301Course · Practitioner

Accounting

The language of business.

The Course

Accounting is the language of business. This course teaches it as a working literacy — the three statements, how they connect, and where honest people disagree about the numbers.

You will finish able to read a public 10-K or a small-business P&L with equal ease.

Outcomes
  • 01

    Read all three financial statements.

  • 02

    Reconcile a set of books.

  • 03

    Distinguish accrual from cash accounting.

Prerequisites
  • Program I — Financial Foundations.
Pacing

2 weeks · ~5 hours.

  • IModule · ~2 hours.

    The three statements

    Income, balance, cash flow — and how they connect.

    Income, balance, and cash-flow statements together describe the business. Any one alone lies.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • Read all three statements.
    • Connect net income to cash flow.
    • Locate the reconciling items.
    Why here

    The connections are the point; the individual lines are context.

    1. 01Income statementArticle12m
    2. 02Balance sheetArticle12m
    3. 03Cash flow statementArticle12m
    4. 04Reading: Berkshire Hathaway 2019 letterReading25m
  • IIModule · ~1.5 hours.

    The mechanics

    Debits, credits, and the trial balance.

    Double-entry accounting is the mechanism that keeps the books honest.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • Post a transaction with two sides.
    • Run a trial balance.
    • Close a period.
    Why here

    Understanding the mechanism decodes every anomaly you will ever see.

    1. 01Double-entry accountingVisuals8m
    2. 02The accounting cycleArticle12m
  • IIIModule · ~1.5 hours.

    Judgment

    Where honest people disagree.

    Where the code allows choice, judgment lives. This module names the choices that matter.

    What You Will Be Able To Do
    • Choose accrual vs. cash defensibly.
    • Recognize revenue conservatively.
    • Detect earnings management.
    Why here

    The judgment layer is where most accounting disputes actually sit.

    1. 01Accrual vs. cashArticle12m
    2. 02Revenue recognitionArticle12m
A Note from the Faculty

An operator who cannot read their own books is not running the company. They are being run by it.