**You should complete all other courses in the Fundamentals of Accounting Specialization before beginning this course.** The capstone project will be set in the context of a realistic small-business enterprise, and will require you to think deeply and apply the accounting concepts presented in the other courses in the Fundamentals of Accounting. While navigating the daily operations of the business, you will have an opportunity to consider the accounting implications of the economic events encountered, as well as how these economic events should be communicated to decision makers. 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.
Pro-forma Financial Statements and External Decision Making Introduction
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Del curso dictado por University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fundamentals of Accounting Capstone
1 calificación
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1 calificación
Curso 5 de 5 en SpecializationFundamentals of Accounting
De la lección
Milestone 6: Pro-forma Financial Statements and External Decision Making
What does the financial future of your business look like?
Conoce a los instructores
Sharon P. Cox, Ph.D.Lecturer
Department of Accountancy
Here it is.
This is your last milestone.
Milestone six.
All that you have been working, all the courses that you have taken,
all the time you have put into it, you're there.
So, we have this last little piece.
This is where we're really formalizing everything that you've learned.
This is where you really want to look at okay, Kevin said,
this is the way it's supposed to look.
This is what an external user would take a look at someone who might
lend you money, someone like tax authority or something.
So, you really want to have your game up when you're doing that external users.
So the other thing that's really nice about this is
when you went through this process you went through,
you did what was asked of you, but
it's hard to really see the connection of everything.
Here, you have to see the connection.
To get to the end of the milestone, the pieces will have to connect and
that will make all of what you done so much more meaningful.
And not only that, you are going to be so
excited that you were able to connect the dots.
It is a great feeling.
To this day, I'm very happy when a trial balance balances and
it will be a sense of accomplishment.
You will have the final product.
Whatever your goal was to take this class, whether it was to challenge and
to learn, you're going to have a final product.
If it is again, to improve or start a business, you have something
that you can go forward and talk to people outside of your business.
Making sure that things are presented in such a way that you're not giving
them what we might call trade secrets.
We don't want them to know absolutely everything.
We present things ethically and a little bit more summarized fashion.
So, in this formalized fashion for the external decision makers.
When you are new entity, a bank officer is going to
be impressed if you can give them that product that
you have a plan, you have financial information.
And possibly,
this is really going to be you've been running your business a year or two.
So not only can you show only one year, you will be able to show two years and
it would give anyone confidence that okay, this person is on the ball.
They know what it takes.
They know the need for this information.
They know how to communicate to me.
So, that is what you're really going to get out
of this particular last milestone.
It's very interesting.
It really takes you full circle from Kevin, then going to Derry and
then coming back to this end product.
So, it's a nice thing to see again the pieces put together.
So specifically, what you wanted to is you want to
have what we call the pro-forma statements.
Pro-forma is just a nice way to say, this is what we
expect will happen and you will be giving it to them and
really the essentially same exact way as if it represented
actual activity the process of creating them.
The fact that you're not going to give them too much detailed information.
The only thing you really change is the heading on the statement.
Instead of saying an income statement, you say it's a pro-forma income statement.
Sometimes they might say, it's a projected or
a forecasted statement, but it takes the same exact skills that
you've been learning to produce that pro-forma statement.
Now again, what will you do with that?
You want to be able to think people outside the business.
So, either to get some good business consulting advice to
get additional financing, possibly to maybe merge with
another entity when you get the point where you want to grow.
So, being able to have this information will give you that tool.
And again, part of what you want to accomplish in this
process is talking about how you will actually had
external decision makers using the perform a statement.
Put yourself in do a roleplay, what would your friend
say if you ask them to merge with your business?
What would the banker say?
And can you really put the relevant information into your dialogue and
make sure that you are backing it up with the numbers.
Bankers might want different information.
They want to know, are you going to be able to pay the loan?
You might have another situation where people see the opportunity.
This is going to grow, maybe the bottom line income isn't great today,
but they can see the progression over time.
They seek that opportunity.
