Online Class: Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Finance 101

Learn the Fundamentals of Accounting Today!

Understanding the basics of accounting can make the difference between success and failure in so many different areas of life. Financial reports, balance sheets, reconciling bank statements--and the ability to create, interpret and implement them--are all tools we can't afford to ignore.

Course Video: Accounting & Bookkeeping 101 for Everyone

Course Cost: 6 Month Subscription

Course (no Certificate) = $65.00
Course with CEU Certificate* = $90.00

3.0 CEUs
Continuing Education Units

* Instantly download, print, and share your CEU Certificate at course completion (additional shipping/handling charges apply for hard copy delivery). UniversalClass™ offers many wonderful learning tools including an online portfolio service that manages all your course completions and CEUs.

Course Description

"Accounting & Bookkeeping 101 for Everyone" is a course that covers the fundamentals of accounting with the newcomer in mind. Accounting is more than just memorizing terms and procedures; it's a whole new way of thinking about finances. This course assumes students have no prior knowledge about accounting or finance, and delivers lessons and examples to build accounting skills. Specifically, this class addresses accounting terminology, revenue, expenses, net income, the accounting equation, debits, credits, and balancing the accounting formula, the accounting structure, the accounting cycle, journals, ledgers, the trial balance and more. It also guides students to learn how to read financial statements properly, and how to grab meaningful information from the balance sheet, income statements and cash flow statements.

After completing this course, you will have a solid understanding of accounting in today's world. By applying the concepts learned in this course, you will understand the processes behind Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable, you will understand how and why financial transactions are documented, you will know what cash flow is and how to improve it, you will know what profit is, how it's interpreted, and what influences its growth. Moreover, you will know where the money in the company you work for, or own, goes. Learn accounting now and achieve a skill that is an invaluable (if not required) asset to your professional development.

Why is accounting important to understand?

Accounting is the most important part of any successful business. It records all profits, losses, credits, and debits. It tells you the state of the business in numbers, not words. It provides the most vital information you need to understand how your business grows, makes money, where the profit of a business goes, and what your cash flow is. In short, if you do not understand the basic principles of accounting, you cannot run a business, nor can you even hope to help a business grow and profit.

If you work for a company and are currently managing any aspect of the company, or if you aspire to move up to management, then you need to understand what accounting is. Moreover, if you are an entrepreneur, or you ever plan to start your own business, you need to understand, at the very least, the basic principles of accounting.

This course is going to help you understand the basic principles of accounting so that you can read and understand the three main financial reports of a company: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement. Moreover, you'll know and understand the basic accounting equation and how to factor in debits, credits, inventory, and taxes, which will help you to make the right decisions to increase your company's wealth and profit.

In this course, we take everything in baby-steps. We assume you know nothing about accounting or any accounting terms. We strive to explain all accounting concepts in every day language, using real-life examples wherever possible. Additionally, we've set up the course so that you need to master all concepts in any given lesson before you can successfully complete the lesson and move on. As such, this course is built incrementally. You need to understand each previous lesson fully in order to understand the concepts covered in later lessons.

Learning accounting is like any new skill. There is a learning curve, and the skill needs to be practiced (or used in this case) in order for it to be effective. If you have access to your company's financial statements, please take the time to apply our examples to your company's financials. If you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, or plan to start your own business, copy our examples used in this course, using your own business relevant assets.

Those of us who are born as right-brain thinkers tend to be better at creative, imaginative, passionate activities. Then there are those of use who are left-brain thinkers--naturally adept at working with numbers, applying logical reasoning, and analytically solving problems.

Regardless of which category you fall into, the truth is that anyone can learn the basic principles of accounting and develop a knack for managing the financial aspects of a business. The upside of learning basic accounting principles is that, regardless of whether it is a large Fortune 500 company or a small entrepreneurial start-up, the same fundamental rules apply when working with the bottom line.

Learning Outcomes

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

Identify why accounting is a necessary skill.
Summarize the history of accounting.
Identify and describe assets, liabilities and owners' equity.
Recognize and compare the major financial reports.
Describe and create a company's Income Statement.
Compare and contrast a company's revenue, expenses, income, and retained earnings.
Solve worksheet problems involving income statements, revenue, expenses, and net income.
Identify the key elements of a Balance Sheet.
Balance the accounting equation and properly chart debits and credits.
Describe the key elements of bookkeeping.
Avoid the pitfalls of bad bookkeeping habits.
Describe the accounting cycle.
Define key terms: inventory, FIFO, LIFO, Cost of Goods Sold.
Summarize cash flow, identify fixed assets, and describe depreciation.
Demonstrate understanding of liquidity, solvency and profitability.
Summarize asset management and asset valuation.
Be apprised of key laws and procedures involved in payroll accounting.
Know what to expect in an audit.
Summarize ethical business practices in accounting, and
Demonstrate mastery of lesson content at levels of 70% or higher.

Course Lessons

Lesson 1: Introduction to Accounting: Why accounting is a necessary skill

Accounting is the "language of business." Great managers of any organization must know accounting fundamentals and have a solid understanding of how to read financial statements.

