The Evolution of Accounting In An Hour
by Richard J. Makoujy, Jr., course author

After spending a few years working for Price Waterhouse, I landed a job on Wall Street as a securities analyst, a position which I soon learned required accounting skills...and mine were far from advanced.

Fear of losing my job quickly motivated me to sit down with financial statements and spreadsheets and try to make sense of them. After hours of work the light bulb clicked on for me, and it suddenly seemed simple. I wondered why, now that it was all so obvious, no one had ever before explained accounting so well to me.

Over the next few years I became proficient in helping businesses operate under the most difficult of conditions. I was now managing issues such as working capital, liquidity, and resource allocation. I was analyzing investment and acquisition opportunities. I was applying theoretical and practical applications of accounting to everyday business challenges.

Not coincidentally, friends and associates increasingly asked for my guidance in all sorts of business matters. One colleague—a senior executive at a Fortune 500 firm—called regularly: “I’m going into an acquisition meeting; can you tell me what ‘accretive’ means?” Or, “Can you give me a quick understanding of ‘EBITDA?’”

I enjoyed using my knowledge to help people, and they rewarded me with genuine appreciation. One particularly happy associate said, “You make accounting seem so simple, and I always thought it was so complicated.” I told him that accounting was taught incorrectly and that “I could teach it to you properly in an hour.”

I was surprised when he said, “Okay, you’re hired. I have a group of executives who desperately need accounting skills and we can spare them for an hour.” So I spent weeks putting together a 60-minute seminar. And guess what? My presentation was a hit. The seminar was so well received I began to think about making the course more than a one-time event.

I put out a few feelers and the response was remarkable. It seemed as if virtually every company recognized that key groups of people were lacking in accounting knowledge…and were excited about being able to offer a “shortcut” to accounting in an easy-to-digest 60-minute format.

The need for the course only increased as headline upon headline trumpeted the accounting scandals that still resound today, financial misdeeds that led to passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act demanding corporate financial accountability. To help meet the demand, I decided to expand beyond the live seminar program and create an Internet version of Accounting In An Hour.

The course that awaits you is the result of years of development and thoughtful feedback. I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of this short program and the impact it’s having on people in business, industry, and government…particularly during a period when training budgets are tighter than ever.

I hope you enjoy the course. It packs as much useful information into an hour as any course you’ll ever take.