Hi there. Welcome to Managerial Accounting. My name is Christine Andrews, and I'm the instructor for this course that was made especially for you. In this course you'll learn concepts that will apply to just about any profession that you're involved in. So the other thing I have to tell you is that I'm not from Florida. This is a Buffalo accent you hear, so now you stop thinking about it. You'll hear me throughout the course, and that's going to be the first question that you have. 

What accounting really is is a field that gathers and communicates information. It might end up being different from the way you visualize it, and one of the main ways that we communicate is through financial statements, and after the first week in this class you'll be able to prepare and understand standard financial statements that are used in all businesses and actually all professions. 

Accounting all on its own isn't something that you're necessarily going to love, but what you will like is being able to apply it to a situation, especially to something that you understand, and maybe figure out a better way to make money or to save some money or a creative way to make a new product or offer a great service. Accounting will help you with understanding all those numbers and what's going to help you succeed. 

The way all of the chapters are organized are in modules, and each module starts out with a reading assignment, a short one, okay? You never sit down and read a whole chapter in accounting unless you're trying to get to sleep. So what you do is you read a short chapter, then listen to my presentation, and I'm not just going to talk about what they talked about in the chapter, but I'll do some problems and I'll work the problems and you'll see me work them and that will really help. That makes a big difference. 

Then you'll have an assignment and then finally the threat of a quiz. And the quiz, studying for a quiz is what really gets it in your head. And even though it's open book, you don't want to sort of study that way. You want to be ready. Understand you've got to get something in your head. 

This course was organized to be offered as part of the Certificate in Business program over the summer so that you could take all of the courses and be finished in the summer, but what that means is that we've got five weeks to get through material that's normally offered in a 16-week session. So if you have a cruise or a wedding or anything like that, it is not OK to take a week off. You can't do it. You won't finish. 

I believe that a certificate in business is an excellent complement to just about any major, so I'm glad that you're here. Stay in touch with me, and if you need any help, please don't hesitate to contact me.