Master Financial Fundamentals
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Master Financial Fundamentals
This course is part of Strengthen Your Business Savvy Specialization
Instructor: Harvard Business Review
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What you'll learn
Understand and analyze financial statements to gauge financial health and monitor operational success
Weigh costs and benefits, track financial performance, and make the most of resources
Create operating budgets and capital outlay budgets that support organizational strategic objectives
Analyze budget variances and perform sensitivity analysis to optimize financial planning and control
Skills you'll gain
- Team Performance Management
- Financial Planning
- Financial Data
- Investment Management
- Investments
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Financial Management
- Cost Benefit Analysis
- Resource Allocation
- Financial Analysis
- Return On Investment
- Budget Management
- Variance Analysis
- Finance
- Financial Statements
- Performance Analysis
- Financial Acumen
- Budgeting
Details to know
See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills
Build your subject-matter expertise
- Learn new concepts from industry experts
- Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
- Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
- Earn a shareable career certificate
There are 3 modules in this course
Organizations are powered by sound financial decisions: informed choices about resources, investments, and strategic spending that fuel long-term success. No matter your role, you can create immense value by understanding how to interpret financial data and make decisions that maximize your team's resources. In this course, you'll learn how to read financial statements, create effective budgets, and invest wisely to produce desired returns. Discover evidence-based strategies to analyze financial performance and guide your organization toward sustained profitability.
Let’s face it—money is the fuel that keeps your organization running. No matter your role, by understanding the fundamentals of finance, you ensure your team will make the most of its resources. Learn how to interpret financial statements, create a budget, and invest wisely to produce the desired returns.
What's included
13 videos34 readings1 assignment
13 videos•Total 33 minutes
- Tackle Finance with Curiosity•3 minutes
- Cash Is King—Don't Give It Away•4 minutes
- How Managers Should Read Financial Statements•2 minutes
- Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Intimidating•2 minutes
- Confronting a Bad Deal•3 minutes
- Realistic Budgets•3 minutes
- Understanding NPV•1 minute
- The (Im)precision of Finance•2 minutes
- How to Use Breakeven Analysis•2 minutes
- Look Beyond Obvious Risks•3 minutes
- Create Efficiencies•2 minutes
- Use Bad News to Your Advantage•3 minutes
- Face Your Fear•3 minutes
34 readings•Total 340 minutes
- Understand Financial Statements•10 minutes
- Why financial intelligence matters•10 minutes
- Accounting methods•10 minutes
- Three financial statements•10 minutes
- Assumptions, estimates, and biases•10 minutes
- Assess Financial Health•10 minutes
- Ratio analysis•10 minutes
- Valuation methods•10 minutes
- Other assessment methods•10 minutes
- Develop a Budget•10 minutes
- Definition•10 minutes
- Budgeting activities•10 minutes
- Budget approaches•10 minutes
- Prepare a budget•10 minutes
- Articulate your assumptions•10 minutes
- Quantify your assumptions•10 minutes
- Defend your assumptions•10 minutes
- KSS example•10 minutes
- Perform Cost/Benefit Analysis•10 minutes
- Cost/benefit analysis defined•10 minutes
- Return on investment analysis•10 minutes
- Payback period analysis•10 minutes
- Net present value analysis•10 minutes
- Internal rate of return analysis•10 minutes
- Breakeven analysis•10 minutes
- Sensitivity analysis•10 minutes
- Estimate unquantifiable benefits and costs•10 minutes
- Track Financial Performance•10 minutes
- Track your investment•10 minutes
- Track your operating budget•10 minutes
- Adapt to changes•10 minutes
- Build Your Team’s Financial Intelligence•10 minutes
- Why it matters to your team•10 minutes
- Financial literacy strategies•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
- Finance Essentials Assessment•30 minutes
Budgeting isn’t just for finance teams. Each decision a manager makes needs to take into account the resources that are available to them. Learning to budget ensures you can allocate resources wisely, communicate financial expectations, and keep teams on track with their budgets.
What's included
12 videos34 readings1 assignment
12 videos•Total 31 minutes
- Budget Impacts•2 minutes
- Opportunity vs. Cost in a New Market•3 minutes
- Budgeting in an Uncertain Market•3 minutes
- How Not to Lose Sleep Over Your Budget•2 minutes
- Realistic Budgets•3 minutes
- Embrace Uncertainty•3 minutes
- The Upside of Understanding Unit Costs•2 minutes
- The Art of Contingency Planning•2 minutes
- The Refresher: Net Present Value•2 minutes
- Deciphering Cost Variance•3 minutes
- Use Bad News to Your Advantage•3 minutes
- Adapt Your Budgeting Process for Dynamic Times•3 minutes
34 readings•Total 340 minutes
- Understand Budgets and Budgeting•10 minutes
- A definition•10 minutes
- Your role•10 minutes
- Why budgets matter•10 minutes
- Overview of the budgeting process•10 minutes
- Traditional and alternative approaches•10 minutes
- Types of costs•10 minutes
- Fixed vs. flexible budgets•10 minutes
- Limitations of budgets•10 minutes
- Develop an Operating Budget•10 minutes
- Seven steps•10 minutes
- Define your goals•10 minutes
- Articulate your assumptions•10 minutes
- Forecast sales volumes•10 minutes
- Forecast revenues•10 minutes
- Forecast COGS•10 minutes
- Estimate SG&A costs•10 minutes
- Calculate operating income•10 minutes
- Put it all together•10 minutes
- Prepare a Capital Budget•10 minutes
- Understand capital assets•10 minutes
- What is a capital budget?•10 minutes
- Understand the cost of capital•10 minutes
- Who develops a capital budget?•10 minutes
- Understand capital budgeting techniques•10 minutes
- Understand Sensitivity Analysis and Variance•10 minutes
- Conduct a sensitivity analysis•10 minutes
- Analyze variance•10 minutes
- Report variance•10 minutes
- Communicate news promptly•10 minutes
- Adapt Budgeting to a Changing Environment•10 minutes
- Understand budgeting's changing requirements•10 minutes
- The Balanced Scorecard•10 minutes
- Using budgeting to manage organizational performance•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
- Budgeting Assessment•30 minutes
What's included
2 assignments
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Course-End Assessments•30 minutes
- Course- End Project•30 minutes
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Reviewed on Feb 6, 2026
This course has definitely developed a new skill in my profession
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