely need solid financial acumen and a strong grasp of the accounting basics of recording, posting, and balancing your organization’s books.
In this course, you’ll learn financial essentials related to bookkeeping, such as the steps in the accounting cycle that happen after transactions have been identified and analyzed. You’ll learn how to carry out vital financial management activities, including how to make general and special journal entries, and how to post those transactions to accounts in the general and subsidiary ledgers. You’ll also learn how to prepare trial balances and make adjusting entries.
40 Minutes
- Recognize the columns that need to be completed when making a general journal entry
- Recognize descriptions of commonly used special journals
- Recognize the order in which accounts are typically organized in a general ledger
- Distinguish control accounts from subsidiary ledgers
- Sequence the steps for posting from special journals to ledgers
- Sequence the steps for preparing a trial balance
- Recognize key characteristics of types of trial balances performed within the accounting cycle
- Sequence the steps for adjusting an entry
Preparing Financial Statements and Closing Accounts
Developing your financial acumen is a must in today’s economy, and improving your knowledge of accounting basics and financial management is a good first step. In this course, you’ll explore the financial essentials that will enable you to understand key steps in the management of finance within the accounting cycle.
You’ll learn how, once you’ve worked your way through recording transactions and posting to ledgers, you’re ready to start preparing financial statements. You’ll learn about Income Statements, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow Statements, and how they’re interrelated. You’ll also learn about the steps involved in closing accounts.
40 Minutes
- Match financial statements to their descriptions
- Recognize examples of the components of the income statement
- Sequence the steps of income statement calculations
- Match the components of the balance sheet to their descriptions
- Sequence the steps of preparing a balance sheet
- Match each component of the cash flow statement to its description
- Sequence the steps for preparing a cash flow statement
- Sequence the steps for closing accounts
Accounting for Stock Transactions
One of the great advantages of a corporate form of organization is it allows otherwise unaffiliated people to join in mutual ownership of a business.
Therefore, everyone involved needs an understanding of the financial essentials and how they influence the company’s overall financial management. Strengthening your own financial acumen with a knowledge of accounting basics is the first step.
In this course, you’ll learn about the key characteristics of finance within incorporated organizations. You’ll explore how common financial transactions affect the corporations’ financial position.
You’ll also learn concepts and accounting processes for corporate transactions, including those involving common and preferred stocks, treasury stocks, and dividends.
50 Minutes
- Discover the key concepts covered in this course
- Recognize the critical consequences of a data breach for a business
- Recognize common internal and external digital security risks that businesses need to protect against
- Identify types of threats to data that businesses need to protect against
- Recognize key elements to include in a business’s risk mitigation strategy
- Recognize the value of including operational requirements in a business’s risk mitigation strategy
- Identify best practice processes and digital tools that businesses use to manage and respond to a live crisis
- Recognize key challenges facing businesses undergoing a digital transformation
- Identify key policies and legislation governing data protection and data privacy internationally
- Knowledge Check: Reviewing Your Skills for Managing and Mitigating Digital Risks
Focusing on the Bottom Line as an Employee
Workplace cost consciousness enables a company’s financial success. Cost control is every team member’s responsibility and requires planning and effort. In this course, you’ll learn how employees can contribute to cost-control efforts by making cost changes, including to travel, supply, and facility costs.
40 Minutes
- Recall why all employees need to contribute to the company’s cost management efforts
- List general cost-saving principles for the workplace
- Identify how to cut down on travel and entertainment costs
- Recognize ways to save supply costs for your company
- Describe approaches to streamlining vendor costs
- Identify strategies for streamlining vendor costs
- Recognize how employees can contribute to company savings
Managing with a Cost-control Mindset
Managing costs effectively is critical to the financial success of a business and can help you avoid painful cuts. Cost control is a team effort that requires careful cost management.
In this course, you’ll learn how to identify cost management opportunities, get your team involved in cost-control efforts, and use tools like cost splitting and Lean.
0.6 Hours
- Recall fundamental strategies for reviewing and reducing costs
- Describe tactics for getting cost-conscious input from your employees
- Recognize tactics for saving the company money on personnel costs
- Name strategies for reducing marketing and advertising costs
- Recall tactics for working with other groups to reduce costs for everyone
- List the stages of the Lean process
- Recognize strategies for effective cost management