- Data Analysis
- Professional Skills
- Beginner
About this Course
Understanding how to read the story that financial statements tell is a really useful skill and an important part of career development. In this course, we’ll give a basic overview of the 3 main financial statements: the Profit and Loss Statement, the Balance Sheet, and the Cash Flow Statement. We’ll teach what they show you, why it matters, and give you a bunch of practice problems to help retain that knowledge. After completing this course, you will be able to read, understand, and use financial statements and build on that knowledge as you continue to learn about them.
What you'll learn
- Overviews of the Profit and Loss, Cash Flow, and Balance Sheet financial statements
- What the most common line items on these statements mean and how they are used
- The difference between profit and cash
Introducing Financial Statements
In this stage we introduce what financial statements are, how they are prepared, some very basic background about accounting principles, and the difference between cash and accrual accounting.
4 stepsThe Profit & Loss Statement
In this stage we introduce the Profit and Loss statement ("P&L")by explaining the different line items one can expect to encounter when reading a P&L.
6 stepsThe Balance Sheet
In this stage we introduce the balance sheet covering all the major sections and line items one will typically find on a balance sheet.
5 stepsThe Cash Flow Statement
In this stage we introduce the Cash Flow Statement, and the three subsections that it consists of.
5 stepsBringing It All Together
In this stage we'll show you how to retrieve financial statements online, how the teacher likes to read 10-k statements, the distinction between EBITDA and Net Profit as measure of profit, the difference between Book Value and Market Value, and some example of how the financial statements relate to one another.
6 stepsTeacher
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Michael Watson
Michael Watson is the former CFO & COO of Treehouse. Before joining Treehouse he worked in private equity in Asia. He is a graduate of Tufts University and has an MBA from INSEAD. He loves sports and the great outdoors.