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University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) · on Coursera

Introduction to Financial Accounting

4.8(19,000)·820K enrolled
Beginner 16 hours English Course Certificate Certificate
Editor's Pick
Bushee's teaching makes accounting click in a way most textbooks never manage — widely considered the best free accounting course available.

About this course

Introduction to Financial Accounting is Brian Bushee's legendary Wharton course — consistently one of the highest-rated and most-enrolled business courses on Coursera. It teaches you to read and analyze the three core financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement) with the same rigor Wharton MBA students receive, but structured for people who've never studied accounting before.

Bushee's teaching style is unusually clear for a subject that intimidates many learners — he builds understanding progressively, starting with simple transactions and building to the full set of financial statements used by public companies. It's essential for anyone making business decisions, evaluating companies, or working in any function that touches financial performance.

What you'll learn

Read and interpret a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement
Understand accrual accounting and how it differs from cash accounting
Analyze how business transactions flow through the financial statements
Recognize common financial reporting choices and their implications
Apply financial statement analysis to evaluate business performance

This course includes

16h
On-demand video
Yes
Certificate
Yes
Mobile access
English
Language
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Instructor

BB
Brian Bushee
Coursera instructor
820K+ learners4 courses4.8 instructor rating

Taught by Brian Bushee, Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor at Wharton, a long-recognized accounting educator whose teaching has reached hundreds of thousands of students on Coursera.

Requirements

  • No prior accounting or finance experience required

Who this course is for

  • Business professionals who need to read financial statements but never learned accounting
  • Entrepreneurs and startup founders who need to understand their own financials
  • Anyone pursuing Wharton's Business Foundations Specialization

About this provider

CO
Coursera
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Frequently asked questions

It covers the same material at similar rigor, adapted for online delivery. Bushee explicitly designed it to match what his on-campus students learn.
Free to audit; a paid certificate is required for the Business Foundations Specialization credential.
Accounting records and reports what happened financially; finance uses those reports to make forward-looking decisions. This course teaches the reporting side — reading the statements that finance and investment analysis build on.
Paid
Free to audit, paid certificate
Enroll now