Accounting information is the lifeblood of the organization as it facilitates and influences operational and strategic decisions intended to achieve organizational goals. Organizations benefit from three decision-oriented roles of accounting: measurement, control, and communication. This course provides an introduction to accounting’s measurement role inside of an organization and how accountants communicate information that helps managers and employees make operational decisions. In particular, you will learn how cost information is created and organized to help managers and employees conduct profitability analyses, develop and choose products, make pricing decisions, and make common business decisions. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: • Identify the nature, purpose, and importance of different types of decision-useful accounting information. • Create, organize, and communicate cost information to best suit common operational decisions. • Use accounting information to manage products, control costs, and leverage other drivers of operational success. If you enjoy this business course and are interested in an MBA, consider applying to the iMBA, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price offered by the University of Illinois. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

In this course you will learn how to use key finance principles to understand and measure business success and to identify and promote true value creation. You will learn how to use accounting information to form key financial ratios to measure a company’s financial health and to manage a company's short-term and long-term liquidity needs. You will also learn how to use valuation techniques to make sound business investment and acquisition decisions. Finally, you will learn how to incorporate risk and uncertainty into investment decisions and how to evaluate the performance of existing investments. Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to: • Understand how companies make investment decisions that create value for shareholders • Use accounting statements to measure the financial health of a company • Forecast and manage a company’s short- and long-term liquidity needs • Measure the contribution of a new project or acquisition to shareholder value • Incorporate risk into investment decisions using the appropriate discount rates • Evaluate the performance of a company or divisions of a company This course was previously entitled Financial Evaluation and Strategy: Corporate Finance. The course received an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 based on 177 reviews over the period of September 2015 through August 2016. A detailed breakdown of ratings and reviews received for the prior version of the course, which is identical in content to the current course, is provided in the course orientation page. This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

By the end of this project, you will be able to populate the Google Sheets Financial Statement Template and feel comfortable updating the different tabs on the Financial Statement Template. You will have a better understanding of how to use this tool to help track and present financial information for your company. Note: This course works best for learners who are based in the North America region. We’re currently working on providing the same experience in other regions.

In this course, you will discover the type of questions that econometrics can answer, and the different types of data you might use: time series, cross-sectional, and longitudinal data. During the course you will: – Learn to use the Classical Linear Regression Model (CLRM) as well as the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimator, as you discuss the assumptions needed for the OLS to deliver true regression parameters. – Look at cases with only one independent variable for one dependent variable, before progressing to regression analysis by generalising the bivariate model to multiple regression. – Explore different model-building philosophies, with particular focus on the general-to-specific approach, and learn how to use goodness-of-fit statistics as the measures of “how well your model explains variations in the dependent variable”. Throughout this course, you will see examples to help clarify which kind of relationship is of interest, and how we can interpret it. You will also have the opportunity to apply your learning to estimating the Capital Asset Pricing Model using real data with R. The course is for beginners, so little prior knowledge is required, but you will benefit from an ability to graph two variables in the xy framework, an understanding of basic algebra and taking derivatives. Knowledge of matrix algebra is not a requirement but will also provide you with an advantage. By the end of this course, you will be able to: – Describe the problems that econometrics can help addressing and the type of data that should be used – Explain why some hypotheses are needed for the approach to produce an estimate – Calculate the coefficients of interest in the classical linear regression model – Interpret the estimated parameters and goodness of fit statistics – Estimate single and multiple linear regression models with R.

When an investor is faced with a portfolio choice problem, the number of possible assets and the various combinations and proportions in which each can be held can seem overwhelming. In this course, you’ll learn the basic principles underlying optimal portfolio construction, diversification, and risk management. You’ll start by acquiring the tools to characterize an investor’s risk and return trade-off. You will next analyze how a portfolio choice problem can be structured and learn how to solve for and implement the optimal portfolio solution. Finally, you will learn about the main pricing models for equilibrium asset prices. Learners will: • Develop risk and return measures for portfolio of assets • Understand the main insights from modern portfolio theory based on diversification • Describe and identify efficient portfolios that manage risk effectively • Solve for portfolio with the best risk-return trade-offs • Understand how risk preference drive optimal asset allocation decisions • Describe and use equilibrium asset pricing models.

In this course, you’ll explore how financial statement data and non-financial metrics can be linked to financial performance. Professors Rick Lambert and Chris Ittner of the Wharton School have designed this course to help you gain a practical understanding of how data is used to assess what drives financial performance and forecast future financial scenarios. You’ll learn more about the frameworks of financial reporting, income statements, and cash reporting, and apply different approaches to analyzing financial performance using real-life examples to see the concepts in action. By the end of this course, you’ll have honed your skills in understanding how financial data and non-financial data interact to forecast events and be able to determine the best financial strategy for your organization.

Microsoft Excel has a wide array of versatility and application across countless industries. However, it can be very particular in how the formulas need to be written to reference images, cells, sheets, and even other files. In this project, we discuss navigating the web of connections Excel is capable of, in hopes of making your life just a little bit easier.

To address global poverty - do we really not have enough resources or do we not have the right tools to allocate our resources? The tools of finance, when applied correctly, can be an enabler of social and environmental outcomes. This course is designed to give you the ability to build innovative financing strategies that work towards outcomes such as financial inclusion, access to energy and access to education. The innovative finance process has five key components. It starts with identifying the outcomes you are looking to achieve and next moves on to due diligencing your issue area using techniques like design thinking to make sure you are designing with the end user. Next you must map all of the resources available for your outcome and then discover opportunities to augment these through business model innovation, multi-stakeholder partnerships and innovative financial structures. Finally, the last step is to put all of these pieces together to design an innovating financing strategy. Each week dives into a component of the process using examples and real case studies from social entrepreneurs, non-profits, development funders, impact investors, governments, foundations and more. Over five weeks you’ll learn about new types of revenue creation, financing approaches, business models and partnerships. By the end of the course, you’ll have the ability to hack finance for social change. Watch the course trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSMUoCJgqkw

This course is for aspiring or active entrepreneurs who wants to understand how to secure funding for their company. This course will demystify key financing concepts to give entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs a guide to secure funding. Examine the many financing options available to get your new venture funded. Learn the basics of finance, valuations, dilution and non-dilutive funding sources. Understand capital structure for new ventures, term sheets and how to negotiate them, and the differences between early-stage versus later-stage financing. Develop an understanding of how to develop winning investor pitches, who and when to pitch, how to avoid common mistakes that limit the effectiveness of the pitch, and how to ‘get to the close’. Key questions answered within the course include: * When to raise outside capital? * What kind of investors invest by stage and where to find them? * What are your fundraising options? * What are the key components of the term sheet? * How to perform company valuations? * How to pitch to investors? * What techniques help the entrepreneur ‘get to the close’? With this course, students experience a sampling of the ideas and techniques explored in the University of Maryland's master's degree in technology entrepreneurship, an innovative 100% online program. Learn more at http://mte.umd.edu/landing.

In this course in the Healthcare Marketplace specialization you will identify, define, and describe potential business and public policy solutions to the challenges facing society’s growing demand for health services. Students will master a body of knowledge on the health care sectors major components through reading and reflection. Healthcare has many different cultural components that will be discussed as historic trends as well as future demographic challenges. You will understand diverse philosophies and cultures within and across societies as they relate to healthcare. This outcome is particularly critical because of the tradeoffs needed to be assessed as medical technology advances faster than budgets and perhaps cultures are sometimes willing to tolerate. At the end of the day, you will gain an appreciation for the role of creativity, innovation, discovery, and expression across disciplines in the development of new medical care solutions through and examination of the physician, medical technology and financing sub-sectors of the health economy.