Financial Literacy: Reading Financial Statements like a Pro (Video) (Course Id 1107)

One of the most crucial skills for any manager to develop, financial or otherwise, is an ability to pick up and read a set of financial statements. Financial statements tell important stories about how a business has performed, its level of financial strength, and the availability of cash generated. Unfortunately, these stories are often not explicitly stated and require understanding and further analysis.

In this course, we will work through a set of financial statements highlighting the key points of relevance. We will also learn about ratio analysis, which will help us generate a deeper level of insight into the financial results by making comparisons to prior periods and to peers. This is a foundational course that will deepen your understanding of what the numbers mean.

Course Learning Objectives

• Analyze financial statements to evaluate profitability, operational performance, financial strength, and cash flow.
• Use ratio analysis to evaluate financial performance again trends, prior performance, and industry statistics.