It takes years of real-world experience to cover the broad spectrum of skills and know-how needed to succeed as a financial analyst. This course provides a solid starting point for financial analysts wishing to build a strong foundation and for those wishing to know more about corporate financial analysis. This course begins by explaining accounting 101, packing in the best of what you need to know to understand core accounting concepts and perform common accounting transactions in one hour. Next we move on to basic finance principles and then combine all that knowledge to learn how to financially model a business using Excel.

Learning Objectives
  • Describe and recognize the accounting underlying financial statements.
  • Analyze business transactions to determine which are reportable, and of those, which are on account of income and which are on account of capital.
  • Prepare journal entries for common business transactions.
  • Post entries to create a general ledger and a trial balance using a spreadsheet.
  • Prepare the income statement, the statement of changes in equity, and the balance sheet.
  • Discover what financial analysis is and how it used, how to calculate present value of future streams of cash flow with various profiles. and how to calculate future value of future streams of cash flow with various profiles.
  • Discover the concept of financial leverage and optimal capital structure.
  • Identify where finance theory is applied in the workplace and a disciplined approach for using Excel to develop financial analysis
  • Discover how to prepare financial projections of the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows
Last updated/reviewed: August 12, 2023
47 Reviews (202 ratings)

Reviews

5
Member's Profile
Very practical module, accurate to real-world considerations and practices and not just theoretical ideals that don't actually happen in reality as some courses tend to do. This one matches what I've seen over the course of my career. Being a short course of only 4.5 hours, the depth is not that intense, and if you already have an accounting background then the accounting primer/review might be worth skipping because you'll ace that portion of the exam. When it says "Accounting 101", it literally means 101 -- the stuff I covered in my very first accounting course and nothing more. Overall, a good course for those looking for some practical guidance on how to do basic finance and how to go about modeling a business.

3
Anonymous Author
There was a lot of information. I would recommend taking this in separate parts. A couple of the exam questions, did not follow the reading. The slides said one thing but the correct answer was different. Also there was a question, where the slides said you should use a separate tab but that wasn't even a choice. The choices were use a separate cell or a different file, for an Excel user these are 3 different things.

5
Member's Profile
Very knowledgeable instructor, provides good insight on financial modeling. A great feature of this course is that they provided excel templates that can be followed throughout the course and used afterwards for training. What I did not like is that the test is too technical for the material covered. This is meant for non-accountants and the level of questions seems very high for such a short course.

4
Member's Profile
What I liked: This course offers a very comprehensive review of both accounting, financial analysis, and finance concepts. It gave me a good refresher on the accounting fundamentals, as well as taught me how to set up templates for financial forecasts (which is very useful). The review on debt vs equity financing is also helpful.

5
Anonymous Author
The accounting section is pretty basic/elementary. The finance principles sections was a good refresher. And I'm actually saving the financial modeling section as a reference for when I think about the most important things to share with new/junior analysts.

5
Member's Profile
I found this to be an excellent overview of finance principles for someone who is an accountant rather than a finance person. The modeling section was extremely helpful as well. The instructor was interesting and I highly recommend this course.

5
Anonymous Author
This course provided a good baseline understanding of accounting and financial valuations. It was slightly elementary at parts but that was needed to give a base to add additional information. Overall it was a great course.

5
Member's Profile
As an accounting professional, I appreciated refreshing myself of the perspective and principles on the corporate finance and finance side. I appreciated the instructor's clear and straightforward explanations.

4
Anonymous Author
Great course that provides a good overview of financial accounting and modeling, but does not go incredibly in-depth. Good refresher or beginner course. However, course materials are thorough and are a bonus!

4
Anonymous Author
Sometimes financial analysis is a little hard for me, so after taking the course I hava more concepts to calcaulate the ratio and do more efficient financial analysis!Thanks Mr.Blair's great work!

3
Member's Profile
Accounting 101 was basic knowledge and easily understood. The next two series of classes had the pace at a much higher level. Would have liked to have those two pieces slowed down a bit.

5
Anonymous Author
Illumeo... Would be great after completing the course if we could see the correct answers. I missed a few, and want to know which were wrong and what the correct answers were.

