A company considering a public offering should thoughtfully evaluate its objectives, consider its alternatives and recognize the up-front and continuing costs of taking this step in its strategic plan.
Once the determination to undertake an IPO has been made, careful preparation will need to go into the launching process. An IPO is a seminal event in the life of a company and should be carefully planned in order to be effectively and successfully executed.
Thoughtful consideration will need to go into the makeup of the execution team, how you'll address legal, accounting and reporting issues and address various regulatory bodies.
This IPO training course addresses these topics from the standpoint of a CFO who has led four public offerings and provides detailed information regarding the accounting and reporting issues to be expected and also an overview of legal topics to be considered.
Prerequisites
Prerequisite: Previous experience in corporate finance
Advanced Preparation: None
Learning Objective
- Acquire an overview of the IPO process from conception to closing the offering
- Be able to construct a plan to undertake execution of an offering.
- Prepare to address legal, accounting and reporting issues which may be encountered.
- Analyze the various regulatory bodies involved in a public offering and learn to effectively assist the IPO team in dealing with these bodies.
Last updated/reviewed: September 15, 2026
(153) Reviews
(82 rating)The examples would be better if written out. It is hard to catch by just listening.
Informative course, very well organized and presented.
Great summarized course to understand the basics of a Board of Directors structure
This was a helpful review. Thank you for the informational resources.
Found this to be the most understandable lesson so far.
Good course explaining how account takeovers can occur and ways individuals and businesses can protect themselves.
my score was 73% , this is not good enough, I need to study more.
This was a great short course on 350-40. I would love to course that compared and contrasted the accounting rules for 730-10, 985-20 and 350-40.
Great information about useful tools. Didn't know there were so many plugins available
Great overview, clear and concise presenter, good value for your time
I liked the fact that the presenter had a good sense of humor and was able to make the accounting course more interesting and enjoyable to listen than it might otherwise have been.
Very interesting course! ..................................................................
The presenter did a good job hitting a variety of topics in an interesting way.
Definitely works your brain and is a great refresher. Course is a great reminder of the tools CFOs have and how to use them.
Exam was somewhat outside of material taught. Very dry, poor presentation, simply read their notes in an incredibly dry way with no additional, ad lib commentary or color.
Its just an introduction, you wont learn practical uses of gpt in accounting, he just give us a bunch of example and why this tech is so life changing
Well thought-out content and presentation. Periodic mis-spell and various fonts made it seem less professional and the course was prepared on the fly with heavy Covid-19/Zoom fatigue :)
Excellent refresher course and reference for future use. Instructor and materials are also excellent.
I enjoyed the information of the course as it was very straightforward and educational. THe pdf of the slides at the end were great as well to go over before taking the practice exam.
It is a good introduction to IPO process with the key terminologies and concept. It will be even better if the transcripts of the course is provided.
Good refresher on basic concepts of identifying controls and documenting them in flow charts and process narratives.
This course is set up in great details. It is useful to both entrepreneurs as well as accountants.
This course provides some great information. The topics covered are very helpful as well.
good me gusto a lot, i want to be the best controller
Very well explained the concept with proper examples. Helps a lot for the corporate cost analysis. Really enjoy the course and easy to follow on his explanation. Great lectures and I will take more of Erik's courses.
Content is well organized and goes beyond the surface level information to provide a detailed level of understanding.
Great introduction and clearly defines the various non profits and purposes.
This is a very comprehensive overview of the IPO process from the CFO perspective. It is particularly helpful to know the flow of the process from beginning to end, what parties are involved and their respective responsibilities during the IPO process as well as what one needs to pay attention and any related rules should be considered.
Excellent summary of Black Scholes. This course presented a thorough overview of this model.
Might be nice if there were more theory vs straight up calculations.
The Course was very engaging and provided great examples of real life. The instructor is very enthusiastic and content is to the point.
Very helpful even for frequent career excel users.
Helpful information about automating reports in Excel. Recommend.
This instructor is always my favorite for Excel classes. His slides and presentations are excellent. It's a tad slow but the repetition makes the new formulas stick in my head.
Solid program with a good template / model to utilize.
Great entry level course. Helped me refresh on the accounting fundamentals.
Clear, well paced and enjoyable. It was a good review of key financial concepts with great story telling.
Course was efficient and easy to navigate. The course was a valuable refresher for CPAs that have taken many course like it over the years, and provided a succinct option to meet the Texas Ethics requirements
The exam questions were written in a manner that made them difficult to understand what the question was asking.
Great course. The discussion sections of the material were especially helpful.
Excellent presentation while blending in good humor.
Loved the examples shown for the several advanced chart types. The waterfall and combo chart have immediate applications to quarterly IS meetings.
This course was very thorough and hit all the most important concepts needed to evaluate the health of a business and transactions that a business may want to undertake to improve its prospects. Great presentation!
Great overall course. Enjoyed the examples of what auditors look for and how they manage risk and where they will be looking. Wish it was more in depth regarding the financials but great handle of the subject matter.
Great job at covering the basics of ethics, considerations, the FCPA and Sarbanes Oxley
This course was really interesting because I learned about some of the new things I can do with 365. Definitely recommended. However, digging into the differences between various versions of Excel is not too interesting.
very helpful course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Honestly this one was a bit cumbersome and had expected a bit more. Super interesting topic but not conveyed effectively. Slides are mostly bullets and the speakers voice is not very clear and not a lot of value add from the slides.
Great instructor. Very happy to take the class and learned a lot
There should be a handout which can be referred to with more information that assists with the exam. This took longer than 3 hours.
Good class overall. There are many complex topics covered in a short period of time, I had to watch a few of the topics several times to grasp concepts.
