M&A Training

Accounting fundamentals

3h15
8 videos
Difficulty
Available for free to our members
About the training

In this course, we will be working on accounting fundamentals that you need to be comfortable with for the interviews. Accounting is almost always subject to many technical questions.

First, you have to know and understand the 3 financials statements, how they are built, how they work, each one individually:

  • Income Statement (P&L)
  • Cash Flow Statement 
  • Balance Sheet

You will also be asked about how these statements interact. What are the main links between them and how an accounting movement in one of them is reflected in the others. This part is the heart of the technical accounting questions you will be expected to know.

During the course of this chapter, we will also be working on several specific elements of the financial statements that are key for the interviews and therefore require a whole video:

  • A specific focus on working capital 
  • A focus on Goodwill
  • A focus on Earnings per Share (EPS)


Accounting is also a first step to lead to more technical valuation questions. You all need to be clear on these fundamentals!

Questions you will be able to answer
  • Walk me through a P&L, a Cash Flow statetment and a Balance Sheet 
  • How are financial statements linked?
  • How does an increase of 10 in D&A impact the 3 financial statements? 
  • Why do we add D&A in the Operating Cash Flow? Why do we then remove the variations of Net Working Capital? 
  • If a company purchases an equipment for 100 in Year 1 with 50% debt, what is the impact on the financial statements in Year 1? In Year 2? 
  • Can shareholders' equity be negative? Why?
  • Why choosing EBITDA over EBIT?
  • And more than 100 questions asked in real interviews!
The keywords of the training
The videos of the training
  • Course 1
    M&A Training
    Financial Disclosure

    Very often, you will be asked quick and easy questions on Financial disclosure, especially the difference between US and European disclosure. The course summarizes all you need to know on these financial documents for interviews.

    3 min
  • Course 2
    M&A Training
    Income Statment

    The purpose of this video is to understand the accounting principles that rule the P&L in order to better answer the technical questions in interviews with a special focus on: EBITDA, EBIT, D&A, COGS, OPEX...

    40 min
  • Course 3
    M&A Training
    Cash-Flow Statment

    « Cash is king »! The Cash-Flow Statement describes all the cash inflows and outflows over a given period of time. There is a special focus on the structure of this statement: operating, investing and financing.

    31 min
  • Course 4
    M&A Training
    Balance Sheet

    This video explains what is a Balance sheet and how it works. We will go through each item of the assets and liabilities side and the questions often asked in interviews.

    46 min
  • Course 5
    M&A Training
    Links between the financial statements

    This video concentrates most of the accounting questions asked in interviews. We will study how the financial statements are linked together and what is the impact of a change in one of the 3 on the other 2.

    25 min
  • Course 6
    M&A Training
    Working Capital

    This course focuses on the concept of Working Capital, very frequent in interviews. We will study its variations and how to consider working capital on the Balance Sheet vs the Cash-Flow Statement.

    19 min
  • Course 7
    M&A Training
    Goodwill

    Goodwill is often misunderstood by candidates and is a source of mistakes in interviews. This video reviews everything you really need to know about Goodwill. 

    10 min
  • Course 8
    M&A Training
    EPS

    Earnings per share (EPS) is a classic topic of M&A interviews. It is essential to understand this concept and know the differences between a theoretical EPS and an EPS in practice. We also work on the concept of diluted EPS.

    10 min