Courses in Financial Reporting & Analysis
By completing the courses listed below, you earn certificates approved by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), verifying that you have mastered the material, worth in total 32.5 CPE credits if you are a CPA. The course series, which requires no pre-knowledge of financial statements, covers the content contained in a course on financial reporting and analysis taught to MBAs (some CPAs, most not) training to become high-level industry managers. The theme of the course package is how understanding financial statements can lead to running successful businesses.
How does it work? Each of the courses below includes one or more course videos, learning objectives, knowledge check review questions with feedback, and a final exam. Also included is an extensive glossary (see link above) where you can quickly and easily find the definitions of all important terms. To complete the course, you must review the video and answer the review questions, which offer explanations for the correct and incorrect responses. After completing the video and answering the review questions, you must take a final exam and score at least 70%. You can retake the exam as many times as you wish, but no feedback is offered for correct and incorrect responses. Once you have completed all parts of the course, you will be sent a certificate via email.
Purchase all courses for $249.99
Total Course Length: 26.5 Hours | Financial Accounting CPE Credits: 32.5 Credit Hours | Price: $249.99
Individual Courses
This series of video-based courses start at the very beginning, assuming no knowledge of financial statements, and gradually creates an intuitive and comprehensive understanding of financial statements – why they exist, what they are, and how they are prepared and analyzed. At the end of each course, which consists of one or more mini-lecture videos, you are invited to complete an assessment quiz if you score at least 70%, you will be awarded a certificate stating that you have mastered the material.
Course Length: 3 Hours | CPE: 3 Credit Hours | Price: $29.99
Prerequisites: None
This course is comprised of 8 videos that cover why financial statements are important, what financial statements are, and fundamentally how financial statements provide information that addresses how well companies have performed on the key factors of business success. Also included is coverage of the environment in which financial statements are prepared and used as well as the concept of corporate governance.
Course Length: 3 Hours | CPE: 3.5 Credit Hours | Price: $34.99
Prerequisites: Course 1 (Recommended not required)
This course, which is comprised of 12 videos, demonstrates the process of preparing a complete set of financial statements, including discussions of the basic accounting equation, journal entries, ledgers, and contra accounts (e.g., accumulated depreciation and treasury stock). The last two videos address the differences between accruals and cash flows, and the items that reconcile net income on the income statement with net cash from operating activities in the operating section of the statement of cash flows.
Course Length: 3 Hours | CPE: 3.5 Credit Hours | Price: $34.99
Prerequisites: Courses 1 & 2 (Recommended not required)
This course, which is comprised of 10 videos, provides detailed discussions of each of the four major financial statements individually and then introduces financial ratio analysis with an emphasis on interpreting the ratios as an integrated package. Ratio analyses are conducted on the 2017 financial statements of both Home Depot and Lowe’s and the last two videos introduce the ROE model and demonstrate how it can be used to provide helpful insights in the Home Depot vs. Lowe’s comparative analysis.
Course Length: 1 Hour | CPE: 1 Credit Hour | Price: $9.99
Prerequisites: None
This course, which is comprised of only one video, covers the notion of the time value of money and how it relates to valuation; the valuation of assets, liabilities and the firm itself. It includes the concepts of compound interest, future value, present value, internal rates of return and cost of capital, all critical to understanding how business decisions should be made.
Course Length: 3 Hours and 30 Minutes | CPE: 4 Credit Hours | Price: $39.99
Prerequisites: Courses 1 & 2 (Recommended not required)
This course, which is comprised of 6 videos, begins by discussing the concept of classification, and then moves into discussions of the company’s two primary forms of financing: debt and equity. The financial statements and the footnotes of the companies featured in this course include General Motors, Volkswagen (an IFRS user), Amazon, Home Depot and Panera.
Course Length: 2 Hours and 30 Minutes | CPE: 3 Credit Hours | Price: $29.99
Prerequisites: Courses 1 & 2 (Recommended not required)
This course, which is comprised of 5 videos, focuses on how companies manage and account for the primary current assets: accounts receivable, inventory and some investments. It also provides a broad discussion of the general ways in which assets are depicted in the financial statements. The financial statements and the footnotes of the companies featured in this course include Caterpillar Financial, Caterpillar Manufacturing, John Deere, Nordstrom, Yahoo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.
