Overview

After earning this certificate, you will be able to evaluate major strategic corporate and investment decisions, understand capital markets and institutions from a financial perspective, and develop an integrated framework for value-based financial management and individual financial decision-making.

With this program, you’ll benefit from live, interactive learning sessions with instructors. You’ll receive actionable feedback from teaching staff and your fellow learners. Through hands-on projects, exercises, and case studies, you’ll gain experience, insight, and in-demand financial management skills that you can apply immediately in your career.

The certificate stacks directly into the full [Master of Business Administration](https://www.coursera.org/degrees/imba) (iMBA), [Master of Science in Accountancy](https://www.coursera.org/degrees/imsa) (iMSA), and [Master of Science in Management](https://www.coursera.org/degrees/ms-management-illinois) (iMSM) from the University of Illinois.

Syllabus

Course 1: ACCY 500: Accounting Measurement, Reporting, and Control
- During this course, you will explore both foundational and advanced topics of financial accounting. You will start with a general overview of financial accounting information and the main types of financial statements. Afterwards, you will learn how to code financial transactions for accounting purposes. You will also learn about the most important concept in contemporary financial accounting: accrual accounting. You will then critically analyze how firms recognize revenues. The first half of this course will finish with an analysis of accounting for short-term assets. You will go into the specifics of how firms manage accounts receivables and inventories. In the second half of this course, you will learn in detail how firms account for fixed assets. At this point, you will discuss the financing of assets and accounting for liabilities. You will then continue with an in-depth exploration of shareholders' equity. Finally, you will critically evaluate the preparation, components, and analysis of cash flow statements.

Course 2: FIN 511: Investments
- As part of this course, you will discuss fundamental principles of trading off risk and return, portfolio optimization, and security pricing. You will study and use risk-return models such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and multi-factor models to evaluate the performance of various securities and portfolios. You will also be introduced to the two components of stock returns—dividends and capital gains—learning about how each is taxed and the incentives provided to investors from a realization-based capital gains tax.

Course 3: FIN 570: Corporate Finance
- With this course, you will discover how to use key finance principles to understand and measure business success (as well as identify and promote true value creation). You will also learn financial management tools that allow you to determine the optimal financing and risk management strategies for corporations. In the first part of the course, you will learn how to use accounting information to form key financial ratios to measure a company’s financial health and to manage a company's short-term and long-term liquidity needs. You will also see how to use valuation techniques to make sound business investment and acquisition decisions. Finally, you will explore how to incorporate risk and uncertainty into investment decisions and evaluate the performance of existing investments. Through the second part of the course, you will find out how companies choose how much debt to have and which type of debt to issue. You will also learn how payout decisions (dividends and share repurchases) affect firm value and how to determine a company’s optimal payout policy. Eventually, you will understand how to use risk management tools like derivatives and liquidity to mitigate specific risks, such as currency risk. You will apply these tools to develop a financial management framework for M&A decisions and R&D investments.