30 Free Accounting Online Courses to Boost Your Accounting Skills

What Is Financial Accounting?

Financial Accounting is simply the process and practice of recording, monitoring, analyzing, and managing financial transactions. Individuals and organizations need the services of professional accountants for efficient financial performance. Accountants are responsible for all financial-related matters, including profit and loss management, debts and credits, revenue analysis, and all business expenditures. As well as ensuring that the organization meets all major tax obligations.

Why is financial accounting important?

One of the key reasons why financial accounting is important as a subject is because of the central role it plays in every organization. Every organization that is money-dependent needs the services of a professional accountant. In the same way, excellent accounting services have a positive overall impact on the smooth running of the business, poorly managed accounting services can be detrimental to the growth of the business as a whole.

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Nowadays, the financial activities of all companies and professional organizations undergo audition like never before. This is the very reason why professional accountants are in high demand in all aspects of life.

Importance of Studying Accounting and Finance

A career path in the world of accounting can be profitable, although it must stand upon a solid educational background. Even if you are excellent with your numeracy skills, you still need more in-depth accounting skills

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Below are some important aspects of studying accounting and finance.

1. High employment prospects

All businesses and organizations solely depend on professional accounting for the smooth running of their activities, and as such, the employment opportunities available for professional and skilled accountants are vast and limitless.

2. Job security

No matter the level and depth of technological advancement the world experiences, there will still be an unwavering demand for highly skilled and professional accountants, financial experts, and analysts. A career path in this sector can be a lifelong opportunity.

3. Job flexibility

There is a level of job flexibility that professional accountants who are self-employed enjoy. When you master your financial skills very well, you get to work on your own terms. The world of accounting is full of opportunities for those who choose to establish home businesses.

4. Higher prospects

By learning new financial and accounting related skills or by going for further studies, you increase your chances of staying relevant in the field of accounting and hitting greater deals.

5. More financial rewards

There is no limit to how much you can earn in the fields of accounting and finance, especially for those who run their own businesses. Professional accountants who are at the highest echelon in the cadre of their profession mostly command extraordinary prices for their services.

In addition to having strong numerical skills, it is expedient that you learn relevant skills in accounting and finance. This will further position you to be a guru in your field. It is of utmost importance that a working accountant master cash flow statements, profit and loss account balancing, balance sheets, budget strategy development, taxation, and investment analysis.

30 FREE ACCOUNTING ONLINE COURSES TO BOOST YOUR ACCOUNTING SKILLS

1. CLOUD ACCOUNTING COURSE (UDEMY)

This is one of the major courses that practicing accountants, students of accounting, and working accountants need to study. This course further equips accountants with the next-generation accounting tools and skills that will position them for better results. One of the requirements you need in order to effectively study this course is basic accounting knowledge and working knowledge of computers in general. This course is for Tax practitioners and accountants who passionately seek to enhance their skills by understanding the use of next-generation accounting tools in their accounting practices. Within 3-5 hours of dedication, you can finish the course and sit for the online examination, after which you get a certificate immediately. The course covers areas such as receipts, invoicing, sales returns, purchase bills, payment, cash management, staff salaries, bank transactions, and asset purchases.

2. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING FUNDAMENTALS (HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL)

This course is a broad online program that is for those who wish to learn the major principles and concepts of accounting. The program gives you a broader insight into potential business performance. You will also have the opportunity to learn more about how business managers and Wall Street analysts leverage the knowledge of accounting to make the right decisions.  This course will also equip you with the knowledge of how to perform sensitivity analysis. The course is suitable for average professional accountants who want to understand more about financial statements. At the end of this course, you should be able to know the various ways to develop income statements, cash flow statements, and balance sheets. 

3. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING TRAINING AND COURSES (LINKEDIN LEARNING)

This professional course is perfect for all those who wish to find a career path in the world of accounting. It is excellent for all skill levels. It exposes you to different strategies you can use to make businesses profitable using cash flow. You will also learn financial intelligence and how to manage your finances. You will also have access to financial accounting software such as Excel, Quicken, and QuickBooks. Are you looking for ways to sharpen your skills for your finances, or small business/professional accounting? Then this course is for you. You will get to learn the basics of financial accounting comprehensively. You will also get to know how to use Microsoft Dynamics GP. Additionally, you have access to tips on accounting and finance from experts in the field. By the end of the course, you should have a sound understanding of audit foundations and Due diligence.

4. INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING BY UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (COURSERA)

With this certification course, you will get to understand the basic technical skills needed for analyzing financial statements and the basic tools used in financial analysis. You will also get to learn how accounting standards and managerial incentives affect reporting processes. By the end of the course, you should have the skills needed to read and interpret balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. You will be introduced to the concept of debit-credit bookkeeping and the concept of interpreting and translating transactions into credits and debits. You will also learn more about Accrual Accounting and the effect it has on income statements. As soon as you complete the course, you get to write the online examination, after which your certificate will be available.

5. PRACTICAL ACCOUNTS TRAINING (Udemy)

With this course, you get to learn how to identify and interpret business documents and 95 Periodic/year-end reports. You also know the diverse ways to record 80 types of transactions with their End-of-year adjustments. The course helps you develop a deeper understanding of the concept of financial accounting. To understand this course fully, you need to have a basic knowledge of bookkeeping theory and Financial Accounting. Additionally, the course empowers you with the relevant skills you need to give you a competitive edge and advantage in your pursuits. It also provides you with a top-notch understanding of how to work with financial software.

6. ACCOUNTING DEBITS AND CREDITS (ACCOUNTING PLAY)

This course will help you understand the concept of Accounting Debits and credits. It will also help you learn about financial accounting and the Accounting Equation. It doesn’t take much to learn this course; all you need is basic Accounting Knowledge.  You will be exposed to the dynamics behind the increase and decrease of accounting debits and credits across main accounts. You will also learn the language of Accounting (financial statements, accounting equations, income statements, and Balance sheets). This course is designed for financial accounting students, bookkeepers and accountants, and Accounting professionals who seek a deeper understanding of basic financial skills.

7. INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (Udemy)

In this course, you will learn how to explain the various formats of balance sheets and income statements, define key financial statement terms, record various financial statement transactions, outline the format of a cash flow statement and a balance sheet, explain the differences between cash and profit, prepare cash flow statement using income sheet and balance sheet. The basic thing you need for concluding this course is a basic knowledge of how to operate a computer. With this course, you will learn the fundamentals of the accounting process. Additionally, you will gain more insight into how to explore the layout of the balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement, and the process of preparing a financial statement from scratch. This course is the building block required for performing wall street analysis and all forms of financial modeling. 

This course is for anyone who wants to gain more insight into the fundamentals of the accounting process.

8. FINANCIAL RATIOS SIMPLIFIED (Practical Guide)

With this course, you will have a better understanding of the different types of financial ratios, ranging from Return ratios (ROE/ROA), valuations (P/E, P/BV, and P/CF), Margins (Gross profits/net profit ratio), Liquidity (quick/current ratio), and dividends (both dividend yield and dividend payout). You will also learn the time series ratio analysis used by Google, Alibaba, and Tesla. Consequently, you will also learn the cross-sectional ratio analysis of the Cannabis sector. Furthermore, the course covers profitability ratios, activity ratios, Dividend ratios, Valuations, Solvency ratios, Margin ratios, Return ratios, coverage ratios, liquidity ratios, and cross-sectional ratio analysis. Additionally, this course is for business, Accounting, and Finance students.

9. EXCEL FOR ACCOUNTANTS (Mapping Tools)

With this course, you will learn how to store data in tables in such a way that new rows will be automatically added in related formulas. You will also learn how to perform conditional summing using the SUNIFS function. You will also know the various ways of creating intermediate mapping table in such a way that Excel wil have the basic information needed for translating aggregate data rows and labels. Note that this course is for working accountants aspiring to use Excel to complete their tasks faster.