Lesson 2: The History of Accounting

Throughout history, accountants have made sizable contributions to the development of cities, trade, and industry, not to mention the formulation of the practice by which numbers came to represent wealth.

Lesson 3: The Fundamentals of Accounting

Basic terms, Assets, Liabilities, Owners' Equity, Accounting Equation, Business Types, Bookkeeping, Auditing, GAAP

Lesson 4: Assets, Liabilities, and Owners' Equity

In this lesson, we will cover assets, liabilities, and owners' equity.

Lesson 5: Financial Reports

This lesson covers basic information regarding financial reports.

Lesson 6: The Income Statement

This lesson explains what income statements are and determination of expenses vs revenue.

Lesson 7: The Income Statement: Understanding Revenue, Expenses, Income, and Retained Earnings

Purpose of the Income Statement; How to read the Income Statement; What are Retained Earnings, Revenue, Expenses, Net Income, Income Tax, Cash Accounting, Accrual Accounting

Lesson 8: Worksheet Problems: Income Statement, Revenue, Expenses, Net Income

This lesson contains workbook problems to solidfy your understanding of revenue, expenses, and net income.

Lesson 9: The Balance Sheet

This lesson includes the definition of a balance sheet and the pros and cons of off-balance sheets.

Lesson 10: Worksheet Problems: The Balance Sheet

How to balance the fundamental accounting equation; Debits and Credits; "T" Accounting; Double Entry Accounting; Diagrams and Charts; Real World Example;

Lesson 11: Worksheet Problems for Accounting Equation, Debits, and Credits

Real world examples of debits and credits and how to balance the accounting equation.

Lesson 12: The Accounting Structure: A Closer Look

Recording Transactions; Source Documents; General Journal; General Ledger; Trial Balance

Lesson 13: Bookkeeping 101

This lesson describes the differences between bookkeeping and accounting and the resposibilities, liabilities, and certification available in becoming a bookkeeper.

Lesson 14: Bookkeeping: Dos and Don'ts

This lesson details how to effectively record data and the mistakes to avoid.

Lesson 15: The Accounting Cycle

Learn all the elements of the accounting cycle, from what occurs at the beginning of the accounting period to the generation of financial reports and an independent audit at the end of the accounting period.

Lesson 16: Inventory, FIFO, LIFO, Cost of Goods Sold

In this lesson we'll learn about Inventory, First-In, First-Out, Last-In, First-Out, Cost of Goods Sold, and average cost of goods sold.

Lesson 17: Cash Flow, Fixed Assets, Depreciation

Understanding positive and negative cash flow.

Lesson 18: Management Accounting

This lesson focuses on how financial reporting can be used to achieve sales goals and productivity.

Lesson 19: Cash Flow Management

This lesson addresses available working capital, cash flow analysis, and a well-balanced cash flow.

Lesson 20: Accounting Ratios: Liquidity, Solvency, and Profitability

This lesson discusses accounting ratios and profitability to financially analyze a firm.

Lesson 21: Asset Management and Asset Valuation

This lesson describes the accounting process of monitoring fixed assets and determining the current market value of a company's holdings.

Lesson 22: Payroll Accounting

This lesson describes how to keep accurate payroll records, avoid mistakes, taxes due, and employee files.

Lesson 23: The Audit

This lesson discusses the various kinds of audits, what to expected if audited, and the records needed.

Lesson 24: Ethical Business Practices in Accounting

This lesson addresses the mandatory and accurate disclosure of profit and losses to investors of public companies (corporations) and the penalties for misrepresentations.

Additional Information

Course Title	:	Accounting & Bookkeeping 101 for Everyone
CEU Value	:	3.0 IACET CEUs (Continuing Education Units)
Standard	:	Course Adheres to the ANSI/IACET 1-2007 Standard
Accreditation	:	Universal Class, Inc. has been accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102.
Languages	:	English - United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other English speaking countries
Course Number	:	7550309
Course Type	:	College Level
Course URL	:	http://accounting101.onlineclasses.com
Course Rating	:
Instructor	:	Dr. Metodija Stojanovski
Syllabus	:	View Syllabus
Grading Policy	:	Earn a final grade of 70% or higher to receive a CEU Certificate documenting CEUs earned
Assessment Method	:	Lesson assignments and review exams
Course Review	:	Read Editorial Review
Duration	:	Continuous: Enroll anytime!
Requirements	:	View Technical Requirements
Course Fee	:	Basic Course: $65.00 (no CEU Certificate)
		with CEU Certificate: $90.00

NOT FOR COLLEGE CREDIT

This is a non-credit course, and is provided for your personal enrichment. This course is not intended to be a substitute for any state, government, licensing, certification or educational requirements.

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Learn the language of business--accounting, bookkeeping and finance. This is an introductory course that will provide you with the necessary skills of understanding accounting and finance. Grow in your career by increasing your knowledge, terminology and business tools. The ultimate goal of this course is to guide and motivate you to consider accounting as a lifetime endeavor.

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