Welcome to the Capstone course in Fundamentals of Accounting. You have reached the fifth and final course to have your specialization in accounting. So, this really should be a very existing moment for you. The end is in sight, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That you know that you can make it at this point. So, welcome to the course and I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoy helping you learn some new information. So now, with this capstone, we're going to put the pieces together. We're going to really apply what you've learned. We saw Kevin in the bakery, which was a good application. And we saw Gary with the landscaping, a good application. But they were two different businesses. Now you going to put them all into one business. And so that will really help you put the pieces together. It will really help you further under the financial statement, and how you're using financial information to make good decisions. It is always a nice thing to have some information to bank up your decision. There are times people may question not necessarily take your work for it. But if you have that information, you have a tool in your pocket and that's a great piece to help you be confident going forward. Now, here's the exciting part. This is your project. You can do anything you like. There won't be a specific homework with a specific set of facts. You have the opportunity to create your own business. And through that you will be analyzing everything you've done in the first four courses. So, if you don't want to necessarily create a business, maybe that seems a little bit daunting. But you have a business and you can use that to go forward with. So, you can use the same information in any number of ways and we're going to talk about that throughout the capstone course. So, when I say create your own business, again, do what is interesting to you, if you want to sell products. So, if you want to be a retailer like a mom-and-pop shop you might see on the street, then you're selling products and you're a for-profit entity. And so that has a little bit different setup as you again, you've learned on your prior courses. You have things like cost of goods sold and you have decisions to make about do I produce more of product A, or more of product B? Now I will tell you, you won't necessarily go to that level of detail. But this is an option, so that you can look at, it is actually possible to have something where you're selling a product, if that's what you're interested in. You may want to provide services and now you have an opportunity to look at what will be entailed to provide services as some sort of for profit business entity, so that you're putting yourself out there on a good footing. Now, maybe you don't necessarily have an interest in either that it's just what you're might really be interested in is doing something that's really a more charitable activity. And they can be pretty difficult to set up, but when we go through this process, you will get feedback and understanding of how it really is a possibility. So, again, this is really wide open for you and I really do think it'll be an exciting course for you. I want to tell you a little bit about myself, so you know you're going to be seeing every week, and who's here behind you, supporting you. Initially I started not as an academic but I actually started in public accounting. And not only that, I was in public accounting where my clients were small and medium sized businesses. Just like you're going to be. So, I really understand the issues that you are facing and I really gave that a lot of consideration for the things that you are going to do to complete this capstone course. So, I know what you're facing. At some point, I decided, okay, now I would like to become a teacher. And so, because I really had that diverse background in public accounting. I've been able to teach a lot of different courses, including courses that are very much like you had with Kevin and Gary. So, I have an understanding of what they've given you and how you can pull it all together. So, I think that's how I can help you through this process. Again, it just really does help to know that someone can understand what you're going through and that it was considered as part of the process. So, it's meant to be something that is enjoyable, something that you can do, something that you can use going forward, okay. So, I've told you a little bit what to expect already but in a little bit more detail, so that you get an idea of again. What you're going to be doing every step of the way. What is your next milestone, your next step at getting to that certificate for completing the entire specialization. So, the first thing is to create your business. This you can do anything you want. You can create anything you want. You may not be actually going to pursue it but have fun with it. So, you're going to describe your business. And what's really nice is for every single milestone, you can get additional feedback. You don't have to stick with that particular description. You can hone your description as you learn more information and so that's really nice. Things can actually can be changed contrary to what people think about accounting. But that's what this is about, so that you can contour your business into what will be successful, enjoyable, and sustainable for you. So, what are we going to do after that? This may seem a little bit strange. When you went through your courses, you first looked at the balance sheet. And actually, you first looked at assets and went through what is included on that balance sheet. We're going to start in a different place. We're going to look at the expenses first, because you have to be able to pay your expenses. And not only that, you need to know what your expenses are before you set a selling price. So, in Milestone 2, that's what you're going to work on. Now, I want to warn you right now Milestone 2 will be your most difficult milestone. It will take the most amount of time. It will take the most amount of research. Know that estimates are okay. You want them as realistic as you can get, so that it's a great tool for you. But also know that it's not expected to be perfect but again I want to emphasize it's difficult, it's time consuming more than difficult. But it's the foundation for the entire project. So, putting the time in now will make everything else so much more meaningful. Now we're going to shift back to the balance sheet, and we're going to look at our assets. So, we have to look at what do we need to own to make this happen? Of course, we all know we need cash. But now you want to look at what is your business? Are you going to manufacture product? Well then you need equipment. Are you going to have a service in a business? Your going to need a probably pretty good computer system. Are you going to be a non-profit shareable entity? Your going to probably minimize your assets as much as possible. Because in the beginning you're not going to have a lot of money to start off with. So, you’re really going to be very critical, very focused on what you are choosing. And again both for Milestone 2 and for Milestone 3 as you get more information through the milestones, through the feedback, you can revise. You have that opportunity to make things better and more meaningful for yourself. So, that is I think a nice feature for you. So next, now you do want to get in Gary's class. Now you want to say what is my performance going to be, excuse me I want to get in to Kevin's class where he look at business performance. Because you want to make sure that you have a viable entity. You want to make sure that you do have a net income because otherwise you're constantly running out of cash. You won't be sustainable, it will not be an enjoyable enterprise. So, you want to look at your performance and we want to look at how can we use that information. And will use that information from Milestone 5 for the internal decision making. Okay, so how can you use information to help run your business better? How can you make better decisions? How can you motivate your employees? How might you've realized that you know what, I should go to that supplier and ask for a better price in deal because I just can see this is seems to be out of line. When you have that in a format, an orderly format on a regular basis, you have a much better opportunity to make those great decisions. Now we do end up, we go back and we want to make things a little bit formal. We want to look at where can this really go, not just right in the moment but where is it going to go in future? Is it something that you really can do going forward? And to do that you're going to have to talk to other people, you're going to eventually have to get information and get consulting information. Possibly apply for loans, possibly look for an investor. Many, many reasons why you're going to need those financial statements appropriate for the external users. And the difference there is between internal and external is that internal is going to not hide information but it's going to present it differently not in the same level of detail. You need a lot of detail for internal decisions. But you can provide a little bit more summary for an external decision and that really helps everyone because it's nice to read two things a little bit quicker. And again, going to the six milestones you will see how everything you have learned has been pulled together, you may not at the first time you were exposed to something. Really saw if it had a point but now you're going to see that there is a purpose to all of this. And hopefully, you're going to find it an enjoyable process, so that you have those tools going forward. So, you can meet the goal you had when you decided to take this specialization. So, I really look forward to finding what business you choose, how you approach, setting up your financial information along the way. Listen to your fellow students because they usually have some pretty good ideas. They are maybe not thinking of things as the same as you. It's nice to have someone looking outside the box. So, help each other out, and everyone will benefit from that. And good luck with this and I will see you again shortly to talk about Milestone 1.