10. BALANCE SHEET (Accounting Equation)

With this course, you will get to fully understand the fundamentals of working with the balance sheet. The course is for accountants and non-accountants who want to know more about accounting. This course provides an overview of financial statements and explains in detail how to work with balance sheet statements. The goal of a financial statement is to report the financial state of an organization. They also provide the necessary information about the current status of the firm with regard to creditors and past financial performance. The three key statements include: income statement, cashflow statement and balance sheet.

11. INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING (University Of British Columbia via edx)

This course will expose you to the basic ways of interpreting financial statements effectively and how to make wise business decisions. Financial statements play a key role in the success and smooth running of a business. The overall performance is solely based on the information provided in the financial statement. This is why it is very vital to take this course as a working accountant.

12. BUSINESS ACCOUNTING BASICS (Purdue University via edx)

Are you starting a new business and want to have a broader understanding of business accounting? Or are you a student of accounting who is seeking for better understanding of the subject matter? Then this course is for you. It will help position you to understand fully the basics of accounting and equip you with the required tools for understanding the business.

You will also learn the four basic financial statements, balance sheet, statement of retained Earnings, Income statement, and statement of cash flows. These are all vital tools and keys used for evaluating the company’s investment decisions. Far more than just understanding these financial statements, this course will walk you through the building blocks and pathways to creating each statement. This course will also empower you with the needed tools that will help cut down overall running costs and project profitability. This course in its entirety is designed to meet the needs and demands of everyone

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13. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING (ACCA VIA EDX)

This course is designed to launch you into the different dimensions of managing organizational finances to boost business performance. It will help you to gain more insight into the operation of organizational finances, planning and control of cash flows, effective use of working capital, and basic principles of making capital investment decisions. Completing this course will further prepare you to sit for the ACCA ‘Management Accounting’(MA) exam, which leads to a certified Diploma in Accounting and Business

14. ACCOUNTANT IN BUSINESS (ACCA Via Edx)

This course will help you get more understanding on the role accountants play in ensuring the smooth, effective and efficient running of the business. This course is highly recommended for everyone embarking on a financial journey or for anyone who wishes to work in the financial sector but has no certification to show for it. It will walk you through the foundational knowledge of business and finance. The course content was designed such that any person without a business or finance background will quickly gain a into the interaction between people and systems. This course will help you understand business and finance as they relate to the social environment, including legal, economic, and regulatory factors and effects on areas such as employment, health, governance, safety, security, and data protection.

The course will also help you understand the types and purposes of businesses and the effect of the external environment on them. You will also learn how accounting and auditing support effective communication and financial management. Furthermore, you will gain more insight into leadership how people are developed within a business, and the key role of professional ethics and professional values in all aspects of business.

Completing this course gives you all the necessary background knowledge needed to sit for the ACCA/AB exams which further leads to a Diploma in Business and Accounting. The course covers major areas such as

• Function of audit and accountancy
• Principles of leadership, team management and authority
• Business organizational functions, structure, and role of corporate governance
• Types of businesses, their purposes, and interaction between the external environment and stakeholders.
• Maintaining professional values and ethics in business.
• Personal effectiveness as the basis for organizational and effective team spirit.

15. INTRODUCTION TO BOOKKEEPING (ACCA Via edx)

If you are considering building a career path in the business world, you need to understand that having knowledge of accounting is vital to your success. This introductory course on the basics of Bookkeeping will give you a background knowledge of all that you need to know. By studying at your own pace, you will get more guidance on the necessary steps you need to take in reconciling and preparing trial balances, payroll and ledger accounts, business transactions, the banking system, and double-entry bookkeeping.

