Financial Accounting
Financial statements, transaction recording, accrual accounting, and statement analysis.
About this course
Financial Accounting (ACC 101) teaches you to read, record, and interpret the financial statements that investors, lenders, and boards use to judge a business. You will move from "what is an asset?" to building a multi-step income statement, classified balance sheet, and cash flow statement, then analyzing liquidity, profitability, efficiency, leverage, and earnings quality with real ratios.
This is external-facing accounting under GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), not internal cost accounting (that is ACC 102). The goal is fluency: when someone cites net income, working capital, or free cash flow, you know what was recorded, when, and what could go wrong.
Prerequisites: OMBA 101 (Business Foundations). Length: 3 weeks. Assessment: 40% applied project, 35% knowledge checks, 25% reflections.
What you will be able to do
By the end of ACC 101, you should be able to:
- Explain why accounting exists and how the three primary statements articulate
- Record transactions with balanced debits and credits and post to a general ledger
- Apply accrual timing (revenue recognition, matching, adjusting entries, closing)
- Interpret major balance sheet accounts (cash, AR, inventory, PP&E, debt, leases)
- Build income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement from an adjusted trial balance
- Analyze a public or private company with liquidity, profitability, efficiency, and leverage ratios
- Spot common earnings-quality red flags where profit and cash diverge
How the course is organized
Six units, 30 lessons. Work in order; each lesson includes worked examples and practice problems.
| Unit | Topic | Lessons | You will |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accounting Foundations | 5 | Learn the equation, statement map, and economic vs accounting events |
| 2 | Recording Transactions | 5 | Master journal entries, posting, and trial balance |
| 3 | Accrual Accounting | 5 | Apply revenue/expense timing, adjustments, and closing |
| 4 | Major Accounts and Estimates | 5 | Deep-dive cash controls, AR, inventory, PP&E, liabilities, leases |
| 5 | Financial Reporting | 5 | Assemble statements and read footnotes |
| 6 | Financial Statement Analysis | 5 | Ratio analysis and integrated red-flag reads |
How to study
- Read lessons sequentially. Each unit assumes the prior one. Skipping Unit 2 mechanics makes Unit 5 statement building painful.
- Do the practice problems without peeking. Reconciliation checks (debits = credits, A = L + E, cash tie) are how you know you understand.
- Pick one anchor company. A public 10-K or a fictional case you carry through all six units connects abstract entries to a single story.
- Complete unit assessments after all five lessons in that unit. Knowledge checks test application, not vocabulary lists.
Applied work
Across ACC 101 you will build portfolio pieces that compound:
- Applied project: Construct statements from trial balance data for a case company; add a short analyst memo
- Case analysis: Two-page financial health assessment with ratios and one footnote read
- Portfolio artifact: Transaction log with journal entries and month-end close
- Executive memo: Internal control and credit-policy recommendations
What comes next
ACC 102: Managerial Accounting and Control shifts from external reporting to internal decisions: costs, budgets, variances, and contribution margin. FIN 201: Corporate Finance uses the statements you learn here for valuation and capital budgeting.
Assessment
40% applied project, 35% knowledge checks, 25% reflections
Each unit includes a case component aligned to this weight.
Each unit includes a exercise component aligned to this weight.
Each unit includes a reflection component aligned to this weight.
Open any unit below to complete exercises, project tasks, and the knowledge quiz. Units auto-complete when all assessment items are submitted and you score 80%+ on the quiz.