Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Rice University

Accounting for Non-Finance Professionals

Rice University via Coursera

Overview

Financial statements are a key source of information about the economic activities of a firm. This course is a primer on the construction and basic interpretation of financial statements that should provide learners with a rudimentary understanding of the types of information included in the four primary financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and statement of stockholders equity. We will spend time recording transactions using accounting terminology and then building financial statements from those transactions to provide you with an understanding of how and why transactions influence the various financial statements. We will focus on the language of accounting including such terms as the accounting equation, debits and credits, T-accounts, journal entries, accruals versus cash flows, and more. By the end of the course learners will be able to understand the basic differences and similarities of the four financial statements, and will have developed a solid foundation to build upon in an introductory financial accounting course at the MBA level. It is ideally suited for those learners that have never taken a financial accounting course before, as well as for those students who would like to refresh their understanding of basic financial accounting concepts.

Syllabus

  • Welcome to the Course
    • Hi and welcome to the course! In this segment, you'll be introduced to what this course is all about, what we'll cover, some policies, what you can expect, and a little bit about myself.
  • Week 1
    • In this section I'll give you a bit of an introduction into accounting as a practice, we'll look into the accounting cycle, the accounting equation, balance sheet, and income statement transactions analysis.
  • Week 2
    • Are you in love with accounting yet? Well maybe discussing double entry accounting, debits and credits, journal entries, and T-accounts will sell you.
  • Week 3
    • This week we'll be discussing cash-money! More specifically, we'll be looking at cash flow statements and accruals versus cash flows.
  • Week 4
    • You've made it to the final segment! To wrap things up, we'll be discussing statement of stockholders' equity and we'll also be interpreting financial statement information.

Taught by

Brian Rountree

Reviews

4.8 rating at Coursera based on 15 ratings

Start your review of Accounting for Non-Finance Professionals

Never Stop Learning.

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Someone learning on their laptop while sitting on the floor.