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Introduction to Finance, Accounting, Modeling and Valuation

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

Bestseller

Created byChris Haroun | 1.7 Million Students | #1 Best Selling Business & Finance Prof.

Last updated 5/2025

English

What you'll 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 • 4h 20m total length

Thank You Message from Chris0:02
Course Introduction & Who is this Course For?3:43
This course is for:
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).
How to Ask me Questions Live on my Weekly Webcast (Includes Zoom)0:11

Why is the Income Statement Important & How Can It Help You Achieve Your Goals1:53
Why is the income statement important and how can it help you achieve your goals? Once you understand the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements (all explained in this course), then we can move on to the modeling and then the valuation section of this course.
Income Statement Explanation3:57
An explanation of the income statement (assumes you have no experience with this topic).
Income Statement Example and Analysis8:48
An example of an income statement (attached is an excel version of this statement).
Income Statement Analysis Exercise1:07
Please find attached the income statement exercise. The instructions for the exercise are listed on the first tab in the attached Excel spreadsheet. When you have completed the exercise, please watch the next lecture for an explanation of the answers. Thanks
Income Statement Analysis Exercise Answers Explanations2:57
A discussion of the income statement exercise results.
How to Access MANY More of my Finance Lesson Videos for Free0:09

Why is the Balance Sheet Important & How Can It Help You Achieve Your Goals1:10
Why is the balance sheet important & how can it help you achieve your goals? Once you understand the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements (all explained in this course), then we can move on to the modeling and then the valuation section of this course.
Balance Sheet Explanation2:04
An explanation of the balance sheet (assumes you have no experience with this topic).
Balance Sheet Example and Analysis8:39
An example of a balance sheet (attached is an excel version of this statement).
Balance Sheet Analysis Exercise0:59
Please find attached the balance sheet exercise. The instructions for the exercise are listed on the first tab in the attached Excel spreadsheet. When you have completed the exercise, please watch the next lecture for an explanation of the answers. Thanks
Balance Sheet Analysis Exercise Answer Explanations2:39
A discussion of the balance sheet exercise results.

Why is the Cash Flow Statement Important+How Can It Help You Achieve Your Goals1:25
Why is the cash flow statement important & how can it help you achieve your goals? Once you understand the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements (all explained in this course), then we can move on to the modeling and then the valuation section of this course.
Cash Flow Statement Explanation2:08
An explanation of the cash flow statement (assumes you have no experience with this topic).
Cash Flow Statement Example and Analysis6:34
An example of a cash flows statement (attached is an excel version of this statement).
Cash Flow Statement Analysis Exercise0:34
Please find attached the cash flow statement exercise. The instructions for the exercise are listed on the first tab in the attached Excel spreadsheet. When you have completed the exercise, please watch the next lecture for an explanation of the answers. Thanks
Cash Flow Statement Analysis Exercise Answer Explanations2:08
A discussion of the cash flow statement exercise results.
Financial Statement Analysis Conclusion (How All 3 Statements Are Related)2:17
How are the cash flow statement, balance sheet and income statement connected?
CPE Review Quiz: Section 2-4

Why is Financial Modeling Important & How Can It Help You Achieve Your Goals2:04
Why is financial modeling important & how can it help you achieve your goals? Now that we understand how to analyze and create an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, we can project the aforementioned financial statements. Once we are finished with the 4 valuation sections, then we will learn how to come up with the appropriate target prices for companies we are doing research on.
Financial Modeling Best Practices5:13
Please find attached a 1 page document containing 25 of my modeling and valuation best practices. Thanks

Why is Investor Relations+SEC.Gov Important & How Can It Help Me Build Models?1:46
An introduction to 3 crucial (and free) sources where we can get data to create our financial model forecasts.
Introduction to Investor Relations (A Great Model Data Source)11:01
What is investor relations and how can the investor relations function help us to better understand companies we are considering investing in?
SEC.gov is Another Great Model Resource7:07
All investors can now get access to information at the exact same time. This lecture will explain exactly where to get this information and how to navigate several online documents, including the 10-K, 10-Q, S-1 IPO filings etc.
Yahoo Finance is Also a Great Model Resource5:28
I used to pay thousands of dollars per month/year for Bloomberg access. I will teach you how to get almost all of that information for free!
What Quarterly Earnings Call & Why Is It Important for Modeling Purposes?4:35
Learn what a quarterly earnings call is and how it can help you understand investment ideas better.
CPE Review Quiz: Section 5-6

