Welcome to All The Accounting You Need to Know!

Course Objectives

In this course, you will gain an understanding of basic accounting principles — with minimal jargon — to prepare you to work with an automated accounting system (such as QuickBooks).

• Since automated accounting systems use accounting principles in the background, this course will show you all the accounting you need to know.

• The ultimate goal is to help you understand the value of Financial Reports and Budgets to track costs against revenue, help grow your business, and make more money.

• This course will be helpful for both artists and art organizations. However, because of the special needs and compliance requirements of non-profit organizations, this course will focus on individual artists wishing to get a basic understanding of the fiscal (i.e., money) aspect of their businesses so they can become “non-struggling” artists.

No prior knowledge of accounting is needed to take this course. All you need is basic computer literacy (I’m assuming you have access to the internet since you’re taking this course!).

There are various handouts available in this course, all of which can be downloaded along the way. There is also a glossary and suggested resources area, both of which you can access at any time using the left-hand navigation area.

Performance-based Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• Understand various accounts that will track your finances
• Learn what “Chart of Accounts” means
• Understand how your bookkeeping method affects your taxes
• Know what A/R and A/P accounts mean (money in/money out)
• Identify Restricted vs. Unrestricted funds
• Realize the advantages of an automated business accounting system
• Recognize the value of budgeting
• Measure business profitability (income vs. expenses)

This course should take about 1-2 hours of your time. And remember, as with all Fractured U. courses, you can take this at your own pace and start and stop as you wish!

Course Instructor: Grace Testani is President and CEO of Creative Computing Center, Inc., a technology training, consulting, and business coaching firm headquartered in New York. Grace is a frequent guest speaker on technology training, women in technology, and the internet. She has personally taught more than 35,500 students, logged in over 10,600 classroom hours, and has built four technology learning centers. Grace is on the adjunct faculty of New York University’s School of Continuing Studies. She is a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor and and an NYU Certified Organizational and Executive Coach. She has extensive experience working with non-profits, small and mid-sized businesses, government agencies, and Fortune 1000 companies. Grace is the owner and Artistic Director of Grace Notes Music, which is a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas. Grace is an internationally-known professional jazz singer, arranger, composer, keyboardist, and music educator. She is co-writer, with Chick Corea and Kenny Barron, of the songs featured on her current CD, Something’s Coming, and has been honored by being included in a gallery exhibit focused on female jazz singers and in a Japanese documentary about trumpeter Teramasso Hino, by being mentioned in the book Louis’ Children and in numerous articles, and by being included as a four-star pick in All Music Guide. You can visit her website at www.gracetestani.com.

Money, Money Money! According to our research, many artists feel uncomfortable with money: talking about it, asking for it, including it in the conversation around their art.

Get over it! Producing art is generally not inexpensive. We as artists need money to survive and to make our art. But many of us don’t always have full-time, salaried jobs or trust funds. So, how do we go about paying for the work that we want to produce? We fundraise!

This course will require approximately 1-2 hours of your time, but you can always save your place and return at your convenience.

This course was developed as a collaborative effort of the Fractured Atlas staff.

At this point in your life, you have probably tried to answer the question: “Who am I?” many times over. If you’ve been successful enough to figure out that you are a creative professional, then you’ve already made huge strides towards demystifying your professional identity. However, there is more work to be done. This course walks you through some basic steps to clarify your professional identity, which will lay the foundation for all of the strategic planning work to come.

This course will require approximately 1-2 hours of your time, but you can always save your place and return at your convenience.

This course was developed as a collaborative effort of the Fractured Atlas staff.

As an artist or arts organization, you have to be able to market your creative offering. And, since you’ll be competing with other art professionals, as well as every other place that people spend their discretionary income (e.g. restaurants, bars, clubs, movies, amusement parks, sporting events, etc.); you need to make sure your efforts are targeted and compelling. Marketing Demystified is an introductory course that will explain marketing basics like market research, segmentation, positioning, pricing, distribution, promotion, and designing your creative offering.

This course will require approximately 1-2 hours of your time, but you can always save your place and return at your convenience.

This course was developed as a collaborative effort of the Fractured Atlas staff.

Social Media Marketing for Arts Professionals is a self-paced course designed to introduce social media marketing to arts professionals who are relatively unfamiliar with the subject. It’s friendly to those who are new to either social media, marketing, or both. (But seasoned social media marketers brushing up on your skills are welcome too, of course).

The course will introduce the learner to the characteristics, requirements, tools, and practices of social media marketing with a focus on arts industries.

Participants will:

• Be introduced to popular social media platforms from a marketing perspective
• Learn general social media and social media marketing practices
• Gain an understanding of the role that marketing plays in social media
• Explore strategies for approaching potential consumers via social media
• Learn methods for engaging fans and promoting art via social media

Course Objectives:

• Learn common characteristics of social media
• Learn about popular and useful social media sites and tools
• Understand the role that arts marketing plays in social media
• Establish good social media marketing approaches and etiquette
• Gain knowledge of social media marketing strategies through reading, examples, and discussion
• Develop a plan for your own social media campaign

This is a self-paced course, meaning there are no set dates. You choose when you work on the course. It will probably take you about 3 to 10 hours total to go through the entire course (dependent upon whether or not you choose to complete the assignments). We recommend that you spread the work out over three weeks — maybe 3 days per week, 1-2 hours each time. But, it’s up to you!

This course was created as a collaborative effort between Fractured Atlas staff and independent marketing consultants.