This course will equip you with the basic understanding necessary to understand the organization’s accounting and reporting structure.

Suffice it to say one of the greatest thinkers and writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called double entry accounting "among the finest inventions of the human mind."

Debits, credits, the accounting cycle, journal entries, reconciliation...

Accounting and Bookkeeping are fundamental skillsets for business and personal finance. You need to know where your money is going. Keeping track and keeping score is what accounting is all about. What gets measured gets managed. You can't manage well without an understanding of the numbers side of business.

Fundamental accounting skills are a great way to land an entry level position with a company and start, or turbocharge, your career.

Why take this Accounting course?

Understand the Numbers side of Business. Financial Literacy Matters. Senior executives routinely share and discuss financial data with marketing directors, operations chiefs, and other direct reports. But how much do those managers really understand about finance and the numbers? A recent investigation into this question concluded most managers understand not enough to be useful. Asked to take a basic financial-literacy exam—a test that any CEO or junior finance person should easily ace—a representative sample of U.S. managers from C-level executives to supervisors scored an average of only 38%. Lack of financial literacy matters and impacts an organizations ability to optimally perform.

Those who can’t speak the language of business can’t contribute much to a discussion of performance and are unlikely to advance in the hierarchy or reach their full potential. Does a lack of financial literacy matter? From a managers’ point of view, it surely does. Those who can’t speak the language of business can’t contribute much to a discussion of performance and are unlikely to advance in the hierarchy. They may get caught off guard by financial shenanigans, as many employees at Enron were. They also are unable to gauge the health of a prospective or current employer. The CFO of a small manufacturing company often asks candidates for engineering positions whether they would like to review the past two years of the company’s financials. None yet have taken him up on the offer—knowing, perhaps, that they could make neither head nor tail of the statements.

People don’t tell their bosses that they don’t speak accounting. It’s the usual human reluctance to admit ignorance. In a survey, managers were asked what happens in meetings when people don’t understand financial data. The majority chose answers reflecting that reluctance, such as “Most people don’t ask because they don’t want to appear uninformed in front of their boss or peers.” Don’t let this be you. Take this course and understand Financial Accounting.