Accounting Principles

Unlock the fundamentals of accounting with this comprehensive course! Learn how accounting transforms business financial events into actionable figures, empowering informed decision-making for managers and stakeholders. Developed with U.S. GAAP accounting standards and drawing on over 15 years of experience as a Finance Manager, this course provides a practical and trustworthy understanding of financial accounting.

This course is designed for beginners and covers accounting basics for proprietorship companies (businesses owned by one person). We'll start with service companies and progress to merchandising operations, covering key topics like:

• Inventory Costing: Master various methods including specific identification, FIFO (First-In, First-Out), LIFO (Last-In, First-Out), and weighted-average. Understand inventory valuation using LCM (Lower of Cost or Market).
• Cash & Cash Equivalents: Learn to account for cash, restricted cash, bank overdrafts, and petty cash. Understand how to prepare a bank reconciliation.
• Trade Receivables: Explore different types of receivables, including valuation methods like direct write-off and allowance methods. Learn about notes receivable and their accounting.
• Plant Assets: Determine the cost of plant assets and understand depreciation, depletion, and amortization methods (straight-line, units-of-activity, declining-balance).
• Natural Resources & Intangibles: Gain insights into accounting for natural resources and intangible assets.
• Financial Statement Analysis: Perform basic financial analysis using vertical and horizontal analysis to assess a company’s financial health.

Course Content Breakdown:

• What is Accounting? Understand how accounting identifies, records, and reports financial events. Identify internal and external users of accounting information.
• Understanding GAAP: Learn the importance of GAAP in maintaining consistent and reliable financial reporting.
• Core Accounting Concepts: Grasp fundamental concepts like historical cost, accrual basis, and the matching principle.
• The Accounting Equation: Understand how assets are financed by liabilities and owner's equity.
• Debits & Credits: Master the double-entry system, debits, and credits.
• Chart of Accounts: Learn to organize financial data using a chart of accounts.
• Journalizing, Posting & Trial Balance: Understand the process of recording transactions, posting to the ledger, and preparing a trial balance.
• Adjusting Entries: Learn to prepare adjusting entries for accruals and deferrals.
• Closing Entries: Master closing entries and the post-closing trial balance to close the accounting period.
• Financial Statement Preparation: Learn to prepare the income statement, classified balance sheet, and statement of changes in equity.
• Merchandising Operations: Understand the differences in closing entries for merchandising vs. service companies and the necessity of a multiple-step income statement.

Each section includes a practical exercise to reinforce your learning. Seven quizzes will test your comprehension. This course provides a step-by-step approach to mastering accounting principles. Invest in your financial literacy and gain a solid foundation in accounting today!