Accounting and Finance Essentials
Who This Program Is For
The Accounting and Finance Essentials program is for emerging leaders and early career professionals looking to strengthen their financial acumen and confidently engage in business decisions. If your role involves planning, budgeting or collaborating with finance teams, this program can help you acquire the skills to interpret financial information and connect it to strategic and operational outcomes.
Program dates:
July 1–Aug. 11, 2026
Format:
100% online (live virtual and asynchronous sessions)
Time commitment:
Five self-paced modules (40–50 minutes each) and two live virtual working sessions (90 minutes each) over seven weeks
Fee:
$2,400
Build Financial Literacy That Drives Results
Learn to analyze and interpret the key financial statements that reflect your organization’s performance, including the income statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows. Through a mix of self-paced coursework and live virtual sessions, you’ll be able to harness financial data to drive measurable impact across your business.
Key Themes and Topics
This program explores the following focus areas to deepen your expertise:
Understanding Financial Statements
Develop proficiency in reading and interpreting income statements and balance sheets. Learn how these documents reflect an organization’s financial performance and position.
From Transactions to Financial Statements
Follow the flow of business transactions through the accounting cycle and understand how operational decisions appear in financial results.
Accruals and Measurement Complexity in Accounting
Learn the difference between cash and accrual accounting, and explore how timing and estimation affect financial measurement and reporting.
The Statement of Cash Flow
Analyze how cash moves through a business and use this essential framework to assess liquidity, solvency and operational efficiency.
Ratio Analysis
Apply key ratios to evaluate profitability and risk. Learn how to compare financial performance across companies and industries.
Earn Certificate Credit With This Program
Learn How the Certificate WorksMeet Your Instructor
Paul J. Simko
Frank M. Sands Sr. Associate Professor of Business Administration
Paul Simko’s research centers broadly on issues related to financial accounting information; he has received numerous national and university recognitions for his work. Simko is particularly interested in topics related to the effect of alternative accounting treatments on the decisions of investors and financial analysts and how investors assess firms’ earnings quality. Prior to joining the Darden faculty in 2002, Simko taught at Emory University, Indiana University and INSEAD. He is currently a research fellow with the Enterprise Risk Management Initiative at North Carolina State University, has worked as a senior analyst with Citicorp and is a certified public accountant.
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