Financial Analysis - Skills for Success
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera Specialization
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Overview
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In an era of thriving businesses, both small and large, it is crucial to possess a wholistic understanding of the financial building blocks of a successful organization. Through this 3-course Specialization in Financial Analysis, you will gain a well-rounded knowledge of key financial concepts that will help you apply an analytic mindset to understanding and driving organizational decisions and success.
The courses in this Specialization focus on financial topics and organizational principles. Topics covered include:
Understanding the importance of gaining a financial perspective Identifying and applying fundamental principles of Accounting and Finance Identifying a firm’s financial statements and understanding how they reflect company position and performance Understanding the basics of financial statement analysis Using financial information to facilitate strategic and operational decision-making Planning and budgeting to effectively and efficiently allocate resources
This specialization is designed to build on the foundational skills developed in the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate; earn a dual credential when you complete a Google Career Certificate and this specialization.
Syllabus
- Course 1: Introduction to Financial Analysis - The "Why?"
- Course 2: Financial Analysis of Organizations
- Course 3: Financial Analysis of Scenarios and Decisions
Courses
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This course focuses on adopting and implementing a financially analytic mindset when engaged in organizational decision-making and scenario analysis. The course begins with an overview of the "internal" perspective of the organization, in which you will learn fundamental concepts, including the importance of how cost information is organized for different decision scenarios. You will then learn about scenario analysis, including cost-volume-profit analysis and other fundamental concepts that help facilitate financial organizational decision-making. Next, you will learn about planning and budgeting, a key function that allows organizations to identify and allocate resources necessary to achieve organizational goals. You will then learn how to assess actual performance against these budgets using variance analysis. Finally, you will learn about the organization’s performance measurement, evaluation, and compensation system. Specifically, you will learn about the advantages and disadvantages of common financial performance measures and understand how an organization uses non-financial performance measures within its strategic performance measurement system to complement the financial perspective.
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This course focuses on adopting and implementing a financially analytic mindset when analyzing organizational activities, position and performance. This course begins with an overview of an organization’s financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, as well as the transactions that comprise these statements. You will learn about tools and ratios that help analyze these financial statements and transactions. Financial statement analysis will help you understand how the company has performed in the past and its current position. This analysis - as well as course content on forecasting both short- and long-term performance - enables you to draw inferences, make predictions about the organization's future performance and value. Ultimately, this course provides a "deep-dive" into the multi-dimensional nature of financial analysis and how it used to assess the value of organizations.
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In this course, you will learn the foundations important to developing and implementing a financially analytic mindset. This course introduces the foundations of financial analysis, beginning with the first question: what is financial analysis? You will learn about the importance of adopting and applying a financial perspective. You will learn about accounting and finance principles and fundamentals. Accounting principles allow for the creation of consistent and reliable financial information. Key fundamentals of finance facilitate the use of a financially analytic mindset in different settings, including corporate and organizational, investment opportunities, and entrepreneurial settings. Ultimately, from this course, you will take away a strong foundational understanding of financial analysis, on which you can build further knowledge and skills related to financial analysis of organizations and organizational decisions and scenarios.
Taught by
Gies College of Business, University of Illinois