Certificate in Finance Fundamentals

How to read the numbers behind any business. You learn how money moves through a company, read the profit and loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement, then measure working capital and set credit limits, calculate and interpret ratios, read the notes and the auditor's report for warning signs, check a business case's payback, NPV and IRR, and compare ways to fund a business. It ends with a health check of a real UK company and a close competitor.

Yes, that's the heart of it. You work through the profit and loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement one at a time, follow a single transaction through all three, and then read real companies' published accounts, notes and auditor's reports with a sceptical eye.

No to both. Everything uses arithmetic you already know, and every term is explained the first time it appears. Reading accounts is far more about understanding what the numbers mean than calculating them.

No. Excel for the web or Google Sheets is free, and the company accounts, credit checks and annual reports you work from come free from Companies House, the Gazette and the FCA's National Storage Mechanism.

Finance Fundamentals if you want to read and judge accounts someone else prepared: profit, cash, ratios and red flags. Accounting Fundamentals if you want to learn how the accounts are put together, from double entry to a trial balance. If you manage a budget or want to be an analyst, start here. If you're heading for bookkeeping or accountancy, start there.

Yes, steadily. You build a reusable ratio dashboard, a profit to cash bridge and payback, NPV and IRR calculations, with every formula built with you step by step.

On the financial analyst path, Financial Modelling in Excel and Budgeting & Forecasting are the natural next steps, and you can take them in either order. The Financial Analyst Bundle includes all three courses together.

Yes. Pass the final assessment and you get an OBA certificate of completion that an employer can verify online. It isn't a professional qualification such as AAT, ACCA or CIMA, or the regulated qualification financial advisers need, though the course explains those routes. Your company health check is the piece most worth showing an employer.

Download the free info pack first. It walks you through every module, what you'll build and what you need before you start, so you can enrol knowing exactly what you're getting. If you'd like to talk it through, get in touch and we'll help you choose.