Long-term assets, assets that can be converted into cash in a time period of more than 1 year, constitute a large portion of a balance sheet for a lot of public companies. Understanding accounting for long-term assets will help you uncover how these accounts change over time, their valuation, and their usefulness in managerial decision making.

One of the major sources of financing for many firms is liabilities. Firms routinely finance their operations through various liabilities, including accounts payable, bank loans, and bonds. Accounting for liabilities will help you understand how liabilities are created, how they are valued, and how they inform a firm’s liquidity position.

One of the major sources of financing for many firms is contributions from shareholders. The shareholders’ equity section of a balance sheet shows details of the investments of shareholders. Accounting for shareholders’ equity will help you understand the amount of shareholder investment, the number of shares issued in return by the firm for shareholders, the amount of earnings earned by the firm but not distributed to shareholders, and information about the amount of shares repurchased by the firm from the stock market.

One of the major financial statements is cash flows statement. This statement describes in detail how cash changes for a firm over a certain period. The cash flows statement provides valuable information about the liquidity position of a firm, the cash consequences of managerial operating and investing decisions, as well as the earnings quality of a firm.