- Do you want to improve your fluency in financial accounting, the language of businesses?

If yes, take this free online course “An Introduction to Financial Accounting”, offered by Professor Brian Bushee of the University of Pennsylvania.

Accounting is the language of business. Companies not only evaluate performances of their employees using accounting tools, but also use these tools to communicate their own performance to outsiders. Therefore learning accounting is essential for those responsible for making decisions on the basis of financial information generated by accounting systems. This 10 weeks long course has been designed to help the prospective users of corporate financial information understand fundamentals of financial accounting. Prospective candidates for this course are investors, creditors, employees, and other stakeholders, however, anyone who wants to improve his financial literacy can take this course.

This online course focuses on recording economic events such as operating activities, corporate investments, and financing transactions in financial statements. The three main financial statements that will be discussed in this course include the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. At the end of the course the participants will have developed the technical skills required to create and analyze financial statements. Impact of accounting standards and managerial incentives on financial reporting process will also be discussed in this course.

The course has been divided into ten weekly modules:

- Module 1: Introduction and Balance Sheet
- Module 2: Accrual Accounting and the Income Statement
- Module 3: Cash flows
- Module 4: Working capital assets
- Module 5: Ratio analysis and Mid-course Exam
- Module 6: Long-lived assets and marketable securities
- Module 7: Liabilities and long-term debt
- Module 8: Deferred taxes
- Module 9: Stockholders’ equity
- Module 10: How to read an Annual Report and Final Exam

Author Bio

Brian Bushee is the Gilbert and Shelley Harrison Professor of Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Brian, a winner of the MBA Excellence in Teaching Award, currently teaches an elective MBA course titled Problems in Financial Reporting.