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#1 in AccountingUdemyBestseller on UdemyAccountingPaid courseAll LevelsCertificate

Introduction to Finance, Accounting, Modeling and Valuation (Udemy.com)

Learn Finance & Accounting from Scratch by an Award Winning MBA Professor, Ivy Grad, worked @ Goldman & VC

4.5
39,408 reviews

Created by: Chris Haroun

Last updated May 2025

Our take

Based on the ratings of 39,408 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in May 2025. No course pays to be reviewed.

Chris Haroun's short course walks complete beginners through the three financial statements, then into a forecast model and a set of valuation methods, all in about 4.3 hours and 64 lectures. It is built around one worked example, LinkedIn, which students model and value from public filings. The audience is people with no accounting or finance background who want to see how an analyst arrives at a target price. With around 232,000 students and 39,000 reviews it carries Udemy's Bestseller badge, and it pairs with Haroun's MBA course, which sits beside it on our list.

Reviewers like the cheerful, visual teaching and the way every theory lesson is followed by a practical one. The worked examples and the final test get credit for having some bite. The complaints are consistent, though. Several students say the second half, the modeling and valuation sections, moves too fast, and that cramming four topics into four hours leaves each one thin. The LinkedIn data is around ten years old, some of the websites shown for pulling financials have changed, and one reviewer spotted a wrong sign in the 2016 cash flow example. A few wanted the formulas broken down step by step.

Value is decent for the time it asks, and the May 2025 refresh is recent, but the underlying example has not been rebuilt. Think of it as a fast tour rather than a deep course. If the goal is a working grasp of the statements and how a DCF fits together, it delivers that in an afternoon. Students who want depth on any one topic should look at The Complete Financial Analyst Training & Investing Course, which at least one reviewer moved on to, or the MBA course for the broader business picture.

Best forComplete beginners who want the whole statements-to-valuation chain explained fast, with one real company worked through.
Skip it ifYou want accounting definitions and debits and credits rather than investor-style valuation, or real depth on any single topic.

Pros

  • Every theory lesson is paired with a practical exercise, and the final test has more challenge than typical CE courses.
  • Short lectures, 64 in about 4.3 hours, so the three statements are covered in under an hour of video.
  • One real company, LinkedIn, is modeled and valued end to end, with DCF, P/E, P/R and EV multiples compared.
  • Haroun's upbeat, visual style keeps a dry subject watchable, and 17 caption languages help non-native speakers.

Cons

  • The second half rushes: modeling and valuation get crammed in, and two reviewers wanted formulas broken down step by step.
  • The LinkedIn example uses roughly decade-old data, and some referenced websites have changed since filming.
  • Reviewers flag a sign error in the 2016 cash flow exercise and quiz questions on things the videos never covered.
The information is great, instructor made it interesting. Only negative is the years being 10 years out of date and we are not using the many AI tools now available to assist.
BETH HEBERT, a student

Listed as all levels, but it is really a beginner course; basic Excel is the only prerequisite. Working analysts will find it thin.

Featured in our guide: The 10 Best Finance and Accounting Courses on Udemy in 2026

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What you will learn

  • #1 Best Selling Accounting Course on Udemy (Learn Finance and Accounting the Easy Way)!​
  • Analyze and understand an income statement (even if you have no experience with income statements).
  • Analyze and understand a balance sheet (even if you have no experience with balance sheets).
  • Analyze and understand a cash flow statement (even if you have no experience with cash flow statements).
  • Understand and use modeling best practices so you can create financial models.
  • Know where to get data in order to build a financial model (in depth understanding of identifying and using/navigating the best free websites and sources to build your financial model)!
  • Create a financial model (projecting the future) for an income statement.
  • Create a financial model (projecting the future) for a balance sheet.
  • Create a financial model (projecting the future) for a cash flow statement.
  • Understand valuation best practices so you can create target prices based on your financial models.
  • How to use Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) and how to create the Weighted Average Cost of Capital and Terminal values in order to pick target prices.
  • How to use P/E in order to pick target prices.
  • How to use P/R in order to pick target prices.
  • Other valuation methodologies, including EV/Sales, EV/EBITDA, P/B, EV/FCF, etc.
  • Come up with a target price based on an average of several different valuation methodologies.
  • Analyze the total addressable market for a company you are doing research on.
  • Analyze financial statements using profitability ratios: Gross Margin (Cost of Goods Sold / Revenue), Operating Margin (EBITDA/ Revenue), Net Profit Margin (Net Income / Revenue), Return on Assets (Net Income / Assets) and Return on Equity (Net Income / Equity).
  • Analyze financial statements using debt and inventory formulas: Debt to Assets (Total Liabilities/ Total Assets), Debt to Equity (Total Liabilities/ Total Equity), Interest Coverage Ratio (EBITDA / Interest) and Inventory Days on Hand (Inventory / Cost of Good Sold) * 365.
  • Analyze and compare companies using the following formulas: Price / Earnings, PEG (P/E / Growth), Price / Revenue, EV/EBITDA, EV/Sales, Price/Free Cash Flow and Price / Book.
  • We will do an extremely in depth professional accounting, finance, modeling and valuation analysis of LinkedIn using the accounting and finance methodologies used in this course (you will also have many exercises to complete that will help you understand accounting, finance, valuation and modeling).

