Accounting Essentials
Business runs by the numbers. This course is designed to help explain the relations among numbers and how they affect decision-making. Accounting Essentials is about understanding the impact of financial data on day-to-day operations. Understanding more about financial decision making should enable you to communicate effectively throughout your organization and this course will introduce you to how financial data is collected, allocated and used within your organization.
Description
Overview
Business runs by the numbers. This course is designed to help explain the relations among numbers and how they affect decision-making. The one question managers and customers are always asking is: “What is this going to cost me?”
It is important to understand terms related to costing products and services. Then it is important to understand how costs relate and build on each other. Finally, it is important to understand the impact costs have on your decisions.
Accounting Essentials is about understanding the impact of financial data on day-to-day operations. Managers today cannot leave financial decision-making to the accounting or financial departments only. All involved must understand the cost of their product or service, price strategies and the impact short- and long-term decisions have on the bottom line.
Understanding more about financial decision making should enable you to communicate effectively throughout your organization and this course will introduce you to how financial data is collected, allocated and used within your organization.
Course Objectives
After completing this course, students will be able to:
- Learn how various business transactions are reflected in the financial statements
- Identify the five cost categories and their components
- Explore the three types of costs and their effect on profitability
- Understand the concept and calculation of break-even analysis
- Learn about operating leverage and its impact on profitability
- Discover the various influences on determining the appropriate price for a product or service
- Understand the problem-solving process of identifying costs relevant to decision-making
Who Should Attend
This course is intended for accounting professionals and managers who want to learn the relations among numbers and how they affect decision-making in an organization.
Course Outline
Lesson 1: Getting the “Right” Numbers
- Qualitative vs. Quantitative Decision-Making
- Standards
- Effective and Efficient Decisions
- Constraints
Lesson 2: Review of the Financial Statements
- The Balance Sheet and Income Statement
- Statement of Cash Flow
- What the Financial Statements Do Not Tell You
Lesson 3: Making Money
- Maximizing Profit or Minimizing Cost
- Thinking in Units
- Defining Cost
Lesson 4: Identifying Costs and Their Behaviors
- Fixed, Variable, and Mixed Costs
- Relevant Range
- Cost Per Unit
- Cost Categories on the Income Statement
- Discerning Variable Costs
- Discerning Mixed Costs
Lesson 5: Controlling Costs
- Contribution Margin on the Income Statement
- Activity-Based Costing
- Non-Value-Added Activity
Lesson 6: Am I Breaking Even?
- The Cost-Volume-Profit Graph
- The Contribution Margin Approach to Break-Even
- Calculating “What If” Profit
- Margin of Safety
Lesson 7: Operating Leverage
- Defining Operating Leverage
- Operating Leverage and the Bottom Line
Lesson 8: Influences on Pricing
- Pricing in Line with the Competition
- Trade-Offs Between Price and Demand
- Elasticity of Demand Illustrated
- Market and Cost Influences on Pricing
- Qualitative Factors in Relation to Price
Lesson 9: Making the Numbers Work for You
- Responsible Decision-Making
- Quality Management