Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization

This specialization introduces corporate finance and accounting. It focuses on their application to a variety of real-world scenarios, including personal finance, corporate decision making, financial intermediation and how accounting standards affect financial reporting. The course covers concepts and applications such as time value of money and risk-return tradeoff. It also includes information about retirement savings, financial intermediation, mortgage financing, asset valuation, and auto leasing. Excel is used to facilitate the learning process and make it more practical. The coursework gives a solid foundation in corporate finance. It covers everything from valuing claims and financing decisions to basic elements of a financial model. The focus then shifts to financial accounting. This enables learners to read financial statements as well as to understand the language of accounting. Bookkeeping basics, accrual accounting, and cash flow analysis are all covered in this course. The specialization, which builds on the foundational knowledge in accounting, teaches students how to analyze and understand key information provided by companies in their statements. This includes types of assets, liabilities, longer-term investments, debts, and the difference between financial reporting and tax reporting.