Accounting skills are incredibly helpful for those wanting to working in finance or for those wanting to cut costs and do their own accounting instead of paying someone else. So, if you have an interest in accounting and you’re looking to progress your skills further, we have spent the time researching the best accounting courses that are available online. We have included both free and paid courses, that are suitable for all levels, to ensure that you can find a course best suited to you!
But first, let’s answer a very important question – what exactly is accounting?
Accounting in the process of recording financial transactions pertaining to a business. Essentially, it is the process of summarizing, analyzing and reporting transactions to agencies, regulators and tax collection entities.
Regardless of the size of a business, accounting is a necessary function for decision making, cost planning and measurement of performance. As a result, accounting skills are relevant in all industries and in lots of different roles!
If you are an aspiring accountant, someone wanting to work in finance, or a small business owner hoping to cut down your financial costs, you can learn the basics of accounting through online learning. Suitable for all levels, I have spent the time researching the best online accounting tutorials out there. So, if you’re looking to progress your accounting skills, there will be an online course out there for you!
1. Accounting & Financial Statement Analysis: Complete Training (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 3h 20m
- Cost: $79.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 49,201
- Course rating: 4.6/5 (out of 9,655 ratings)
In this course you will learn why accounting is one of the most important skills for people pursuing a career in Finance. You will learn, through high quality production and a knowledgeable instructor, everything you need to know. You’ll cover the fundamental concepts of accounting, the basic principles that are used for accounting for revenues and expenses, building a financial statement from the basic information provided, creating cash flow statements and much more!
After completing this course, you will have the skills you need to access a whole range of careers, including a financial analyst, accountant, financial controller and an investment banker.
2. Accounting in Only ONE Hour! Learn all 3 Financials | Cash Flow | Balance Sheet | Income Statement (Skillshare)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 56m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 8,079
- Course rating: N/A
If you want to learn the basics of accounting quickly, this course is for you! You will learn the accounting equation, what T-Accounts are, how to create a simple balance sheet and income statement, how to calculate topline revenue, key terms and basic equations and much more.
No prerequisite knowledge is required for this course – you just need a bit of passion and excitement for numbers. As an additional advantage, this course is interactive and fun, meaning that the course instructor will go over problems with you, instead of just talking at you.
3. Accounting Foundations (LinkedIn Learning)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 2h
- Cost: 1-month free trial
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 8,921
- Course rating: N/A
This LinkedIn learning course will provide an introduction to the four basic types of accounting: bookkeeping, financial, managerial and tax. As well as this, you will explain the link between accounting, decision-making, business performance and financial health.
Taught by knowledgeable accounting professors, Jim and Kay Stice, you will review three primary financial statements from real companies. These realistic examples help you to really understand the concepts and solidify your learning and skills so that you can really get the best out of your time. By the end, you should have a better understanding of accounting and how it affects your business or personal finance.
4. Develop Your Finance and Accounting Skills (LinkedIn Learning)
- Level: All levels
- Completion time: 13h 33m
- Cost: 1-month free trial
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: N/A
- Course rating: N/A
In a whopping 13 hours, this course will cover a huge range of concepts so that anyone, with any level of experience, can become a boss at accounting!
Through a series of different courses taught by experts in the field, you will review concepts such as financial analysis, accounting and budgeting. You will explore financial, managerial and tax accounting. After, you will learn how to relate accounting, decision-making and financial health before interpreting statements and communicating results.
Once you’ve gone through all of this, you will earn your badge of completion so that everyone can see that you’ve taken the time to advance your financial knowledge and skills.
5. Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization (Coursera)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: Approx 5 months at 2h/week
- Cost: Enroll for Free
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 22,338
- Course rating: 4.4/5 (out of 973 ratings)
In this course, you will learn the basics of finance and accounting so that you can build a foundation of core business skills in finance and accounting.
The main things you will cover include discounting and compounding arbitrary cash flow streams, differences between NPV and internal rate of return, classification of cash flows and how companies account for investment in debt and equity securities. You will also cover a wide variety of real-world situations so that you can really understand the accounting process in the real-world.
6. 60 Minutes to Fundamental Accounting Skills (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner to intermediate
- Completion time: 1h 10m
- Cost: $54.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 1,492
- Course rating: 4.6/5 (out of 365 ratings)
This course is for aspiring accountants or non-CPA finance professionals who want to improve their understanding of how accounting works.
You will learn how to describe and recognize the accounting underlying financial statements. You will also cover how to prepare journal entries for common business transactions, prepare income statements, how to analyze business transactions to determine which are reportable, and how to make balance sheets.
Along the way you will also be shown useful tips and techniques to make sure you stay on track and be able to work with any organization, small or large.
7. Fundamentals of Accounting Specialization (Coursera)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 6 months to complete as 4h/week
- Cost: Enroll for Free
- Certification: Yes
- Number of people who have completed the course: 18,200
- Course rating: 4.6/5 (out of 846 ratings)
This Coursera tutorial wants to teach you the language of business: accounting. You will learn the fundamentals of two accounting concepts. Firstly you will financial accounting in great depth. This is the type of accounting that focuses on the reports that managers provide to interested external parties. After, you will take a look at managerial accounting, which focuses on the information and analytical tools and techniques that help managers and employees make the right business decisions.
By the end, you should be able to ‘account’ both of these concepts properly and use them to improve the future performance of any business.
8. Accounting for Beginners: Learn The Basics of Accounting (Udemy)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 31m
- Cost: $79.99
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 1,866
- Course rating: 3.2/5 (out of 43 ratings)
If you are a student who wants to learn the basics of accounting, or a business owner who wants to learn how to operate a profitable and financially sound operation… this course is for you!
In just over 30 minutes, you will learn about what accounting is, its objectives and advantages, who the users are of accounting information, what financial statements are and other important accounting concepts. Once you’ve learn all this, you should feel like you have been provided with a quick pathway to effective accounting skill mastery.
9. The Basics of Business Accounting (Skillshare)
- Level: Beginner
- Completion time: 2h 31m
- Cost: 14 day free trial
- Certification: No
- Number of people who have completed the course: 413
- Course rating: N/A
Suitable for complete beginners, this course covers the basics of accounting in detail. You will take a look at balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, shareholder equity statements and more. Once you’ve gone through the lessons, you should be able to interpret these four financial statements in a practical way.
After this, you will learn to apply the fundamental accounting equation and other vital accounting concepts such as depreciation, revenue recognition, accrual accounting, cash flow and much more.
Conclusion
So, there you have it… the 9 best accounting courses that are available online. These courses are suited to anyone who is wanting to develop their skills to have fantastic accounting knowledge that they can apply to any industry.
Having excellent accounting skills will aid you hundreds of careers. Specific careers where accounting skills are particularly helpful include:
To gather the accounting skills that you need, there are lots of online courses available for you. There are free courses that take as little as an hour to complete, and there are more expensive courses that much longer to complete! Some courses are suitable for those with no financial experience at all. Whereas other courses are better suited for those with lots of experience in financial roles, but are specifically looking to increase their skill set further.
The online classes in this list are the best of the best. Each is taught by an experienced and dedicated teacher, and they all have lots of satisfied and happy customers.
So, which course you decide take depends on your experience, funds and spare time. Are you someone who has lots of relevant experience? Or, are you completely new to the world of finance? Do you have a huge amount of money to spend on your skill development? Do you have a lot of spare time, or are you just looking for a quick, but effective, skill top up?
