Financial Accounting

15.516x Financial Accounting is an MITx Online course from MIT Sloan and part of the MicroMasters Program in Finance. It offers a rigorous introduction to the principles of financial accounting, focusing on the preparation and analysis of financial statements and on why the statements take the form they do. You learn the basic structure of financial reports and the process of recording transactions, then how investors, creditors and other users analyse statements to assess corporate performance, with particular attention to using statements to gather inputs for valuation models and corporate finance decisions. MIT pitches the course at general managers, financial analysts and advisors, quantitative researchers, asset and risk managers, developers in financial services, and undergraduate or graduate students heading into business or finance.

The course is self-paced and can be started at any time; MIT estimates 12 weeks at 10 to 14 hours per week. Auditing is free and includes access to the course and materials. The certificate track, priced at $549 on the course page, adds graded assignments and exams and an MIT certificate on completion, and can count toward the Finance MicroMasters credential.