“If you read the numbers, you can see the company.”

Being able to read financial statements is different from properly understanding a company. In the intermediate course, building on the accounting fundamentals learned in the introductory course, you will learn how to comprehensively analyze the balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, statement of changes in equity, and notes, and how to uncover a company’s actual operating performance and risk factors hidden behind the numbers. First, rather than taking the numbers in the financial statements at face value, you will explore why a company may be profitable yet short of cash, why its financial condition may deteriorate even as profits increase, and why its actual profitability may decline despite growing sales. You will then analyze key financial ratios and trends—including liquidity, solvency, profitability, and activity—to diagnose a company’s true financial health and warning signs. You will also analyze profitability by product and customer, which is more important than sales volume alone, along with contribution margin, break-even points, and the relationship between price and sales volume, to identify which businesses are actually generating profits. Furthermore, through key company valuation metrics such as PER, PBR, and EV/EBITDA, you will understand “What determines the value of our company?” and examine the key factors that increase corporate value. Finally, you will develop decision-making skills based on evidence rather than intuition by analyzing, with numbers, real-world management issues such as outsourcing versus in-house production, whether to continue offering a product, pricing policies, and new investments.