Accounting Fundamentals

If you want to increase your financial awareness and gain a marketable skill, this course is for you. You will learn the double-entry bookkeeping, financial transactions, financial reporting, and more.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Florida International University

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$129

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$129

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Starting September 11 | October 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: fun

In this comprehensive course, you will learn the basics of double-entry bookkeeping, as well as how to analyze and record financial transactions. You will get hands-on experience with handling accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll procedures, sales taxes, and various common banking activities.

Accounting Fundamentals covers all the bases, from writing checks to preparing an income statement and closing out accounts at the end of each fiscal period. Whether you're a sole proprietor looking to manage your business finances or you simply want to gain an understanding of accounting basics for career advancement or for personal use, this course will give you a solid foundation in financial matters.

What you will learn

Learn the basics of double-entry bookkeeping, as well as how to analyze and record financial transactions
Get hands-on experience with handing accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll procedures, sales taxes, and various common banking activities
Learn about writing checks, preparing an income statement, and closing out accounts at the end of a fiscal period

How you will benefit

Learn everything you need to know to better manage your finances
Gain a solid understanding of accounting basics to be able to manage business finances or advance your career
Open the door to more career opportunities in the in-demand field of accounting and finance

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

Welcome to Accounting Fundamentals! In this first lesson, you will learn all about account classifications, debits, credits, and T accounts. You will learn the difference between a liability and an asset and find out how to determine an owner's equity.

Here's where you will begin your hands-on accounting practice: You will start by creating an imaginary company for which you will be the accountant. You will learn how to analyze your company's transactions to determine which amounts go into which accounts, then you will create your company's own General Ledger forms and post a few transactions into those accounts.

Now that you understand the functions of the General Ledger, you're ready to move on to the next phase of recording transactions: the Journal. In this lesson, you will learn how to enter transactions into an 11-column journal and then post or transfer those amounts into appropriate General Ledger accounts.

In this lesson, you will learn all about Accounts Payable, which is money that you owe your vendors and suppliers. You will practice journalizing cash purchases and purchases on account, and you will get hands-on practice transferring those purchases to their corresponding Accounts Payable Ledger accounts.

In this lesson, you will learn about Accounts Receivable, which is another name for money owed to your company by its customers. You will learn how to journalize and post those sales on account, how to enter charge sales into the journal, and how to transfer the information into an Accounts Receivable Ledger.

It's payday! This lesson will teach you how to determine gross pay, deductions, and net pay. You will learn how to prepare a payroll, write payroll checks, and how to prepare and maintain accurate payroll records.

In this lesson, you will learn all about banks and banking services: You will learn the proper way to write checks, make out deposit tickets, and reconcile your company's checking account with the bank statement. These are skills you will find valuable in both your business and personal life!

This lesson will teach you how to prepare a Schedule of Accounts Payable and a Schedule of Accounts Receivable. These reports can be used to compare the amount of money your business owes its creditors with the amount of money your customers owe your business.

In this lesson, you will prepare a worksheet showing the net income or net loss for the fiscal period. The worksheet will show all income and expenses for the fiscal period as well as the assets, liabilities, and owner's equity account balances.

In this lesson, you will learn how to prepare various reports that are vital to the well-being of your company. You will learn how these reports can be used to make sound financial decisions in the next fiscal period. You will discover how to put together an Owner's Equity Statement, an Income Statement, and a Distribution of Net Income.

In this lesson, you will prepare for the end of the fiscal period by adjusting your asset account balances to accurately reflect the assets remaining at the end of the year. You will also find out how to journalize and post adjusting and closing entries to bring your company's General Ledger up to date.

In the final lesson, you will prepare a Post Closing Trial Balance report to ensure that all of your debits and credits in the General Ledger balance out in preparation for the new fiscal period.

Instructors & Support

Nancy Koenig

Nancy Koenig is an experienced industry professional with over 40 years in the workforce, including decades in finance. Nancy has worked in various finance roles in banking, insurance, and a hospital billing office. For the last 27 years of her career, she was an administrative assistant at a technical school, which involved running and overseeing the entire budget, amongst other duties. Nancy has also held part-time jobs as a bookkeeper for an auto parts store and a cable company, where she used QuickBooks computerized software. Over the past several years, she has also co-taught the Accounting Fundamentals and Accounting Fundamentals II courses with Charlene Messier.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
A calculator and a printer.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

The Accounting Fundamentals course will give you the basic accounting knowledge you need to effectively manage your personal finances or even do some bookkeeping for your company. You'll understand how to keep accurate financial records and use software like QuickBooks to record transactions, produce reports, and check financial information for accuracy. You will also know how to handle expenses, receipts, payables, and accounts receivable.