16. INTERMEDIATE BOOKKEEPING (ACCA Via edx)

This course in its entirety is part two of a program designed for those who are just starting out a new business venture or entering the finance and accounting world and desire to broaden their finance and accounting skills. The course is an extension of Introduction to Bookkeeping. The goal of the course is to enhance your finance and accounting skills, teach you how to prepare financial statements and empower you with the knowledge needed to sit for the examination at the end of the course. It further equips you and positions you for the post of accounting administrator or bookkeeper. Having basic knowledge of accounting is an added advantage to grasping this course

fully. Before you are awarded the Intermediate Certificate in Financial and Management Accounting, you will need to pass the ACCA computer-based FA2 exam, and MA2 exam and fully complete the online and interactive module on Foundations of Professionalism. One of the major advantages of taking this course is that is shares global accounting principles, and walks you through the various ways to account for different business transactions and events in preparing financial statements.

17. FINANCIAL REPORTING (Indiana University Via Edx)

This is an inductor course in that it provides you with a deeper understanding of the comprehensive mechanics and foundations of financial accounting and reporting standards. The epicenter of the course is reporting and measuring the asset side of all balance sheets, as well as measuring revenues and expenditures on income statements. The areas covered in this course are beneficial to students and individuals seeking career paths in the world of accountancy and finance, as well as professional and chartered accountants who wish to broaden their knowledge of financial accounting.

 Having a background knowledge of some basic accounting terminologies, journal entries, and T accounts is crucial in understanding this course. Being conversant with Financial reporting is also another added advantage. This course focuses more on the economic transactions and business activities of firms, and the basic journal entries and accounting measurements that are used to report and measure these various transactions and activities. At the end of this course, you will acquire skills that will help you in critical thinking and professional judgment. You will be more grounded on the economics of business activities and the various events that constitute each economy. This will further position you to acquire the tools needed to execute tedious accounting processes

18. MANAGING PUBLIC MONEY (The Open University Via Future Learn)

This course will grant you wisdom in understanding the basic principles of public financial management. This is vital because it has been established by financial experts that the public sector is responsible for providing important services needed by citizens ranging from healthcare, transport, education, justice, policing, and defense. This free online course is an affiliate course in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy which introduces you to the main components of public sector financial management in a way and manner that affords you the opportunity to apply it in your context.  You will learn the fact that public finance goes far beyond taxes, you will also get to understand how and where public money comes from and you will also have an insight on why and how it is expended.

This course was mainly designed in a practical way to help individuals desiring to work in the public sector know how things run. It is also suitable for all categories of professionals working in the public sector who wish to advance in knowledge

19. TAXES AND DECISION MAKING (Indiana University via edx)

This is a basic accounting foundation course that is based on U.S. federal Income taxation. It will give you more insight into both the individual and business tax systems. Apart from income tax laws, you will also have a detailed background on how to reduce the current value of all income taxes. The course covers areas such as tax planning strategies, tax compliance, business income deductions, and lots more

20. RESULTS BASED FINANCING (Philanthropy University Via Independent)

This course was mainly designed to help average-sized NGOs evaluate Results-Based Financing as a substitute for their organization and strategy for this kind of funding. This course will further position you to learn about the expectations of Result-based financing, the organizations that have the greatest success tending towards the point of focused funding, and the various types of result-based financing available.

Furthermore, Results-Based Financing is a powerful tool that can be used to achieve all of this. This course will walk you towards the process of Identifying outcomes and defining outcome metrics. This course will also teach you how to move from Outcomes to Result-Based financing.

21. AUDITING- THE PRACTICE OF AUDITING (University of Illinois via Coursera)

This course is an extension and continuation of the conceptual and applied introduction to Auditing (Introduction to Auditing 1-conceptual Foundations of Auditing). Its main emphasis is on the conceptual framework applied by audit professionals in assessing, evaluating, and managing audit risks and evidence. In this module of the course, you will to introduced to the concept and theory of Strategic Systems auditing (SSA). On the very first note, you will learn more about strategic business risks and strategic analysis. The contents covered by this course include Strategic Analysis of a client and its Business Processes, Audit Evidence and Triangulation, Strategic Systems Auditing and Internal Controls, Interpreting Evidence and Significant Business Processes, and Fraud Risk Management.

