welcome to this break course in accounting my name is Saar Bolan and I'm professor of accounting at Lis University this course is composed in two main parts the first part of the course called financial statements Basics focuses on the main elements on financial accounting it deals with the basing knowledge about principles and methodologies of transaction analysis and financial reporting in order to get this basic knowledge you can refer to the set of slides that you find in the website and then do the suggested exercises my suggestion is to go through the slide before and then do the exercises if you have a bachelor degree in Italian and you attended a course like General you have also to acquire the English terminology about account accounting terms like accounts receivable as credity and accounts payable as debting and so on if you have a bachelor in English and you have attended a course in financial accounting or financial reporting you you can use this first part of the course as a refresh of the things that you already know the second part of the course financial statement format the content focuses on some main elements for understanding the role of financial statements in the real economy the first topic presents and discusses the role of financial statements and International Accounting Standards uh in reducing information symmetries between insiders major shareholders top managers the preparers of financial statements and Outsiders minority shareholders stakeholders and Market participants in general you can refer to the financial reporting environment in the Harvard Business case that you find in the in the website I also suggest the to read the re Ray ball paper about the pros and cons of international financial reporting standards you will find some additional readings accompaning slides and a video in which we discuss the Worldcom accounting front