Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization

4.9 (13,537 Ratings)

Develop the necessary accounting knowledge to interpret, adjust, and analyze financial statements.

Skills You’ll Gain:

Accounting, Financial Analysis, Reading Financial Statements and more

Great For:

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Corporate Development, Investment Banking, Private Equity, Equity Research, and more.

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11 courses to earn Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization
Self-Paced & 100% Online
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Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization Overview

CFI's Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization provides a practical understanding of core and advanced accounting concepts.

Starting with fundamental accounting concepts, the curriculum covers detailed financial statement analysis for banks and insurance companies, business combinations, and equity investments. Key topics also include specialized accounting for inventory, leases, shares outstanding and earnings per share, along with techniques for normalizing income statements.

Designed for real-world application, this specialization will prepare you to interpret and analyze financial statements across different companies, industries, and geographies.

What's in the Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization?

11 courses

Consisting of 510+ lessons

30+ interactive exercises

Learn by doing with guided simulations

Blockchain certificate

To verify your skills

500,000+ 5-star ratings

Best-in-class training, as rated by you

Earning Your Certificate in Financial Analysis

Step 1.

10 Required Courses

Accounting Fundamentals

4.9 (7,370 Ratings)

2h 28min

Reading Financial Statements

4.8 (4,281 Ratings)

1h 45min

Financial Analysis Fundamentals

4.8 (1,838 Ratings)

2h 4min

Reading & Analyzing a Bank's Financial Statements

4.9 (11 Ratings)

1h 39min

Reading & Analyzing an Insurance Company's Financial Statements

5 (3 Ratings)

1h 20min

Accounting for Business Combinations & Other Equity Investments

5 (6 Ratings)

1h 14min

M&A Accounting & Purchase Price Allocation

4.8 (14 Ratings)

1h 31min

Accounting for Inventory

5 (2 Ratings)

1h 4min

Accounting for Leases

5 (8 Ratings)

58min

Accounting for Diluted Shares and Earnings per Share

5 (3 Ratings)

1h 6min

Hide All Courses

Step 2.

1 Elective Course

Normalizing Income Statements

5 (1 Ratings)

1h 30min

Skills & Learning Objectives in Accounting for Financial Analysts

Accounting

Identify key items on the financial statements and describe the relationship among the three core financial statements.
Understand the most common accounting concepts encountered by financial analysts and explain how these impact financial statements and models.
Recognize how differences in accounting policies among companies affects comparability.

Financial Analysis

Adjust financial statements for differences in accounting, leading to greater comparability.
Calculate and interpret various financial ratios, offering insights into profitability, asset utilization, leverage, and liquidity.
Analyze companies using horizontal (trend) analysis and how these companies compare against peers and the industry average.

Reading Financial Statements

Define the key components of company financial reports.
Analyze company filings including financial statements, notes, and management's discussion and analysis (MD&A).
Identify non-recurring items and adjust for these factors since they can skew a company's actual financial performance.

Meet Your Instructors

Scott Powell

Scott is the Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of CFI. Over the past 30 years, he has focused on designing and delivering learning solutions for clients in the financial services sector, particularly in the areas of commercial banking, investment banking, capital markets, and asset management.

Jeff Schmidt

Jeff is the Vice President, Financial Modeling at CFI. Prior to joining CFI, Jeff Schmidt taught financial modeling and valuation to thousands of learners all over the world for over a decade.

Careers in Accounting for Financial Analysts

Over 85% of executives, supervisors, and HR professionals agree that certified individuals bring value, gain credibility, and are seen as top performers.
* Source

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) professionals help guide company strategy by performing budgeting, forecasting, and analysis that support major corporate decisions of the CFO, CEO, and the Board of Directors. Knowledge of accounting is absolutely crucial in order to analyze key metrics and project financial targets.
Corporate Development

Corporate Development professionals analyze potential acquisition opportunities, similar to M&A advisors at investment banks. The difference is that corporate development professionals work for corporations and not at sell-side investment banks. A thorough understand of accounting is necessary to analyze potential acquisition targets as well as performing due diligence.
Investment Banking

Investment banking financial analysts help companies facilitiate financial transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, and capital raises. Accounting knowledge helps them assess the financial health of companies involved in transactions, conduct due diligence, and structure deals to maximize value for clients.
Private Equity

Private equity professionals make significant investments in private companies. Accounting knowledge allows PE analysts to perform thorough due diligence, evaluate financial health, and structure investments effectively. This knowledge helps support accurate valuation, portfolio management, and exit strategies, helping ensure adequate returns on investment.
Equity Research

Knowledge of accounting helps equity research analysts evaluate financial statements, assess company profitability, and forecast future performance. This foundational skill supports rigorous valuation modeling, enhancing credibility with clients and investors.

