Financial Accounting Online Course | HBS Online (2024)

$1,850

Next 8-week session starts July 24th

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

Overview

Syllabus

Enrollment

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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

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

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

Certificate of Completion

Boost your resume with a Certificate of Completion from HBS Online

Earn by: completing this course

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

Module 1

The Accounting Equation

Module 2

Recording Transactions

Module 3

Financial Statements

Module 4

Adjusting Journal Entries

Module 5

The Statement of Cash Flows

Module 6

Analyzing Financial Statements

Module 7

Accounting for the Future

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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.

Description of silent animated video above: Assets equals liabilities and owner's equity

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.

Description of silent animated video above: Learner types an answer in the discussion board in response to a peer's question

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.

Description of silent animated video above: Learner scrolls through video interviews from prominent business leaders

Leslie Pico
Entrepreneur

Lachlan Hanbury-Brown
Chemistry at Harvard University

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 .

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.

By enrolling in the Financial Accounting certificate program, participants will be ineligible to enroll in the CORe program. By enrolling in the CORe program, participants will be ineligible to enroll in Financial Accounting.