Financial Accounting Toolkit for Decision Making

This course gives you a firm grounding in both the theory and practical application of finance and accounting for general management, corporate planning, sales, and other functional areas, as well as broad exposure to some of the most important principles of financial decision-making. We’ll cover topics such as asset value, financial performance evaluation, financial theory, and financial accounting, all with a focus on helping you make smarter financial choices for your organization. You’ll learn how to determine the value of an asset by the level and the riskiness of its expected after-tax cash flows. We’ll also cover techniques used to discount cash flows and determine the value implications of investment decisions, as well as the guidelines used to construct after-tax cash flow forecasts. Additionally, you’ll learn to estimate risk in the context of modern portfolio theory and talk about the impact of capital structure (your firm’s mix of debt and equity) on the riskiness of financial instruments issued by your firm. In the accounting portion of the course, we’ll give you a basic introduction to financial accounting, including overviews of financial statements, income statements, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows. You’ll learn about LIFO vs. FIFO accounting, accounting for inventory, and the valuation of long-term assets. When you complete this course, you’ll understand how to utilize financial concepts to make better-informed financial decisions, apply finance principles to valuing capital investments, apply decision-making criteria for multi-period cash flows, and learn how to construct cash flow forecasts.