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MBA Class in a post: Financial Accounting

// January 2nd, 2010 // MBA

I’ve been super busy the past few months working full time and taking an MBA part time. I’m now done my first semester (the program will be three years part time), and start my second semester in the second week of January. For those also interested in taking an MBA, I’m going to post some of the concepts covered in classes I’ve completed. Hopefully you’re curious about a topic or better yet the program and you’ll join me in the MBA program at Ryerson.

First, here are the topics we studied in our Financial Accounting in an International Environment class.

• Analyzing and interpreting the four financial statements
1. Balance sheet
2. Income statement
3. Statement of retained earnings
4. Cash flow statement
• Other information in financial statements such as Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A), notes, etc.)
• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• Accounting cycles
• Accrual accounting tasks including: trial balances, journal entries, general ledger, adjusting entries and closing entries
• Accounting ratios — there are a TON of ratios, but here’s a list of about 25 of the most common ones
• Investment decisions
• Securities Regulators
• Qualitative accounting information (relevance, reliability, comparability, consistency)
• Sales considerations including: returns and allowances, terms, discounts, exchange, classification of receivables, etc.
• Control systems, management responsibility and ethics
• Inventory
• Depreciation and amortization
• Bonds, retirement liabilities
• Present and future values
• Equity — stocks, retained earnings, etc
• Stocks including types of stocks and stock splits
• Dividends, annuities
• Types of businesses, although we focused mainly on incorporated companies

One of the biggest values from this class was that I can now comfortably read financial statements released by corporations and understand what information is to be taken at face value and what can be influenced by managerial decisions. Financial accounting isn’t as cut and dry as one might think.

Next post: international marketing.