This course is part of the Finance & Accounting track.
Introduction to Financial Accounting
 

Financial Accounting

$1,750
Next 8-week session starts October 18th
Discover what's behind the numbers in financial statements.
8
weeks
6-8
hours per week
7
modules
Self-Paced
with regular deadlines

 This course earns you a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online. What you earn.

Overview
Syllabus
Enrollment
Stories
FAQs

Key Concepts

Discover how balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements are developed and how each interact
Evaluate the financial health of a business using financial statements
Understand GAAP and IFRS standards
Prepare and evaluate financial forecasts to make strategic decisions
Value a venture, project, or investment opportunity and perform a sensitivity analysis

Who Will Benefit

Learn the language of business through accounting as you gain the skills and knowledge to analyze financial statements.
Reading a balance sheet was completely alien to me. Since taking Financial Accounting, I’ve been keeping track of my company’s annual reports, and the accounting that I learned helps me in understanding where the business may head in the future. I’ve also been tracking a few other companies for investment purposes, and I’ve realized that I can make more informed decisions with my improved knowledge of company financials.
Pankaj Prashant
Medium Term Planning Engineer at Rio Tinto
Prepare for the MBA classroom with the program Harvard Business School offers to incoming students.
A few weeks into the course, accounting terminology came alive as I realized why accounting is the language of business. I can now talk confidently with clients and understand the business aspect of their problems.
Gaurang Manjrekar
Technology Consultant
Gain confidence in your ability to understand financial statements and communicate financial results.
My job is project-based, and I'm currently leading the operational functions of a system-wide IT implementation, a project that affects the daily work of a few thousand employees. Knowing how to read financial statements or look at data sets and understand them has helped me make major decisions on future state reporting.
Kali Pfaff

What You Earn

Certificate of Completion

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

Certificate of Specialization

Certificate of Specialization

Prove your mastery of finance and accounting

Earn by: completing any three courses within this subject area to earn a Certificate of Specialization

Syllabus

7 Modules, 60 Hours
Download full syllabus
8.5
hrs
Module 1

The Accounting Equation

Understand key accounting concepts, terms, and principles.

Highlights

Starting a Business
Receiving Payments in Advance
Accounting Principles and Rules
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Accounting Equation Components
  2. Basic Transactions and the Equation
  3. Accounting Principles and Rules
  4. Formal Definitions of Accounting Terms

Featured Exercise

  • Demonstrate how different transactions impact the accounting equation
8.5
hrs
Module 2

Recording Transactions

Understand where financial statement information originates.

Highlights

Journal Entries
Building a Trial Balance
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Concepts

  1. Journal Entries and T-Accounts
  2. Advanced Journal Entries
  3. The Trial Balance

Featured Exercises

  • Record business transactions as journal entries
  • Construct a trial balance
8.5
hrs
Module 3

Financial Statements

Understand the content and purpose of the income statement and balance sheet and how the trial balance is used to create both.

Highlights

Introduction
Creating a Balance Sheet
Introduction to Accounting Period
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. The Balance Sheet
  2. The Income Statement

Featured Exercise

  • Construct the balance sheet and income statement
8.5
hrs
Module 4

Adjusting Journal Entries

Understand complex accounting transactions and how they relate to accounting principles and recognize the impact of judgment and bias on financial statements and accounting practices.

Highlights

Deferrals
Mahindra Finance
Mahindra: Loan Process
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Accruals and Deferrals
  2. Inventory
  3. Long-Lived Assets
  4. Credit Risk Management
  5. Deferred Taxes

Featured Exercise

  • Record advanced business transactions as journal entries
8.5
hrs
Module 5

The Statement of Cash Flows

Understand how to construct and interpret the cash flow statement and recognize the differences between GAAP and IFRS standards for cash flow statement creation.

Highlights

The Statement of Cash Flows
Direct vs Indirect Method
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Concepts

  1. Operating: Direct Method
  2. Operating: Indirect Method
  3. Investing and Financing

Featured Exercise

  • Use the statement of cash flows to evaluate the financial health and lifecycle stage of a business
8.5
hrs
Module 6

Analyzing Financial Statements

Evaluate company performance using profitability, efficiency, leverage, and other ratios.

Highlights

Profit Margin
Cash Conversion Cycle
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Profitability
  2. Efficiency
  3. Leverage
  4. Other Ratios
  5. Impact of Policy Differences

Featured Exercise

  • Analyze ratios and use the DuPont Framework to evaluate the financial state and strategy of a business
8.5
hrs
Module 7

Forecasting and Valuation

Use financial forecasting to predict future revenue, expenses, and cash flow and understand key concepts and metrics in valuation, including time value of money, terminal value, and net present value.

