Blog – Budget and Financial Reporting Week 3
This week’s class was on accounting, which I was dreading from when I first saw it on the program syllabus. On the first day of class, Professor Hodge asked what we would like to take away from an accounting class. I raised my hand and said that I would want to know enough to hire someone and know that my accounting numbers would be correct and I was not being taken advantage of. However, after having a week with professor Hodge, and learning that accounting doesn’t have to be intimidating, I actually began to respect the field a bit more. I stand by my claim that I would still hire someone with an accounting background, instead of trying to do it myself, but I at least appreciate the craft.
One the things I took away from the class was that just because a university or organization shows a huge number on the “income statement”, does not mean they are operating in the black (positive), as the expenses report is extremely important to the overall picture. A “snapshot” of a period of time is a good way to get an idea of the direction things are going, and what steps might need to be taken to improve the outlook.
This class relates to the rest of the program in the sense that it reminded us to take into consideration the big picture, and how our decisions as administrators do not always end with our tenure. Often times decisions we make can have an affect for many years, or decades in the future. This includes positive decisions and negative ones. More specifically, I can see our accounting class tying into Jennifer Hoffman’s class on decision-making using data. In looking at numbers, most importantly accurate ones, you can gather a lot of information and use it to make informed decisions.
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