VMBA5714

This course introduces accounting as the language of business and its primary information system. The course provides an introduction to financial statements and the financial reporting process. The purpose of financial reporting is to provide information to owners and other stakeholders of the firm to serve as the basis for making decisions about the firm. The course explains fundamental accounting concepts and accounting procedures that convert economic events into information reported in financial statements. Based on this foundational knowledge, the course then conveys evaluation methods to analyze financial statements and interpret them, in order to assess the performance of a company and its future prospects. A student who successfully completes this course should be able to (i) understand the basic concepts and principles of accounting, (ii) appreciate the rationale behind accounting rules and differences and similarities between rules used across the world, (iii) gain the technical know-how to record and report business transactions, and (iv) become informed users of financial reports by developing some level of expertise in reading, understanding, and analyzing basic financial statements.

Every Spring