5
Member's Profile
The Psychology Dictionary defines fundamental skills: the ability needed to perform a task or understand an idea. The basic ability necessary to function competently in society

4
Anonymous Author
I really did enjoy the course, particularly the financial piece of it, but I felt like it may have been difficult if I had not had a background knowledge that I do have.

5
Anonymous Author
A good combination - some review, some new information, some good tips and a good example for how to set up forecasted financial statements. I enjoyed the class.

5
Anonymous Author
Great refreshing course for every finance professional on financial analysis. I particularly liked the financial modeling using Excel part of the course.

5
Anonymous Author
A great refresher for an accountant trying to learn more about general processes. Teacher was clear and concise with delivery of information.

5
Member's Profile
Great length based on the amount of detail covered in the course. Helpful summary information. The practice quiz was good preparation.

4
Member's Profile
Great perspective and principle focus on finance, balanced with accounting. Appreciated the course for its insight into modeling.

5
Member's Profile
This webinar covered alot of helpful information. I could not access the supporting material. Test taking was hard. Thanks.

5
Anonymous Author
This is a great course to introduce you to basic concepts of financial analysis's along with helpful hints to use with excel.

3
Member's Profile
Content was fine but the questions in the exam did not correlate very well to the content. Was a good refresher though.

5
Anonymous Author
This is a great course! Shows the basics of accounting, finance, and financial modeling in a holistic yet concise way.

4
Member's Profile
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5
Anonymous Author
very useful for the real world. good to be reminded to take the time to plan and not just start creating formulas

4
Member's Profile
Excellent overview of each topic, providing a great refresher on Finance and Financial Modeling for CPAs.

4
Anonymous Author
Interesting twist for basic accounting to forecast modeling all in one course, but tied together nicely.

4
Anonymous Author
This course was long, but informative. It was a bit hard to follow at time, but good info overall.

5
Anonymous Author
Great information! Blair does a great job keeping things entertaining, efficient, and engaging!

3
Anonymous Author
I liked the effort it took to pass this course. I hope to see more loike it in the future

5
Anonymous Author
Engaging course with well organized sections and excellent content for each topic covered.

3
Anonymous Author
Good information, but long winded to be honest. Slides were hard to follow.

5
Anonymous Author
Great course, clear and concise, would recommend others to take this course

5
Anonymous Author
Great course with lots of detail and lots of explanation. Highly recommend!

5
Member's Profile
A good review of accounting info I don't normally use in my work. thanks.

4
Member's Profile
Great course, tons of valuation information. Slide deck was awesome.

5
Anonymous Author
The excel materials are very useful to help follow the case study.

5
Anonymous Author
Practical examples that are very useful in my learning. Thank you.

5
Anonymous Author
The course was very informative and relevant to the topic at hand.

5
Member's Profile
im watching this one over and over. I am new to financial modeling

5
Member's Profile
This is a comprehensive course covering complex technical issues.

5
Anonymous Author
Great review course for me. Well presented and well structured.

5
Anonymous Author
Awesome Course - Thorough information - Just Great Information

5
Anonymous Author
It contains a great deal of detailed information, very useful!

4
Anonymous Author
very good course, good mix of technical, accounting, finance

3
Member's Profile
Great course but could not open PDF documents from Zip file.

4
Anonymous Author
Good overview and content. Thank you for the reminders.

Prerequisites
Course Complexity: Foundational

No advanced preparation or prerequisites are required for this course

Education Provider Information
Company: Illumeo, Inc., 75 East Santa Clara St., Suite 1215, San Jose, CA 95113
Contact: For more information regarding this course, including complaint and cancellation policies, please contact our offices at (408) 400- 3993 or send an e-mail to .
Instructor for this course
Course Syllabus
  Accounting 101 – How To Do Basic Accounting In One Hour full video1:10:03
  Learn Finance Principles in 1 Hour Full Video1:11:28
  Financial Modeling Using Excel 1:31:50
SUPPORTING MATERIALS
  Fundamental Skills for Finance Professionals Supporting MaterialsZIP
REVIEW AND TEST
  REVIEW QUESTIONSquiz
 FINAL EXAMexam