Accounting for corporations will cover components of corporate accounting that are unique to corporations, elements of corporate accounting that differ from financial accounting for other business entities like a sole proprietorship or partnership. 

As we focus on the arias where corporate accounting differs from other business entities we want to keep in mind that most normal accounting transactions will be the same for any business entity type. We will have a comprehensive problem at the end of the course to allow us to take a step back and see the areas of accounting for corporations that differ in perspective from the areas that are the same.

We will introduce the concept of a corporation, the characteristics of a corporation, and the reasons why we may choose a corporate form of entity. The corporate form of entity will be compared and contrasted with other business entity forms like a partnership and sole proprietorship. This course will discuss the financial transaction related to the issuing of stock, both the issuing of stock for cash and for non-cash assets. The issuing of stock for a corporation is similar to a partner investment to a partnership.

We will describe what dividends are, including cash dividends and stock dividends. We will record accounting transactions related to cash dividends and stock dividends. This course will discuss the concept of preferred stock, describing what it is, how to account for preferred stock, and why we may choose to issue or purchase preferred stock. We will discuss the concept of treasury stock, comparing and contrasting the concept of treasury stock to the idea of preferred stock and common stock.

This course will discuss the statement of stockholders’ equity and statement of retained earnings. We will focus on the equity section of the financial statements because the equity section is what differs from entity to entity. We will discuss the closing process for a corporation, comparing and contrasting the corporate closing process to the closing process of a partnership and sole proprietorship. This course will discuss the calculation of earnings per share and its uses. We will also have a comprehensive problem, allowing us to take a step back and see both the similarities and differences between accounting for a corporation and accounting for other entities.