[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Ramabhadran Thirumalai. I'm a clinical assistant professor of finance at the Indian School of Business. Welcome to this course on accounting and finance for IT professionals. In this course you will learn about the basics of financial accounting and finance. Specifically, we will cover the following topics. One, reading and understanding financial statements, specifically the balance sheet, the income statement, and the statement of cash flows. These will focus on the definition of various items that make up these financial statements. We will also discuss the difference between accrual and cash basis. Two, using information from the financial statements, we will define, calculate, and interpret some common financial ratios. We will look at the falling such as financial ratios. A, liquidity ratios. B, solvency ratios. C, profitability ratios. D, market price ratios. Three, we will then focus on the concept of time value of money and value of different types of cash flow streams. Four, this will lead us to the concept of capital budgeting, which is the framework used to value projects and then decide whether to accept or reject them. Under this, we will discuss the different decision tools, namely net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period. We will also discuss the drawbacks of each of these methods. Five, to value a project, we need to determine cash flows related to the project, as well as the discount rate. Under this, we will briefly discuss what drives the discount rate, and talk about estimating at a discount rate. We will also discuss what free cash flows are and how to estimate them. Six, the free cash flows are based on assumptions. Some assumptions are more critical to the project value than others. Sensitivity analysis will focus on identifying which assumptions are critical. Finally we will talk about real options. How to introduce flexibility to projects, and impact the value as well as the decision to accept or reject projects. By the end of this course, you should had the good understanding of how to lead and understand the company's key financial statements. As well as how to decide whether an investment in a project must be made or not. [MUSIC]