Course content

17 sections · 64 lectures · 4.4 hours of video 5 quizzes, 1 practice test, 9 articles

  1. 1Course Introduction 1 free preview3 lectures · 4 min
  2. 2Accounting Part 1 of 3: Income Statement Analysis 5 free previews6 lectures · 19 min
  3. 3Accounting Part 2 of 3: Balance Sheet Analysis5 lectures · 16 min
  4. 4Accounting Part 3 of 3: Cash Flow Statement Analysis6 lectures · 1 quiz · 15 min
  5. 5Financial Modeling Part 1 of 4: Introduction and Best Practices2 lectures · 7 min
  6. 6Financial Modeling Part 2 of 4: Where Do I Get Historical Data From?5 lectures · 1 quiz · 30 min
  7. 7Financial Modeling Part 3 of 4: Case Study: Building a Model for LinkedIn6 lectures · 49 min
  8. 8Financial Modeling Part 4 of 4: Financial Model Exercise3 lectures · 1 quiz · 15 min
  9. 9Valuation Part 1 of 6: Introduction and Best Practices3 lectures · 6 min
  10. 10Valuation Part 2 of 6: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)7 lectures · 55 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Anyone interested in how accounting works (no prior accounting experience is needed).
  • Anyone interested in how finance works (no prior finance experience is needed).
  • Anyone interested in how modeling works (no prior modeling experience is needed).
  • Anyone interested in how valuation works (no prior valuation experience is needed).
  • Anyone interested in how financial ratios works (no prior financial ratios experience is needed).

What you need before you start

  • You don’t need to have any accounting or finance experience as we will cover all of the concepts from scratch. A requirement is that you have access to and a very basic understanding of how to use Microsoft Excel as we will use Microsoft Excel in the course as we will be analyzing and creating a Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement. We will also learn how to create the following

How it compares

Against the other 200 rated Udemy courses in Accounting on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 49% of them
  • Reviews39,408#1 of 201 by number of reviews
  • Length4.3 hoursshorter than 64% of them
  • Last updatedMay 2025more recently than 67% of them

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Course Description

#1 Best Selling Accounting Course on Udemy (Learn Finance and Accounting the Easy Way)!     ** ACCORDING TO BUSINESS INSIDER: "Haroun is one of the highest rated professors on Udemy, so you can expect to be in good hands through the course of your education." **  He is the author of the best selling business course on Udemy this year called 'An Entire MBA in 1 Course'

This course will help you understand accounting, finance, financial modeling and valuation from scratch (no prior accounting, finance, modeling or valuation experience is required).

By the end of this course, you will also know how to value companies using several different valuation methodologies that I have used during my Wall Street career so you can come up with target prices for the companies that you are analyzing.

By the end of this course, you will also know how to analyze financial statements using many different financial ratios/formulas that I have used in my hedge fund, Goldman Sachs & venture capital career.

The Learning objectives of the course are as follows:

  • Understand how to read and analyze financial statements like a Balance Sheet, an Income Statement, and a Cash Flow Statement.

  • Discover the best modeling practices to be able to create your own financial statements.

  • Recognize the role macroeconomics plays in modeling.

  • Identify the different resources to research financial statements of public companies.

  • Determine how to create a forecasting model from the financial statements.

  • List the most commonly used valuation methods.

