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Understanding Financial Statements (IBM)

Explore how to make better business decisions with financial information.

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  • Duration

    2 weeks

  • Weekly study

    8 hours
Overview
Requirements

Delve into what your financial statement is trying to tell you

Every business maintains financial records that help us to understand how well it’s doing. In this course, you will have the chance to learn how to read them.

You will have the opportunity to explore a range of financial statements – focusing on income statements, statements of financial position, and cash flow statements. There will be the chance to investigate the different branches of accounting and how to identify who else in the business uses this accounting information.

What do these statements contain? What do they reveal? Who uses them? This course will help answer these questions.

What topics will you cover?

  • Introduction to accounting and its branches.
  • Identifying different users of accounting information and their requirements.
  • Overview of financial statements.
  • Introduction to income statement.
  • Introduction to statement of financial position.
  • Introduction to cash flow statement.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Investigate the different branches of accounting
  • Identify the main users of accounting information and their requirements
  • Explain the purpose of financial statements (income statement, statement of financial position and cash flow statement)
  • Explore items typically included in each of the financial statements and their meaning
  • Interpret financial statements for decision-making purposes

Who is the course for?

This course would suit anyone looking for additional basic accounting skills. These are skills that can help you make better decisions and advance in your career. It may be of particular interest to people in senior management and leadership roles, who lack an accounting background.

Please note that the individuals detailed in the ‘Who will you learn with?’ section below, are current staff members and may be subject to change.

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

  • Established

    1992

  • Location

    Coventry

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control

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