| Museum directors, curators, managers
and others with responsibility for not-for-profit cultural organizations
will benefit from OMA’s Accounting for Non-Accountants. This
self-study course is introductory and not intended to be exhaustive.
It assumes prior familiarity with both museums and financial documents.
(Someone who had never seen a budget or a financial statement would
be at a disadvantage.) The intention is to solidify the skills base
of staff members who have learned accounting primarily on the job,
by helping them step back, learn the material from a technical point
of view, then apply this formal learning to their daily work.
5 learning modules:
· Accounting Cycle
· Accounting Logic
· Ratio Analysis
· Assessing Financial Health from Your Financial Statements
· Budgets
You will learn:
· 7 essential steps to a well-managed accounting system
· 5 classes of accounts, the building blocks of financial
statements
· 2 primary statements, which encapsulate your accounting
results and reveal your organization’s financial health
· Ratio analysis: the methodology of calculating and interpreting
financial ratios to support good decision-making and a better understanding
of financial health
· 4 additional techniques essential to discerning your organization’s
state of financial health
· Budgeting: context-appropriate approaches to creating professional
budgets, plus tips and techniques for getting the job done
This course is taught primarily from the perspective of not-for-profit
corporations. That is, independent museums that manage their own
accounting system and prepare both a balance sheet and a statement
of operations. This is in contrast to municipal museums and others
that operate as departments of larger institutions. In these cases,
the museum’s accounting system is generally part of the parent
organizations. The museum has its own statement of operations, but
no balance sheet; its assets and liabilities are deemed to belong
on the parent organization’s balance sheet.
Staff of municipal museums will benefit from learning the complete
accounting system, because they need to communicate with accounting
department staff.
This course is offered in three versions (two self-study, one online),
each intended to provide a hands-on learning experience suited to
your needs. All three include self-testing materials for immediate
feedback.
Mode One
This version is designed for those who want to brush up their knowledge
in preparation for a job interview or budget presentation. In about
2 hours, work your way through the course testing materials. Each
unit consists of a brief introduction and terminology followed by
20 to 25 questions designed to test your knowledge of financial
procedures and practices. Receive a test evaluation complete with
explanations of the correct answers. Participants have access to
the course site for 3 days.
Mode Two
This is the online self-study version of OMA’s full-day Accounting
for Non-Accountants seminar. Over approximately 6 hours, you will
work through the theory and practical examples contained in the
5 modules above. Each module incorporates readings, sample statements,
practice examples and a 20 to 25 question test. Receive a test evaluation
complete with explanations of the correct answers. Participants
have access to the course site for two weeks.
What is Mode Three?
The seminar version of this course is planned as a one-month workshop
(6 instructional hours plus one month access to web-based course
content). Participants will complete the self-study materials and
evaluation, plus participate in weekly online chats to explore course
content as a group, and to apply it to the specialized needs of
specific groups within the museum sector. At the conclusion of the
course, participants will be able to:
· Explain the steps in a standard accounting cycle, and apply
that information to their institution
· Discuss issues related to managing accounting information
maintained partially or entirely “out of house” by the
municipality
· Explain the importance of accounting documentation and
outline an appropriate records retention policy
· Define the five major classes of accounts and the two basic
financial statements
· Explain the importance of understanding the balance sheet
· Describe techniques for analyzing a company’s financial
health using financial statement data, and apply these techniques
to their own institution
· Describe techniques for building reliable budgets for general
operations and projects, and apply these techniques to their own
institution
· Discuss effective methods for managing the budget process
· Identify common budgeting challenges and describe techniques
for addressing them
· Discuss techniques for presenting budgets and financial
statements effectively to volunteer board members
Please visit our PD
calendar to find out when this online course is being offered.
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