Forecasting Financial Statements & Valuation for Accountants

Overview

The objective of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to analyze, interpret, understand and use financial information to make informed decisions. We will discuss financial reporting from a user’s perspective, use a variety of tools to break apart financial reports into meaningful units for analysis, forecast financial statements, and value a firm. This course is intended to give you exposure to the issues facing users of financial statements. You will better understand your role in the financial reporting process if you know how the financial statements will ultimately be used. Beyond the Financials: Insights, Analysis and Valuations will require you to think critically about issues for which there can be more than one “correct” answer. Hence, your analysis and conclusions must be based on sound assumptions and well-constructed analysis and arguments.

Syllabus

Orientation

You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.

Module 1: Beyond the Financials - External

You will gain an understanding of why it is important to consider external information beyond the financials and how to access this data when performing financial statement analysis and valuation.

Module 2: Beyond the Financials- Internal

You will gain an understanding of why it is important to consider internal information beyond the financials and how to access this data when performing financial statement analysis and valuation.

Module 3: Non-GAAP Adjustments

You will gain an understanding of Non-GAAP adjustments, why they are permitted and how they are sometimes mis-used by companies.

Module 4: Forecasting

In this module, you will gain an understanding to different approaches to financial statement forecasting and the pros and cons to each.

Module 5: Forecasting- Advanced

In this module, you will gain an understanding of advanced forecasting approaches and the pros and cons to each.

Module 6: Valuation

In this module, you will learn why valuations are critical in making business decisions and how to execute Simple Valuation Models.

Module 7: Valuation- Advanced Part 1

In this module, you will learn basic valuation principles and guidelines, and how to estimate intrinsic value and key model inputs such as the discount rate.