Understanding Financial Statements: Self-guided training (2010)

By Robin J Phillips on Jul 26, 2010 in Financial/economy, Self-guided training, Training Archives

The free, weeklong “Understanding Financial Statements” online seminar originally was held July 19-23, 2010. It covers income statements, balance sheets, cash flows and writing about numbers.

This Webinar was also held July 2011.

Financial statements As one past participant said, “This course really revolutionized my reporting. I felt much more confident writing my last earnings story.”

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

This seminar was led by James Gentry, a professor and former dean at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas. He has presented workshops on understanding the numbers of business to thousands of journalists and corporate communicators.

AGENDA

Day One: Introduction to financial statements
Day Two: The income statement
Day Three: Balance sheets
Day Four: Cash flows
Day Five: Writing stories based on what you’ve learned

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Take a look through the recordings, resources and tools below. At your own pace, you can walk through the self-guided lesson on financial statements.

Day-by-day recordings
Day One: Introduction to financial statements Day Two: The income statement Day Three: Reading balance sheets Day Four: Cash flows Day Five: Writing stories based on what you've learned
Powerpoint slideshows

Slideshow No. 1: Intro to financial statements

Slideshow No. 2: All about income statements

Slideshow No. 3: Balance sheets

Slideshow No. 4: Statement of cash flows

Slideshow No. 5: Beyold the basics: Finding stories

View or download the Crocs Public Accounting Firm Reports from 2009 and 2010.
Instructor

James Gentry: A professor and former dean at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.
Handouts and additional resources

Basics: Download these two PDFs to follow the discussion throughout the Webinar:
Crocs Inc. documents
Understanding Financial Statements Handout (PDF)Kellogg Company and Subsidiaries

Day Two:
Percentage Change Homework Assignment
Percentage Change Homework Answers

Day Four:
Common Size Basic Homework Instructions
Kellogg Homework Assignment
Kellogg Homework Answers

View this example of a trend story written off earnings reports.

About the Author

I am digital director at the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, which I joined in 2009. Before that I was Online Community Manager for azcentral, the online site for The Arizona Republic. Before arriving in Arizona, I worked at Newsday where I was Deputy Business Editor. I was the small business editor at BusinessWeek Online. I teach journalists to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools to expand and manage their networks. And I am a cofounder of #wjchat, a weekly Twitter chat about web journalism. You can reach me at Email: Robin.Phillips@BusinessJournalism.org OR RobinJPhillips.com OR @RobinJP

Comments (5)

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Elizabeth Slowik says:

August 3, 2010 at 7:20 am

I have been listening to the saved version of the financial statements webinar. I tried to move on the Thursday session this morning, but apparently the links for both Thursday and Friday pull up the Monday and Tuesday sessions. Am I looking at the wrong items?
Robin J Phillips says:

August 3, 2010 at 10:09 am

Thanks for the heads up, Elizabeth. We’ve fixed that. All the recordings should be correct now and in the right order Appreciate you letting us know.

Thanks. Robin