CPA Exam Prep — BAR: Business Analysis and Reporting

About this course

What you'll learn

• Analyze financial statements, variances, ratios and data-analytics outputs to explain an entity's results.
• Interpret non-financial and non-GAAP measures and apply managerial and cost accounting methods.
• Prepare budgets and forecasts and evaluate capital structure, investment alternatives and risk.
• Apply technical accounting for intangibles, software, revenue, share-based payments, R&D, business combinations, consolidation, derivatives and leases.
• Recall public company and employee benefit plan reporting requirements.
• Prepare and convert state and local government financial statements and account for typical governmental transactions.

Course details

Level

advanced

What's included

• 12 lessons
• Progress tracking
• Certificate of completion

Requirements

• Working knowledge of financial accounting (FAR-level).
• Plan roughly 16 hours of study for the lessons, before practice questions.

Curriculum

1. 01

   Lesson 1: Financial Statement Analysis and Data

   Sourcing and structuring financial statement data, comparing current results to prior periods and budget, interpreting ratios and fluctuations, using analytics outputs to explain results, and deriving the impact of transactions on the statements.

   80m
2. 02

   Lesson 2: Non-Financial and Non-GAAP Performance Measures

   Identifying and applying non-financial and non-GAAP measures, internal and external benchmarking, the balanced scorecard, and interpreting measures such as EBITDA, free cash flow, core earnings and customer/operational metrics.

   75m
3. 03

   Lesson 3: Managerial and Cost Accounting

   Calculating fixed, variable and mixed costs; applying absorption, variable, activity-based, process and job-order costing; deriving variance analysis for key cost drivers; and interpreting sales results through price, volume and mix analysis.

   85m
4. 04

   Lesson 4: Budgeting, Forecasting and Economic Influences

   Budget preparation, forecasting and planning techniques, variance interpretation, and supply/demand, elasticity, inflation and opportunity-cost analysis.

   90m
5. 05

   Lesson 5: Capital Structure and Investment Decisions

   Cost of capital (WACC), effects of leverage on covenants, liquidity and EPS, and investment valuation models including NPV, IRR, payback and EVA.

   95m
6. 06

   Lesson 6: Risk Management and Working Capital

   COSO ERM framework including ESG risk application, financial risk mitigation strategies, SWOT analysis, and working capital management strategies.

   85m
7. 07

   Lesson 7: Goodwill, Internal-Use and For-Sale Software, and R&D

   Goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible impairment testing, capitalization of internal-use and for-sale software, and expensing of research and development costs.

   85m
8. 08

   Lesson 8: Revenue Recognition, Share-Based Payments and Leases

   The five-step revenue model and discrepancy investigation, equity and liability-classified share-based payment compensation cost, and lessor/lessee lease accounting including sale-leasebacks.

   90m
9. 09

   Lesson 9: Business Combinations, Consolidation, Foreign Currency and Derivatives

   Acquisition accounting and goodwill, noncontrolling interests, functional currency and foreign currency translation, and derivative and hedge accounting presentation and journal entries.

   90m
10. 10

    Lesson 10: Public Company Reporting and Employee Benefit Plan Statements

    SEC Regulation S-X and S-K disclosure requirements, XBRL tagging, segment identification and disclosure, and the required financial statements and notes for defined benefit and defined contribution employee benefit plans.

    85m
11. 11

    Lesson 11: Governmental Financial Reporting Model (ACFR) and Conversion

    The government-wide, governmental fund, proprietary fund and fiduciary fund financial statements required in the financial section of the annual comprehensive financial report, and the worksheets and reconciliation schedules that convert fund statements to government-wide statements.

    95m
12. 12

    Lesson 12: Governmental Transactions: Net Position, Debt, Revenue, Expenditures and Budgets

    Measuring and classifying net position and fund balance, capital and infrastructure assets, long-term liabilities including pensions and OPEB, interfund activity, nonexchange revenue, expenditures/expenses, and budgetary accounting including encumbrances.

    100m