Case Study Introduction and What You Will Learn in this Section1:55
This section is an extremely in depth overview of how I analyze LinkedIn (ticker: LNKD), including creating financials, forecasting financials and several different valuation methodologies, including discounted cash flow (DCF), P/E, P/R, terminal value calculation, weighted average cost of capital calculation, total addressable market analysis and more.
Qualitative Analysis on LinkedIn2:22
How can I research what a company does? What are the best resources?
What is the Total Addressable Market for LinkedIn and Why is this Important?6:10
How do I calculate the size of the total addressable market for LinkedIn's products, what does this mean and why is this important when analyzing a company or creating a financial model?
LinkedIn Model Introduction4:15
This lecture explains how to navigate and set up a professional financial model.
LinkedIn Model Discussion in More Detail (Historical Data Only)17:47
Please open the attached PDF of the LinkedIn earnings press release before viewing this lecture. Thanks
Forecasting the LinkedIn Model16:34
Basics on how to forecast the income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet for my LinkedIn model.

Financial Modeling Exercises Introduction0:51
An introduction to financial modeling (used so we can come up with target prices for the companies we analyze).
Financial Modeling Exercise3:33
Please find attached the financial modeling exercise. The instructions for the exercise are listed on the first tab in the attached Excel spreadsheet. When you have completed the exercise, please watch the next lecture for an explanation of the answers. Thanks
Modeling Exercise Answer Explanations10:08
An in depth discussion of the answers to the financial modeling exercise. "Learn to read financial statements like a good book!"
CPE Review Quiz: Section 7-8

Introduction to Valuation1:18
Now that we know how to create and model financial statements, we can learn how to value companies based on the financial statements that we created.
More Detail on Growth Versus Value and P/E + P/R + DCF Overview4:21
It is crucial that we understand what kind of investors we are or work for as growth investors value companies in different ways than value investors do.
25 Valuation and Modeling Best Practices0:06
Please find attached the 25 Valuation and Modeling Best Practices PDF. Thanks

What is DCF, Why is it Important and How Does it Work?6:17
What does discounted cash flow (DCF) mean and why is it important to helping us value companies? How can we create a DCF?
Calculating the Terminal Value2:42
What is the terminal value and why is it crucial for us in order to value a company based on discounted cash flow analysis?
Calculating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)6:23
How can we calculate what rate to discount our future cash flows at? We will discuss the cost of equity and the cost of debt as part of the W.A.C.C. (weighted average cost of capital) for our target price analysis.
DCF Example7:44
An example of DCF valuation applied to my LinkedIn model.
DCF Exercise1:57

Please find attached the DCF exercise. The instructions for the exercise are listed on the first tab in the attached Excel spreadsheet. When you have completed the exercise, please watch the next lecture for an explanation of the answers. Thanks
DCF Exercise Answer Explanations Part 1 of 219:27
An extremely in depth discussion of the DCF valuation exercise from the previous lesson (part 1 of 2).
DCF Exercise Answer Explanations Part 2 of 210:31
An extremely in depth discussion of the DCF valuation exercise from the previous lesson (part 2 of 2).

Requirements

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 from scratch using Microsoft Excel: financial models so we can come up with target prices using Discounted Cash Flow, the Weighted Average Cost of Capital, Price to Earnings, Price to Revenue, etc. – again all from scratch (assuming you have no or some accounting/finance knowledge).

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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For more information regarding administrative policies, please contact our support using the Help and Support link at the bottom of this page.

Who this course is for:

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).

Introduction to Finance, Accounting, Modeling and Valuation

What you'll learn

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Course content

Course Introduction3 lectures • 4min

Accounting Part 1 of 3: Income Statement Analysis6 lectures • 19min

Accounting Part 2 of 3: Balance Sheet Analysis5 lectures • 16min

Accounting Part 3 of 3: Cash Flow Statement Analysis6 lectures • 15min

Financial Modeling Part 1 of 4: Introduction and Best Practices2 lectures • 7min

Financial Modeling Part 2 of 4: Where Do I Get Historical Data From?5 lectures • 30min

Financial Modeling Part 3 of 4: Case Study: Building a Model for LinkedIn6 lectures • 49min

Financial Modeling Part 4 of 4: Financial Model Exercise3 lectures • 15min

Valuation Part 1 of 6: Introduction and Best Practices3 lectures • 6min

Valuation Part 2 of 6: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)7 lectures • 55min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: