This course is designed to provide a basic understanding of financial statements with an emphasis on the balance sheet. However, to understand accounting driven financial statements, it is important to recognize that accounting is less about counting and more about measuring. “What is it that is being measured?” Well, as the course unfolds, you will learn about the three measurement questions and how the balance sheet helps to answer the first two of these questions. By touring a real company and interviewing real business people, the course describes the basic content of financial statements in a simple yet relevant context. The goal of the course is to leave a lasting impression about what balance sheet consists of and what it reveals. The next course in the Fundamentals of Accounting Specialization completes the conversation by addressing the remaining measurement question. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: • Describe the purpose of a balance sheet. • Define the three components of a balance sheet. • Recognize and understand the meaning of several items typically presented on a balance sheet. • Explain the broader purpose of financial statements and the role of accounting in producing the financial statements. • Read and, to some extent, interpret real-world balance sheets. If you enjoy this business course and are interested in an MBA, consider applying to the iMBA, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price offered by the University of Illinois. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.
CD
Thanks for the awesome course. I understand more about the balance sheet and the basics of accounting and why it's necessary in the business world.
BM
This course is a great introduction to understanding Balance Sheets and has been a big help to me in my job. I highly recommend this course and I really liked the Professor.
MH
Great course! Mr Jackson put a lot of effort into the construction of the class and explained everything in detail so that you get a solid understanding of the Balance Sheet
VV
It's a good course for beginners. Coursera Courses can only provide you the full benefits of the learner completes the whole specialization, not just a single course.
SN
I really enjoyed the professor's clear explanations. This has helped me understand the balance sheet, which will help me understand my current and future companies more clearly. Thanks!
MN
The course has been an interesting learning journey, getting clarity on what we use financial statements of a company for, to learning it's measurement to get the results of the company position.
CD
Kevin is such a great professor! He really knows how to break the jargon and the concepts down so that they're easy to understand. Such a fantastic teacher!
RS
This Course was very enjoyable partaking. I had an accounting experience but this course took me into deep specifically the practical sessions. Its free and lets all get involved.
MM
Very good course. Gives a view on corporate business finance. Teacher is also great. Recommend this course to anyone who want to start finances, business or wants an dive deep into entrepreneurship.
YA
Wow! What a fund course it is. I do not have any mathematical or statical background. His explanations are clear and easy to understand. I enjoyed this course's structure and contents.
SA
Very clearly indicates all the basic fundamentals of the balance sheet and its components. This course gives me an excellent overview. Interesting to complete all the excercises.
MG
The material was organized very well and easy to watch. I really feel like I grasped the building blocks of mastering the concepts with the videos.
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Really great course and a useful one in terms of clearing the finance terms and how a company creates a balance sheet and how can we evaluate a company's position by looking at one's sheet.
I really enjoyed the professor's clear explanations. This has helped me understand the balance sheet, which will help me understand my current and future companies more clearly. Thanks!
Its a Great Course! You will Enjoy every moment of this course.
I highly recommend this course to anyone who wishes to understand the fundamentals of Accounting
This was such a good course to have taken. I am glad this is readily available and free for those who do not have the finances at the moment. That generosity is very much appreciated. I am also thankful for how much understanding and work was given in presenting the course to the vast diversity of students. When comprehending the course would be helping beginners learn and utilize the material, the course was gentle and caring. Thank you for this course, thank you to the instructor, and thank you to Illinois University.
This Course was very enjoyable partaking. I had an accounting experience but this course took me into deep specifically the practical sessions. Its free and lets all get involved.
The course was enjoyable with good use of examples. Explained in easy to understand terms. I am looking forward to the next course in this series.
Simple and thorough.
great course
This course is extremely basic. It took me about four hours to complete the entire course (minus the peer reviewed assignment since I audited). This wouldn't be an issue in and of itself, but there were quite a number of issues with the presentation, from questions appearing in the wrong video, to badly worded and misleading questions. It's as if the course material was quickly thrown together and not reviewed or tested. Overall, there is some good info in it if you have no background in accounting and no idea what a balance sheet is, but if you're looking for insight into interpreting balance sheets, this is not the class for you.
The course is well structured and remains focused on the topic on hand. It is easy to follow Kevins thought, but the discussion is quite superficial; no concrete numbers and examples are worked through in the discussion. It would have strengthened the course if the discussion went step-by-step through a balance sheet of one of the companies featured in the course.
The course material introduces students to accounting basics in a streamlined and easy way. The student should invest some time to expand on the concepts taught and introduced, however, the course lays the foundation and the structure for the student to be able to fill in the rest. The insgtructor is well versed in his domain and has excellent teaching methodology. Thanks Kevin!
My Sincere Gratitude to Associate Prof. Kevin for his clean and simple explanations of accounting . The Introduction to Accounts was exemplary and attention puller. The real world examples used in this course is meticulously planned and placed and paced in the lessons one by one. Wow! superb experience in learning my favorite subject Accounting. Once again thank you Prof. Kevin
Amazing course, a sort of dummies101 type of instructional course to really introduce you to accounting notions when you have absolutely no knowledge about it! However, it lacks training with exercise sheets and solutions, as it is very important in accounting!
Very good course. Gives a view on corporate business finance.
Teacher is also great.
Recommend this course to anyone who want to start finances, business or wants an dive deep into entrepreneurship.
I never thought I would enjoy learning about balance sheets so much! I found this course engaging, educational, and I was motivated to continue to learn and progress during the course.
Very clearly indicates all the basic fundamentals of the balance sheet and its components. This course gives me an excellent overview. Interesting to complete all the excercises.
Easy to comprehend but far too basic to be helpful and I don't feel I received an "Understanding of financial statements" because the course was too rudimentary.
Caros membros da Universidade de Illinois em Urbana-Champaign e da plataforma Coursera,
Gostaria de expressar minha sincera gratidão pelo curso Understanding Financial Statements: Company Position. O conhecimento que adquiri por meio desse curso foi inestimável para o meu desenvolvimento profissional e pessoal.
A qualidade dos materiais de ensino, juntamente com a experiência dos instrutores, tornaram o curso incrivelmente acessível e fácil de entender. As habilidades que aprendi com este curso me permitiram compreender melhor a posição financeira das empresas e tomar decisões mais informadas.
Agradeço à Universidade de Illinois em Urbana-Champaign e ao Coursera por oferecerem este curso online e por permitirem que estudantes como eu tenham acesso a conhecimentos valiosos em suas áreas de atuação. Espero que continuem a oferecer cursos desafiadores e informativos como este.
Mais uma vez, obrigado pelo excelente trabalho que vocês fazem!
I've taken a number of accounting classes in the past and have a fairly good understanding of transition basics. This course illustrated in a very simple but informative way financial statements through practical, easy to understand examples. It was clear that a lot of thought, energy and effort went into this courses preparation. It exemplified the idea that you don't need to "make things any more complicated than they need to be" to deliver the information at hand.
I really liked the course and I recommend it to anyone interested in applied social science, accounting. In my opinion, the teacher had the dexterity to capture themes and subjects relevant to this area of study and make them viable through a totally different, interesting and understandable approach. In short, I am grateful for all those involved in making this course possible.