Accounting can be considered the language of business. If you are learning accounting for the first time, embracing its foundational concepts may be a challenging process. Mastery of accounting primarily rests in your ability to critically think through and synthesize the information as it applies to a given situation. You should approach the learning of accounting the same way you would approach learning a foreign language; It will take time and practice to ensure you remember the concepts. There are a number of sub-disciplines that fall under the umbrella of "accounting,” but in this course, we will be focused on financial accounting. Accounting as a business discipline can be viewed as a system of compiled data. The word data should not be confused with "information.” In terms of accounting, "data” should be viewed as the raw transactions or business activity that happens within any business entity. For example: Someone uses $30,000 of their savings to start a business. The use of these funds within the start of this new business is in fact data. Now that you have this data, what are you going to do with it? The answer to this question can be summed up in one word - accounting! Taking this data and transforming it into useful information is what happens when accounting is implemented within a business. The word information should be viewed as the communicated results of the data as it has happened in the business within a specified period of time. This information is used by decision makers to support how they determine specific courses of action within the business. This course introduces you to financial accounting in preparation for more advanced business topics within the business major. Recording financial information in a standard format allows managers, investors, lenders, stakeholders, and regulators to make appropriate decisions regarding their respective interests. In this course, the formats of focus will be identified as the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flows, and Statement of Shareholders' Equity. In this course, you will learn how to compile and analyze these financial statements, determine the value of a firm, and compare the firm to its competitors.