The course was great introductory course to ASC 820, the instructor was very effective.
This is a good overview and self-check but I thought it could be more concise.
needs a transcript of lectures. Test questions have no relation to final test.
Good content. Final exam questions were a bit unclear.
great instructor. Quite a bit of the material is out of date though with the new tax law.
very good high level information for lending business details
Audio makes it more easier. Text while good for a busy professionals having audio will be easier to follow
Very well spoken and concise summary of the major updates
Would have liked to seen examples rather than just hear about them.
Interesting course and practical knowledge for dealing with cash controls.
The active screens used are blurry and hard to see.
Excellent overview, quite detailed. To enhance content it may be helpful to provide more examples of the process in real business activity.
Great Content! I really enjoyed the presenter's perspective on the Circular 230.
Course was very helpful. Quiz questions were not as aligned to Payroll accounting as they could have been.
Really helpful to see the side-by-side presentation with Formula based reports vs Pivot table reports
Good course learning material. Balanced financing source perspectives.
One of the review questions says that repurchase rights for service providers apply only to unvested shares. What is it called when the company has the right to repurchase all the shares (whether vested or unvested)? that sounds like a repurchase right as well.
This course was clear and easy to understand though you do need to have some general knowledge of the older rev rec models. There was also great use of examples for current business models.
As an attorney/employee of a company currently registering with the SEC to enter the public markets, I found this course to be a strong primer on the various reporting requirements and compliance thresholds facing our company's leadership. Highly recommended.
good link between history in the US and why ethics has become such a prominent topic
Much prefer video presentations. Case facts are much more obvious than typical fraud cases. CPA should never practice again demonstrating no knowledge and/or interest in identifying basis of fair financial presentation or uncovering significant issues with client financials.
The presentation was very well organized. Providing an overview at the beginning helps follow the rest of the presentation.
The speed of the presenter when talking was way too fast. We were learning about presenting to non financial managers and I could not keep up with the flow of information. Way too fast and way too much.
This course is outdated, based on 2016 tax law. It is completely irrelevant in 2018/2019. It needs to be updated.
Good insight in personalities and leadership. Excellent explanations of human behavior
would have loved more examples especially on how fair value assessment.
Lynn's slides were well designed and effective. She knows this topic well.
Great course! Very informative! Learned a lot about the importance of ratio analysis and various ratios used to compare companies to their competitors
very interesting and I would suggest this course to a college student.
Highlights several important matters to consider in the pre-IPO process. Great summary
This was a very informative video to help me learn more.
Good overview of models and high level theories, but would have liked to see some of the examples actually done in Excel or another tool.
Great instructor and delivery. Enjoyed the material and all examples.
Slides are brief and simple to read, the presenter does talk straight to the point and make it easier to absorb.
A lot covered in a short period of time, which I like!
Concise introduction to project management.
interesting ideas
Some more error rectification technique may be included in this course.
Excellent course for finance professionals.
Great course! I really enjoyed it.
A very interesting topic, another one they don't teach you in school.
This is a good high level review of why to do a balance sheet forecast.
seems like a good class for today's environment
Great Course
Very helpful
Very informative course!
Tough overall but a great course
Tough course
Great course.
Good overview of Digital Marketing.
Easy content, presented nicely.
Short, but very well put together and very informative, nicely done!
Instructor was effective at presenting the content, as well as introducing new ideas
Great Course!
Good course
Difficult but enjoyable
Amazing. You should try being a professor because I think you would do well
Great refresher on financial statement analysis
Great Course!
Good course.
Helpful for understanding datasets and making sure your data is not fake
Fantastic Course
Great course. Even better teacher. Sorry it's late.
awesome!
A+
interesting, lot of material
Good course
Good course but needs to be updated for 2015-2016 changes.
Excellent course
Very helpful overview of the IPO process.
Love Blair Cook's presentations. Very inspiring.
Good course. Informative and interesting.
Good point
Good refresher on SEC Reporting and structure of reports
Great material. Too fast to follow at times.
A very informative course, full of useful examples, very well presented, and make a complicated topic quite easy. Thank you.
Very information. Great background.
Great course, but wish there was more detail covered on equity financing.
Like the format of 'quote' and then analysis
great info
I really like Lynn's systematic explanations, as she explores every facet of every skill needed in today's internal auditor.
Very good insight. Content provided valuable resources as to growth strategies.
l like learn about this course and subject We will follow full courses for an intense love thank you very much
good material and information.
A quick refresher of excel tips that was definitely worth my time.
This course is worth checking out. Like most Excel programs, it covers some items that should have been learned through regular use but is lso shows some new approaches.
Thank you for the course...
This course is great. It adds value a lot.
This is a great synopsis of the IPO process, including the key regulatory considerations and planning elements. I highly recommend this course.
Very helpful
Excellent presentation of information; particularly for accounting professionals who have no background on this topic. Again, I would have liked to review the graded final exam to determine which question was answered incorrectly.
You will learn about how operating lines of credit works and what to watch out for. Very informative & reference material.
Very detailed explanations.
Once again an excellent presentation by Blair! This was a great short and sweet review of a very important topic.
Every company out there should make the effort to do a Fraud Assessment as it is not a matter of IF Fraud will happen at your company - but when (or has it already happened?). Lynn provided a great background on what companies should do to get the ball rolling.
Great course and very relevant to email / org / management of time
Great content and the slides were put together well. I would just suggest that the speaker speak faster. There were way to many long pauses and I feel like a lot more information could have been fit into the 1 hour.
This course is a fine overview and the attached checklists are very comprehensive.
One of more interesting Ethics presentations in which I have participated. Just wish it was approved by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.
great course
good overview