22. ACCOUNTING ANALYSIS- Accounting for Liabilities and Equities (University of Illinois via Coursera)

This is the fourth course in a course that consists of five major components of Financial Reporting Specialization. It focuses on measurement, recognition, and accounting for pensions, equity, share-based compensation, and cash flows in accordance with the FASB Accounting standards Codification, and other resource materials. The course is divided into different modules each covering vitals aspects of the course. The first and second module deals with Postretirement Benefits. The third module deals expressly with Equity, while the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th module deals with share-based payments, Earning Per Share, Accounting Changes, Statement of Cash Flows, Review, and Evaluation respectively.

23. COST ACCOUNTING (Via Swayam)

This course deals with the main concepts of cost accounting and control. The course was specifically designed to help individuals become more intelligent users of cost information for controlling and managing costs, computing the cost of product/process/project/activity, planning and budgeting, and living a life full of wisdom and decision-making. The course is mainly designed for students, employees, and entrepreneurs. It covers all other areas relating to Engineering, science, management, Commerce, Health, Medicine, and Humanities. The course covers areas such as Accounting for Direct and Indirect Costs, overhead costs, Activity Costing, Method of Costing, Marginal Costing, BEP and CVP Analysis, Budgeting, and Standard Costing Cases.

24. ACCOUNTING ANALYSIS CAPSTONE: COMPREHENSIVE FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS (via Coursera)

This Capstone Accounting Analysis Course is the culminating Financial Statement Analysis Project in the area of Accounting Analysis Specialization. Taking the course gives you the advantage and privilege of combining both the techniques and concepts obtained in all the courses in the Specialization series(Accounting Analysis I: The Role of Accounting as an Information System, Accounting Analysis I: Measurement and Disclosure of Assets, Accounting Analysis II: Measurement and Disclosure of Liabilities, Accounting Analysis II: Accounting for Liabilities and Equity) and there after applying them in real life situations. The course is in the form of a project and lasts for about 3 weeks

25. INTRODUCTION TO THE CONTEXT OF ACCOUNTING (The open University via Coursera)

This is a course that takes a comprehensive look at the main/foundational accounting concepts like data processing, profit and loss, and the features of good information. This free online course also covers the history of accounting in comparison to present-day accounting. There are assessments and mini-activities at the end of this course specifically designed to gauge the level of understanding of the student in grasping the key concepts discussed in the course.

26. INFLUENCES ON ACCOUNTING REGULATIONS (The Open University via edx)

This is a free online course that examines the transformation of financial reporting from time immemorial to its current state key areas covered in this course include Anglo-Saxon Accounting, accounting Rules, the Contingent model of accounting change, creation of financial reporting. This course, on average, lasts for about 6 hours and covers deep advanced concepts and features.

27. INVESTMENT RISK (Open University)

In this course, you will learn how to define financial risk, how to take calculated risks, major factors to consider before taking risks, and investors’ assertions about risk. This course in its entirety provides over 6 hours of advanced learning materials, thus giving students the privilege to broaden their knowledge of net present value and strengthen their knowledge of liquidity and maturity.

28. ACCOUNTING 202- PRINCIPLES OF MANAGERIAL ACCOUNT (Open University)

This is a free managerial course that focuses on the key decision-making aspects of accounting and examines very closely planning, control, and product/service costing. This course as a whole explores many concepts from the chapters in the Managerial Accounting Textbook. There are also many resource materials attached to it. Attached to this free online course are PowerPoints for taking the necessary assessment needed for the certification

29. ACCOUNTING 316- ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS(Open University)

This course is designed to help students develop a very strong understanding of data modeling, e-business, computer security, expenditure and revenue cycles, and other concepts and theories associated with them. There is a database design project, web-based homework assignments, and different sets of assessments associated with the free online course all geared towards ensuring that you fully comprehend the material.

30. ACCOUNTING SPECIALIZATION (Open University)

This course covers key areas, such as the foundations of Balance sheet Concepts. Key concepts about the balance sheet are discussed in this course. This course is designed for all those who wish to broaden their skills and knowledge as it relates to the impairment of assets and how to identify and account for investments.

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