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Companies and financial accounting

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This free course, Companies and financial accounting, introduces you to the legal characteristics of limited companies and how limited companies raise finance through ordinary shares and loan capital. It also introduces the interests of company stakeholders, and looks at three different perspectives on companies and their role in society. Finally, it introduces the formats of company financial statements in comparison with those of sole traders.

This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course B293 Financial accounting in context.

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Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

  • understand the legal characteristics of limited companies and how these characteristics are different from those of sole traders and partnerships
  • understand company financing through share capital and loan capital
  • understand the interests and information needs of different company stakeholders
  • explain three different perspectives on the role of companies in society
  • understand and reproduce company financial statement formats and explain how and why they are different from sole trader financial statements.


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First Published: 30/10/2020

Updated: 31/10/2020

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