And so, you want to be able to know how to sell the information
to the external decision maker.
Again, it's another tool,
another opportunity to practice your communication.
And honestly, it's a great way before you actually meet with the external
decision maker to start to practice, so that you are comfortable with
what you're going to say that you have things connected.
That it's very clear that you know what you're talking about.
And so, that is your goal and that is what your peers
are going to look at when they evaluate this final milestone.
So, it is a really big point in the process that you've been going through.
You still want constructive feedback.
At any point in time, we can improve, we can always improve.
And again, anytime that someone sees something that you didn't see,
they may not be correct, but
then you understand why someone didn't understand it.
Then you understand that, okay, the information is correct,
but maybe not communicated properly.
So, that constructive feedback is just essential and you really want to take
the time that you need and that you want others to do for you.
So that it's a very much pay it forward, helping each other out kind of concept.
So that's what you're going to look like at your peer review stage.
That's what's going to guide you, as well as the instructions when you
are preparing those pro-forma financial statements.
Now, one thing I want to add that I didn't say with that
assignment piece of the external decision-making.
Once again, you are not starting from scratch.
What you are going to do is you're going to work with your budgeted income
statement.
You are going to work with milestone three when you listed out your assets and you're
going to use those to be your starting point for those financial statements.
You don't have to try to imagine transactions going through the accounting
cycle measuring economic events, that would be a very daunting task.
So pro-forma, again, you need it realistic,
because other people are looking at it, but it doesn't have to be perfect.
And by the way, accounting always has estimates.
So you have a starting point here, you don't have to look like you have to start
at the very beginning, which again, will be daunting.
You've done so much work, this will put the pieces together
on the whole set of the balance sheet and the income statement.
So again, don't feel like you have to start from scratch.
So, I've gone over what you want to look at for the peer review and
providing that constructive feedback.
It's always helpful, I've said that so many times.
And once you do that feedback, you're done,
which is pretty darn exciting.
So, what do you want to do next?
Will this actually help you in your business?
It will help you hopefully to kind of make some of those decisions in
a more informed manner, as opposed to just going with your gut instinct or
as opposed to just doing what you did last year, because that seemed good enough.
So here's a way to have these tools,
you can even start to do it on your own and then you've really understand
how the business flow is actually working when you do it yourself.
Can you see yourself starting a business?
Now you have a whole tool box, you have a much better way
to see if can you really yet all those a raw materials,
all those operating expenses paid for,
charge the correct price and end up with a sustainable business.
You might find out, you know what?
Your first idea isn't such a great idea.
You might find that out through this capstone course and
that's fine, but that also helps you save money from not starting
something that maybe really doesn't have a chance.
Do you think your charitable entity can sustain contributions coming in,
so you can help the people that you're out there wanting to help and
it'll give you the opportunity.
There really are so many good organizations that do provide grant,
you don't have to pay them back to help people in the community.
So, that will give you that confidence to see that it is a possibility.
Maybe you don't want to do either of these things.
You don't necessarily want to be the boss.
I understand that.
I didn't ever really want to be the boss.
But the more I learned, the more I could take on different positions and
I could challenge myself and I could feel confident walking in the door
not worrying that I'm going to make so many mistakes they're going to fire me.
Maybe you want to go all the way, now you want to become an accountant.
And that, of course, would just make me thrilled.
But you have opportunities,
because you do have this process of going through all the skills.
You have that finished product.
You have the practice with communication, which is so key with accounting.
People can think it's numbers, but communication is so important.
Finally, I would like to say,
you have completed something that not to many people can.
There is a reason why we get hired.
People aren't comfortable with the numbers and you have done this.
And so, you really should be quite proud of yourself.
It is a big accomplishment.
Whatever your goal was coming in, whatever your expectation was coming in,
know that you have done something that was very difficult.
You did it successfully and it's a tool to use in the future.
So, I really want to congratulate you.
I hope you have enjoyed this and go have a great business or
a great new position, and enjoy everything that you have learnt.
Thank you.
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