  • Derive a target price of a stock using three or more valuation methods.

  • Define and explain the financial metrics used to determine the health of a company.

Lastly, I am teaching this course in a much more visual and entertaining way; I hope you enjoy the course as I always use an 'edutainment' and visualization teaching approach to make complex topics simple/easy to understand. 

Thanks,
Chris Haroun


CPE (Continuing Professional Education)

See above for Learning Objectives

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Read More All Levels All Levels product length iconTime: 4.3h

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Instructor Details

Chris Haroun

Award Winning Professor Featured in Forbes, NBC, Business Insider, CNN & Entrepreneur

Please join me for my weekly Office Hours Q&A on my YouTube channel every Thursday from 8am until 10am Pacific time. Here is my bio thanks: 

Chris Haroun is the founder & CEO of the 300+ hour online Haroun MBA Degree Program®, an award winning business school professor, MBA graduate from Columbia University & former Goldman Sachs employee. He has raised/managed over $1bn in his career.

He also has work experience at hedge fund giant Citadel, consulting firm Accenture & several firms that he has started, including an investment firm that had a venture capital investment in Facebook several years before the Facebook IPO.

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Reviews

4.5

39,408 ratings on Udemy

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By Mohammed Imran Ali on 7/18/2026

The values in example of cash flow statement 2016 is incorrect. It is mentioned long term debts are decreased indeed in the solution it has been showed as increased. Accuracy of information in utmost importance when explaining financial and accounting.

By Juancarlos Giraldo on 7/1/2026

The course was good! I like the pacing of the course! The instructions are clear and concise! The lessons usually are not that long and your able to digest de information. I liked that for every theoretic lesson you are able to have a practical lesson!

By essie annie on 6/29/2026

Its is a good course, leading you to understand the core consideration on accounting and cash flow and brief note on economic ratio charts. Though he rushes through financial forcasting - visually cluttered, I think he just needs to show methods on plan background and explain it - minimise on the linkedin examples. He teach well!

By Brandon Zavala on 6/2/2026

I would've liked more in depth explanation on how to do the formulas, with like a calculator so we can learn them step by step. I've been many many many years without math classes, so I even forgot the easy algebraic equations and what not, still excellent course nonetheless.

By Leonid Pavlov on 5/29/2026

Modelling part itself is, frankly speaking, not so interesting to me - I only continue watching it to see more examples of income statements and balance sheets. But the first part - introduction into the topic as such - was / is amazing!

By Fay Ogbonna on 4/7/2026

This course offers a wealth of information. I am understanding Financial Statements as well as how to analyze them like a Financial Analyst. I appreciate the structure of the course and the interactive lessons.

By Atharva Yeola on 3/25/2026

Amazing, but in today's world, rarely anyonce create these models by hand; we have AI nor days, but the way he explains the concepts and how to read and interpret the data is the real gold. If you don't know what exactly to tell AI and what you want from it, then you will end up getting AI crap.

By Arindham Dhar on 3/18/2026

Thank you, Chris Haroun, for an excellent and detailed course. The resources provided are fantastic, and the content is a perfect foundation for beginners learning about financial statements. However, based on the course title, I was expecting a bit more focus on the accounting side, particularly foundational concepts like the five golden rules of accounting. Thank you again for putting together such a solid introductory course!

By Karina Michelle Ardón Martinez on 2/27/2026

the animation is a bit old since the course is from 2016, other than that it covers pretty much everything that you paid for in a very entertaining and comprehensive way. I really liked it - worth the investment especially if you are a beginner!

By Marc Schwärzli on 2/1/2026

A basic course taught by an experienced lecturer in the relevant field, with practical evaluation sheets that do not overwhelm the user. Continuous review questions and a short final exam under exam conditions make it possible to assess learning progress.

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Overall Score : 90 / 100

Introduction to Finance, Accounting, Modeling and Valuation
Visit course on Udemy Write a review
  • Video Duration: icon 4.3h
  • Price: $174.99
  • Provider: icon Udemy
  • Updated: icon May 2025
  • Level: All Levels All Levels
  • Language: icon English
  • Certificate: icon Yes
  • Lectures:64 in 17 sections
  • Practice:5 quizzes, 1 practice test
  • Students:232,300
  • Subtitles:17 languages
  • Udemy badge:Bestseller
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