Not exactly. There are five major parts to the accounting process and they include: recording, interpreting, classifying, analyzing, and reporting financial information. Bookkeeping is the first, foundational part of the accounting process — recording financial transactions.

Making a big investment, like buying a car, can be overwhelming for most of us. Basic knowledge of accounting fundamentals can help you understand how the business works and help you negotiate better deals with confidence. With this knowledge you'll understand inventory, profit margin, receivables, and how to negotiate a better deal—you may even gain the respect of the salesperson by speaking a language they understand.

Yes. Understanding the financial statements of a company, something you'll learn in detail during this accounting fundamentals course, will help you understand the best companies to invest in. This can help you with your retirement savings as you choose individuals stocks and portfolios where you will invest your hard earned money.

Absolutely! It's always good when you can explain where you money goes, how much you'll receive on your paycheck, and why it is never as high as you think—accounting knowledge can help you achieve this. You'll gain a deeper understanding what goes into your finances and learn how to track expenses and operate within a budget.

Yes. Accounting knowledge may help you impress your boss with understanding of financial statements and impacts to the company bottom line. It can also help you understand current events as there is no shortage of people who manipulate numbers to get what they want. Now, instead of relying on the bias of media outlets, you'll understand the impact of what was done wrong and how it affected those involved.

Reviews

The teaching method implemented is impeccable, incredible, very clear and objective. It was great to take this CFI course again. I needed to remember some content and it was very good. I plan to do CFII as soon as I get a job in accounting.

The teaching style, choice for course materials and overall presentation is phenomenal. I took Accounting in college and did not learn a thing. The concepts as lectured, were dry and very boring. Everything all ran together. Instructor, You made this course lively and informative. I feel empowered. I look forward to Accounting II.

The subject is presented in an easy-to-follow format, I liked being able to work through the examples. I found that going over and over it, helped to cement the information for me. After taking this class, I realized that you don't know what you don't know, until you know, this information would have been so helpful to me many years ago, but I am so appreciative of learning this now. Thank you for the class. I look forward to taking the second part.

Thank you for the well-organized, self-paced learning environment. I've taken many online courses, including my education masters, and this is the best class and learning experience. I'm trying to decide between Accounting Fundamentals II or QuickBooks. I'm leaving education and did accounting 30 years ago and am looking for future employment.

I really enjoyed this class as well. Thank you for your encouragement, instruction and advice throughout the six weeks. I will also be taking the Accounting Fundamentals II course in August. I completed the final exam and received 100%. :-) I am elated.

Thank you for a well-designed course. At times it was a challenge, but you set up an incredible learning experience. I loved the practice entries you had at the beginning of a number of the lessons. They added to the learning experience. This was a great course. Thank you very much!! And yes, final done and passed at 100%.

Although I have taken Accounting I and II in person, your presentation of the material made it much easier to understand. I am currently enrolled in your Accounting Fundamentals II course and look forward to it, as well. Thank you very much for a great learning experience.

Thank you very much! This was such a great class. I've taken this at a college before and did not walk away with nearly as much knowledge as what I have with this class. It all makes sense now, and it simply didn't before. So thank you again so very much!

Just this morning I took a test required by a local accounting recruiting agency, to determine competency for a future bookkeeping position. I scored 97% correct (no use of notes or materials allowed), and the recruiter noted that the national average is 83%. He was very impressed on all that was learned and had high, high praise for the instructor and the course - as do I!

I have been bookkeeping for the past 14 months, part-time for a small business. I was very frustrated because the accountant there stopped working and the training has been very minimal and not adequate. I felt like I was required to do the accounting and I was only hired as an entry level bookkeeper...The owner was asking for quarterly reports and I was in way over my head. It was so stressful! I had no double-entry accounting experience and was very confused about credits and debits and the types of accounts were a mystery to me. This course has my stress level way, way down. I feel so much better about my job and I am not stressed out to the max every day. I have some confidence now. I don't feel so helpless or dependent on the CPA who is mostly not available.

I have been somewhat casually trying to understand accounting fundamentals off and on since, literally, the mid 80's when I lived in Chicago and the PBS television station there offered it as a weekly class. Never could get past the initial debit/credit presentations without my head exploding...now I get it! Everything after that in this course was, with some effort, smooth sailing. Thank you for your offering.

This is one of the best online courses I have taken. Most concise information explained in easily understandable terms. I am truly thankful to Ms. Charlene Messier for the efforts which she has taken to make such a complex and theoretical subject, so easy to comprehend for a novice like me.

Accounting is a world of its own and often difficult to enter. This teacher shows she has experience with beginners and is good at explaining the difficult and most essential concept of debits and credits. I appreciated her style because accounting is not easy for me and she makes it understandable! The lessons have explanations and practice, so we learn what to do. I like the no pressure lesson exams. This was a great accounting course. The content was great!

Accounting Fundamentals

Florida International University