Accounting for Financial Analysts Specialization Graduates Work in Leading Organizations

What Our Members Say

This particular course is very engaging and clear even for me, who have very little knowledge of finance.

Akshay Sanwal

The introductory course was very concise, detailed, and informative with relevant real world examples which significantly helped apply the concepts in assessing my own business’ footprint.

Brittian Foster

ESG specialization is highly required skills and glad CFI is solving that issue.

Chaitanya Korra

CFI’s ESG programme is a very useful tool towards mitigating contemporary challenges facing the business world.

Johnny Marudu

Displaying the varying investment strategies a ESG-observant business may pursue, along with the relative factors taken into consideration for each strategy, enabled me to understand a business’ general stance on an ESG-related concept, such as greenhouse gas emissions. The bonus content pertaining to the use of data tables to automatically generate status quo figures was an enlightening trick, even for a frequent Excel user.

Jude Baguio

The Course was very educating, precise and informative. The diagrams helped a lot in understanding the terms and concept being explained.

Juliet Nwosu

Very practical and presents the most update-to-date practice and standards in ESG disclosure over the world.

Liwei Ma

My employer had asked me to look into it to prepare an ESG initiative for our company. I was so relieved to see that CFI offered an ESG course. I was super thrilled to learn so many new skill sets and topic areas.

Olga Abinader

Great illustration of the potential for ESG to impact a business. Incorporating a holistic view to complement the initiatives proposed and sensible assumptions with a high degree of prudence as to the positive ESG impact on WACC and employee and customer behaviour.

Steve Nevin

The course really helped me in understanding the various ESG factors that may affect the decisions and have an impact on its stakeholders.

Veral Bajaj

Frequently Asked Questions

If you haven’t found your answer from our FAQ, please send us a message.

Are CFI courses accredited?

CFI is accredited by the Better Business Bureau® (BBB) to maintain training standards, and by the CPA Institutions in Canada, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) in the US for CPE credits. You can find more information here.

Will these courses help me advance my career?

Reviews from learners who have taken CFI courses include numerous stories about how people have been able to advance their careers. There is a proven track record of CFI graduates marking successful transitions into the careers of their dreams and this is based largely on the resources that we make available to our learners upon enrolment. Our training is designed to be fully practical and simulates the experience of being trained as a professional financial analyst. Additionally, we offer a wealth of information through our free career resources. The unique blend of all these elements is what sets us apart from other eLearning platforms when it comes to giving you all the tools you need to create a successful career in finance.

What are the admission requirements for the courses?

This specialization bundle is recommended for learners and professionals with knowledge or experience in environmental, social and governance analysis. To take the courses and complete the exercises, learners will only need access to a PC and/or Mac, Microsoft Suite (2016 or newer), and a stable internet connection.

What is the duration of the program?

It takes an average of 30-35 hours to complete the entire program. However, you are given the freedom to complete all of the training at your own pace!

How much time do I have to complete the courses?

Take as much time as you need. You will have access to all courses and all future upgrades in your subscription. You can review the video lessons as many times as you like and complete the courses at a pace that is most convenient for you. All of the required courses, resources, and assessments to obtain the certifications will be provided, for as long as your subscription is active.

Can I download and edit the course material and templates?

Yes! You can download the resources included in your courses. All of the files needed in a course are available for download. Please note that while our study materials can be downloaded, the lecture videos are only available online due to copyright infringement issues.

How do I earn my certificates?

You need to complete all the video lessons, quizzes, and final assessments in each course to earn your course certificates. The certificate will then be available on your learner dashboard and also emailed to you as soon as you have completed all of the requirements.

What currency are your courses priced in?

All of our online courses and programs are priced in USD.

What payment methods do you accept?

As this is a recurring payment, we accept all major credit and debit cards including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

Are there any additional fees or costs?

None! The program tuition includes everything and there are no additional fees required to earn your digital certification.