Course Length: 1 Hour and 45 Minutes | CPE: 2 Credit Hours | Price: $19.99
Prerequisites: Courses 1 & 2 (Recommended not required)
This course, which is comprised of 3 videos, covers investments in equity securities; property, plant and equipment; and intangible assets. The financial statements and the footnotes of the companies featured in this course include Walt Disney, 3M, and Yahoo.
Course Length: 1 Hours & 6 Min | CPE: 2 Credit Hours | Price: $19.99
Prerequisites: None
In this single video course, Professor Pratt first defines earnings management and then introduces and illustrates the two basic forms: real earnings management and accruals earnings management. He illustrates each form, provides a number of examples, discusses whether they are appropriate and then creates a framework for accruals earnings management that identifies and relates the four general areas (materiality, disclosure, classification and measurement) where it is practiced. The video concludes with a thorough discussion of why earnings management is practiced and common strategies used by companies. Throughout the video real-world financial statements and footnotes are analyzed. Companies featured include General Electric, Merck, Harley Davidson, Tesla, AT&T, Volkswagen, Walt Disney and others
Course Length: 1 Hours & 7 Min | CPE: 2 Credit Hours | Price: $19.99
Prerequisites: None
This course thoroughly covers the fundamentals of time value of money, including interest rates, future value, present value, and internal rate of return. Common personal and business applications are also demonstrated. Examples include saving for vacations and college educational costs, retirement planning, modeling future outcomes and sensitivity analysis, and investing in bonds and bond pricing. Time value of money is at the heart of virtually all financial decision making and it is important for business professionals to understand exactly how it works.
Course Length: 1 Hours & 45 Mins | CPE: 3 Credit Hours | Price: $29.99
Prerequisites: None
This 3.0 credit course tackles the question: Is it ethical to “manage” the earnings number – that is, to use legitimate discretion in the preparation of the financial statements to manage the numbers in a way that serves the interests of the manager independent of whether it serves the interest of the firm’s owners? We begin by creating an ethical framework based on the professional code of ethics. We then cover the what, why, how, and when of earnings management behavior, describing and illustrating the variety of ways in which managers use their discretion in operating, investing, financing, and reporting decisions to influence the financial reports. In the vast majority of these cases, we rely on real-world examples, taken from publicly-available financial statements that received unqualified audit opinions. For the various categories of earnings management, we consider how they can be evaluated within the ethical framework we established at the beginning of the course. The result is an informed and thoughtful approach to assessing whether a given earnings management practice is consistent with professional ethics, a valuable tool whether you are an external auditor reviewing a set of statements, a preparer of the statements, or an outsider attempting to determine the usefulness of the statements.
Course Length: 1 Hours & 10 Mins | CPE: 2 Credit Hours | Price: $19.99
Prerequisites: None
In this single-video course, Professor Pratt demonstrates how properly managing the key determinants of return on equity (ROE) increases the value of the firm. He first provides a brief summary of the relevant features of the time value of money with a special emphasis on the internal rate of return, and then he demonstrates what it exactly means to create shareholder value. The ROE model is then introduced and fits into a value creation framework, followed by an intuitive and straightforward present value analysis that shows how improving ROE can drive up the value of the firm. Professor Pratt then uses a spreadsheet, in which the model has been programmed, to conduct an analysis of the current market value of Best Buy, the well-known electronic equipment retailer. The viewer is then guided through some sensitivity analysis designed to highlight which financial metrics are most important to driving up Best Buy’s market value. The overall theme of this course is that understanding this system provides a guide to identifying where management should focus its attention in its effort to increase the value of the firm, and due to their special understanding of financial statements, accountants are in an excellent position to take full advantage.
Course Length: 1 Hours & 30 Mins | CPE: 2.5 Credit Hours | Price: $24.99
Prerequisites: None
In this 2.5 CPE credit course, Professor Pratt thoroughly covers the statement of cash flows: its preparation, both the direct and indirect forms of presentation, as well as its analysis, which includes reviewing the key elements of cash flow assessment and the identification and interpretation of the various cash flow profiles. The course concludes by analyzing real-world statements of cash flows and using these cash flow profiles to assess the cash management strategies of seven different firms at different stages of development experiencing different levels of success: Pinterest, General Electric, Airbnb, Home Depot, Carvana, Lyft, and Blue Apron.
Our courses are designed for everyone
Each course is eligible for providing financial accounting CPE credits but they were designed for anyone to use to gain knowledge of financial statements and financial analysis.