Highlights

Forecasting: Metropolis Health Care
IRR and Payback Period
Industry Insights: Assessing Financial Statements
ShowHide Details

Concepts

  1. Pro Forma and Free Cash Flows
  2. Valuation
  3. Lease Accounting

Featured Exercises

  • Prepare pro-forma financial statements
  • Calculate and forecast free cash flows
  • Learn how to value a venture, project, or investment opportunity and perform a sensitivity analysis of key assumptions
Free E-Book

A Manager's Guide to Finance & Accounting

Learn about the difference between finance and accounting, the financial skills all managers need, and how taking an online course can help you achieve your educational goals and accelerate your career.

Our Difference

This course will teach you the fundamentals of financial accounting from the ground up.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Stay active by engaging in a new activity every three to five minutes.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Get social by collaborating with a global community of peers before, during, and after your course. Learners who successfully complete an HBS Online program will be added to the HBS Online Community's Official Networking Group and gain exclusive access to events and other networking opportunities.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading companies, including PepsiCo, Mahindra Finance, Morgan Stanley, and the American Red Cross.
Immerse yourself in real-world, case-based examples brought to life by industry-leading companies, including PepsiCo, Mahindra Finance, Morgan Stanley, and the American Red Cross.

About the Professor

V.G. Narayanan
Financial Accounting

Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
"Financial Accounting puts you in the shoes of an equity research analyst, yoga studio owner, and leader of one of the largest nonprofits in the United States. You’ll wrestle with the same issues they faced, while problem-solving and interacting with fellow learners from around the world."

Dates & Eligibility

Starting
Oct
18
8 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline October 10
View weekly calendar
Apply Now
Starting
Jan
17
8 Weeks  $1,750
Application deadline January 8
View weekly calendar
Apply Now

All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the course.

Learn about bringing this course to your organization.

Learner Stories

90%
are more self-assured at work
Having the perspectives of my peers and all the constructive conversation encouraged me to think in new and creative ways. Knowing that your peers were rating your participation and reading your contributions was truly compelling.
Leslie Pico
Entrepreneur
This was an awesome way to get your feet wet in the world of business. I think that the courses were well-designed so as to maximize the impact they have on your real-world outlook.
Lachlan Hanbury-Brown
Chemistry at Harvard University
* Source: 2022 surveys and course data
 
All FAQs

Financial Accounting FAQs

In addition to being a standalone certificate program, Financial Accounting is also one component course of the Credential of Readiness (CORe) program, which also includes Economics for Managers and Business Analytics. Designed for those interested in learning business fundamentals more broadly, CORe program participants progress through the three courses in tandem, and the program concludes with a final exam.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein, including satisfactory performance on the quizzes at the end of each module (earning an average score of 50% or greater). This helps ensure your cohort proceeds through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. A module is composed of a series of teaching elements (such as faculty videos, simulations, reflections, or quizzes) designed to impart the learnings of the course. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect participation in the social learning elements of the course by offering feedback on others’ reflections and contributing to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on individual course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Financial Accounting. Participants will either be evaluated as complete or not complete.

For more information on grading, please refer to the Policies Page.

Financial Accounting participants may be eligible for financial aid based on demonstrated financial need. To receive financial aid, you will be asked to provide supporting documentation. Please refer to our Payment & Financial Aid page.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program. At the end of each course module, you will be able to download a PDF summary of the module’s key takeaways. At the end of the program, you will receive a PDF compilation of all of the module summary documents.

Harvard Business School Online
Certificate in Financial Accounting
[Cohort Start Month and Year]

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" with the language from the Credential Verification page:

School: Harvard Business School Online
Dates Attended: [The year you participated in the program]
Degree: Other; Certificate in Financial Accounting
Field of Study: Leave blank
Grade: Complete
Activities and Societies: Leave blank

For the program description on LinkedIn, please use the following:

Financial Accounting is an 8-week, 60-hour online certificate program from Harvard Business School. This course teaches the fundamentals of financial accounting from the ground up. Participants learn how to prepare and interpret financial statements—the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement—and calculate and interpret critical ratios. The course concludes with an introduction to forecasting and valuation. Financial Accounting was developed by leading Harvard Business School faculty and is delivered in an active learning environment based on the HBS signature case-based learning method.

Starting with the October 2021 wave, we have added two new cases to Financial Accounting: Mahindra Finance in Module 4 and Estee Lauder in Module 7. The Mahindra Finance case covers credit risk management, and the Estee Lauder case introduces lease accounting and the impact of recent changes in lease accounting standards. Professor Narayanan discusses the new material in this video. To accommodate the new material, some of the exercises related to forecasting and valuation in Module 7 will be optional starting with the October 2021 wave.

 

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