Online accounting course for small and home business people

Online accounting course. A short, practical, hands-on approach.

ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSES IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION BUT WILL BE COMING SOON! PLEASE WATCH FOR THE FREE MINI-LESSON THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE SHORTLY. IN THE MEANTIME, FEEL FREE TO LOOK AROUND. WE HAVE PROVIDED LINKS TO IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT SITES AND TO A GREAT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. THERE ARE ALSO LINKS PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO COMMON PROBLEMS EXPERIENCED BY SMALL AND HOME BUSINESS PEOPLE. MORE WILL BE ADDED OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. A DESCRIPTION OF THE ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSE FOLLOWS. (AND HEY, DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE JOKES.)

WHAT IS THE ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSE?
It is a course in practical accounting and bookkeeping designed to teach you how to keep the books of a small company just like your own. We have woven the theory and practice of accounting together using a multi-media, hands-on learning strategy. The online accounting course is meant to give small and home business people and others (see who will benefit from taking the online accounting course) a solid understanding of the language of business so that they can better run their companies or perform their jobs.

In this online accounting course, you will learn the theory first, and then put that theory into practice immediately by actually keeping all the records of a real-to-life company just like your own. This integrated approach has a history of success in the classroom and is now available for the first time as an E-learning program via the Internet so you can learn at your own pace.

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM TAKING THE ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSE?
Accounting is the language of business. Can you speak it? If you are in business or about to go into business, then you should be able to keep your own books (even if you never intend to actually do the work yourself). How can you tell if this online accounting course might be beneficial to you? Well, here's a short list of the people it might benefit.
Are you ...
* an entrepreneur?
* running a small business?
* running a home business?
* a professional running your own practice?
* a significant other keeping your (husband, wife, friends) books?
* just starting your own business?
* thinking of starting your own business?
* a manager in a company?
* an office manager with bookkeeping duties?
* an administrative assistant with bookkeeping duties?
* a computer programmer?
* a high school or college student about to get a job in business?
* a bookkeeper or accounting clerk who has learned on the job and needs to understand the concepts in order to do your job better or be promoted?
* an investor who would like to understand where the numbers are coming from on the financial statements that you read?
* someone who has taken an academic accounting course and still doesn't know a debit from a credit?

If you fall into any of the above categories, you undoubtedly need to understand the concepts of accounting in order to better do your job or run your company. Academic courses are fine but they are usually too top heavy on the theory and don't always address the issues and problems that you will see in the real world of small business. For example, Accounting 101 in many colleges will still teach you how to account for a corporate bond issue. Now, don't get me wrong: it's fine to know how to account for corporate bonds, but really, how many bonds will your company issue in your lifetime?

Moreover, accounting is a practical subject and if you really want to "get" it, you have to "do" it. Reading only the textbook will usually just confuse you more. We have found that the concepts and principles of accounting make the most sense when they are taught using a real to life "company" for which you keep all the records. To understand how it all comes together, you need to handle the full accounting cycle from recording each business transaction through doing payroll, taxes, reconciling the bank account and finally creating and analyzing your own financial statements. All this (and more) is exactly what you will learn in the online accounting course.

WHAT BACKROUND DO YOU NEED TO TAKE THE ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSE?
None. In the online accounting course, we start from the beginning and assume that you know absolutely nothing. Some folks worry that they don't have enough math backround to take an accounting or bookkeeping course. What kind of math is necessary? Well, accounting concepts are essentially based upon an equation, so if you understand that 1 + 1 = 2 and conversely that 2 - 1 = 1, then you're in luck: you have the proper math backround to learn accounting.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THE ONLINE ACCOUNTING COURSE?
Some of the important topics that will be covered in the online accounting course (please note that this list is not all-inclusive) are:
* Basic accounting concepts, principles and terminology.
* Debits and credits.
* Double entry accounting.
* Types of business entities and enterprises (and their advantages and disadvantages).
* How to take advantage of the office-in-home tax rules.
* How to set-up and keep a set of books for a small business.
* How to journalize business transactions.
* How to reconcile your bank account.
* How to adjust the books at the end of the fiscal period.
* How to post to a general ledger.
* How to compute payroll and payroll taxes.
* How to depreciate assets and take advantage of bonus depreciation tax rules.
* How to create and understand a Balance Sheet.
* How to create and understand an Income Statement (also called a Profit and Loss Statement or P & L).

WHAT WILL YOU RECEIVE?
* An E-book which you will download for the online accounting course and can use as a reference book later. But don't worry, you will not have to read this text on your own. Rather, it will be read to you as a series of lectures via special audio files. Best of all, we have developed a special method of teaching that should help you to stay awake (and that's not even counting the wildly funny jokes and stories that we like to tell.)

* What we call a practice set - all the transactions and records of a real-to-life company for which you will do all the bookkeeping.

* A monthly newsletter e-mailed at the beginning of each month reminding you of up-coming tax due dates and containing articles on taxes, business, accounting and other subjects that we hope will be of interest to our students and graduates. (Don't forget to sign up for this; it's free whether you take the course or not.)

* E-mail access to the instructors on course materials. We will generally try to answer all e-mails within 48 hours. Please note that we are not an accounting service and will not necessarily be able to answer questions specific to your company or your geographic location.

Also, note that this course is not accredited by any school or college, so you will not receive academic credits for taking it. However, if a "Certificate of Completion" would help you in your job or business, you can receive one by taking and passing an on-line, open book "final" exam. We will then mail your certificate to you.

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