Accounting for Decision-Making (edX)

In this finance course, you will learn how to read and understand financial statements. You will learn all relevant and important terms as they relate to the three financial statements - balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. Subsequently, you will develop the capability to analyze business performance through financial statements. You will see how the performance of any organization is impacted by four fundamental drivers of profitability - asset management, cost management, leverage management and tax management.

In the second part of the course, you will learn how to manage costs. We will cover product costing, budgeting , budgetary control and cost analysis for decision making.

Successfully completing this course will transform you into a manager who is confident while discussing and handling accounting and financial matters in the workplace, and help you as you move forward in your managerial career and take on senior roles.

This course is part of the Business Management MicroMasters program.

What you'll learn

- Read and understand financial statements

- Financial statement analysis

- How to use accounting information to plan and control your business and make decisions

Course Syllabus

Week 1: Mechanics of Financial Accounting

Introduction to financial accounting; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; fundamental accounting equation; recording of financial transactions and preparation of accounting statements through accounting equation.

Week 2: Reading Financial Statements

Reading and understanding balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement; Familiarizing all accounting terms that normally appear in financial statements.

Week 3: Financial Statement Analysis

Ratio analysis; Understanding relationship between four profitability drivers; Assessing financial health through credit scoring model.

Week 4: Product Costing

Preparation of Cost Sheet in manufacturing and service industry; Job and process costing; Activity-based costing.

Week 5: Cost Analysis for Decision Making

Behaviour of costs; Break-even analysis; Relevant costing approach for different decision making scenarios.

Week 6: Budgeting and variance analysis

Preparation of operational and financial budgets; Comparing actual performance against budgets; Price and quantity variance; Controllable and non-controllable variance; Revenue and contribution variances.