Business Foundations Certificate online

Qualify for current and in-demand professional roles by strengthening your business acumen with up-to-date best practices.

A bachelor's degree is required for admission into this certificate program.

Apply by: 1/5/25
Start class: 1/27/25

Program Overview

Take a closer look at our Business Foundations Certificate online program.

$5,361.75 Total Tuition
As few as 6 months Duration
12 Credit Hours

The Business Foundations Certificate online program from WP develops, improves or renews your skills and knowledge in the key business disciplines of accounting, economics, finance, administration and marketing. In this in-demand certificate program, you will gain a thorough understanding of core business concepts that opens doors to a broad range of roles, career advancement or graduate studies.

The William Paterson University AACSB-accredited certification in business foundations is taught by experienced and supportive faculty. The curriculum covers essential business topics such as technological impacts on financial information systems, micro- and macro-economic forces, financial management and statistical analysis for decision-makers, managerial approaches to marketing and negotiation principles and practices.

This robust online certificate program offers you a thorough understanding of fundamental business concepts that open doors to a broad range of roles, career advancement and graduate studies.

In this program, you will learn:

  • The functional areas of modern-day corporations
  • How to make sound business decisions
  • The business fundamentals to fuel your professional success or advanced degree completion
  • The functional areas of modern-day corporations
  • How to make sound business decisions
  • The business fundamentals to fuel your professional success or advanced degree completion
$5,361.75 Total Tuition
As few as 6 months Duration
12 Credit Hours
AACSB logo

William Paterson University’s Cotsakos College of Business is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).

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Need More Information?

Call 833-960-0139

Call 833-960-0139

Tuition

Look at how cost-effective our tuition can be.

The Business Foundations Certificate online program from William Paterson University features affordable tuition and pay-by-the-course convenience.

Tuition breakdown:

$5,361.75 Total Tuition
$595.75 Per Credit Hour

Tuition breakdown:

$5,361.75 Total Tuition
$595.75 Per Credit Hour

Calendar

Start dates and other deadline details.

Ideal for working professionals, William Paterson University online certificate programs are delivered in a flexible format with accelerated coursework and six start dates each year.

Now enrolling:

1/5/25 Apply Date
1/27/25 Class Starts
TermStart DateApp DeadlineDocument DeadlineRegistration DeadlineTuition DeadlineClass End DateTerm Length
Fall II11/4/2410/14/2410/16/2410/25/2410/30/2412/22/247 weeks
Spring I1/27/251/5/251/8/251/17/251/22/253/16/257 weeks
Spring II3/24/253/2/253/5/253/14/253/19/255/11/257 weeks
Summer I5/19/254/27/254/30/255/9/255/14/257/6/257 weeks
Summer II7/14/256/22/256/24/257/3/257/9/258/31/257 weeks
Fall I9/8/258/17/258/20/258/29/259/3/2510/26/257 weeks
Fall II11/3/2510/12/2510/15/2510/24/2510/29/2512/21/257 weeks

Now enrolling:

1/5/25 Apply Date
1/27/25 Class Starts

Have questions or need more information about our online programs?

Ready to take the rewarding path toward earning your degree online?

Admissions

View the admission requirements and more.

We offer a streamlined admission process for the Business Foundations Certificate online program to help you get started right away. Please read the admission requirements, including what additional materials you need and where you should send them.

The requirements include:

  • Undergraduate degree from an accredited institution
  • Transcripts from all colleges and universities previously attended
  • GPA of 2.50 or higher

You must meet the following requirements for admission to this certificate online program:

  • Submit online application and $50 application fee
  • Bachelor's degree from an accredited university
  • Professional resume detailing educational and work experience
  • Minimum 2.50 GPA OR a master’s degree from an accredited institution
  • Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended

Official transcripts, tests scores, and other documents should be sent from the granting institutions to:

Email address: [email protected]

Mail address:

Office of Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Services
William Paterson University
Morrison Hall 102
300 Pompton Road
Wayne, NJ 07470

Courses

See all the courses in your Business Foundations Certificate online program.

For the Business Foundations Certificate online program, you must complete 12 credit hours of core courses. All courses are seven weeks in length.

Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
This course provides students with an introduction to basic accounting fundamentals and skills necessary to analyze financial information of firms from a decision-maker perspective. Financial information is presented in the form of financial statements, principally, the income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings, and cash flow statement. We will discuss how accountants organize the results of business transactions and report them to external users who will then use the reports to make decisions.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
This course will help students to develop a comprehensive analysis of the micro and macroeconomic forces that shape and modify our economy. Supply and Demand, Revenue and Cost, wages, employment, regulations and taxation are discussed as they affect production, consumption, investment, trade, prices, quantities, profits, inequality, and the economy as a whole.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
A study of the basic principles and practices of financial management of private (as opposed to government owned or affiliated) business operations. The principles and models discussed in the course can be equally applied to publicly listed companies as well as privately owned ones. This course includes an operational framework for financial analysis, financial planning including capital budgeting, along with valuation analysis and cost of capital. The basic framework of analysis used is that of risk and return, emphasizing that the objective of the firm is to maximize shareholder return, subject to satisfying societal and other stakeholder concerns.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
The main objective of this course is to introduce the basic statistical concepts and tools in order to form the foundation through which students can analyze data used for decision-making. The course is application-oriented and focuses on topics that are useful in business and industry such as descriptive statistics, probability, conceptual modeling, and problem formulation and decision analysis. The course prepares students to develop an understanding of how to deal with new trends in the industry such as big data and data mining.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
This course takes a broad-based look at management and organizations in order to provide students with the building blocks needed for more advanced classes in the program. It exposes students to the history of management thought and to some of the most influential organizational theories. It uses insights from multiple disciplines such as economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and political economy and offers frameworks for analyzing modern organizations and current managerial practices. The course concludes with a discussion of contemporary issues in management.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Marketing is viewed as a system designed to create, capture, distribute, and communicate value to consumers and businesses. The course emphasizes the managerial approach to developing marketing strategy through analyses of business conditions, customers, and competitors. Emphasis is given to understanding buyer motivations, behaviors, and contexts as the basis for marketing decisions.
Duration: 7 Weeks weeks
Managers need resources to succeed, and successful managers tend to negotiate well to give themselves the best chance to succeed. They negotiate with customers and suppliers for better prices, and they negotiate with internal functions to get better support and key resources to deliver value to both internal and external stakeholders. As managers move up the corporate ladder, they negotiate with their team members for better commitment and they negotiate with their superiors for domain independence. This course will focus on managers’ need to influence others, manage conflict, and negotiate agreements in a wide range of business scenarios both within and outside the organization. Students will be introduced to basic theories of negotiation, practices and frameworks of negotiation. Students will be provided with opportunities to reshape their understanding of negotiation, discover their own negotiation styles, and apply negotiation principles to critical issues. The course takes a view that negotiation is also a life skill that comes in handy in career growth and addresses the managers need to understand that influencing often occurs without formal power or authority. The course uses a combination of lectures, discussions, role-play exercises, cases, and exams.
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