Advanced professional course
Advanced Financial Analysis
Diagnose performance, test earnings and cash-flow quality, build integrated forecasts and defend a professional conclusion.
₹1,999 one-time
Buy the course — ₹1,999 See the curriculum
What this course teaches
Most financial analysis stops at ratios. This course starts where ratios stop: it teaches you to test whether reported earnings and cash flows can be trusted, to rebuild statements on a comparable basis, and to turn that work into a forecast and a recommendation you can defend in front of a credit or investment committee.
You work through one coherent case from start to finish: Kestrel Industrial plc, a fictional listed manufacturer whose margins look better every year. Module by module you find out why, using earnings-quality analysis, cash-flow and working-capital diagnostics, return decomposition, peer normalisation, covenant and liquidity stress tests, distress screens and a full three-statement forecast.
Who it is for
- Financial analysts, credit analysts and equity researchers who want a rigorous, repeatable method rather than a ratio checklist.
- Finance managers, FP&A professionals and controllers who prepare or challenge forecasts and board reporting.
- Accountants, auditors and consultants moving into analysis, due diligence or lending roles.
- Experienced learners preparing for advanced professional examinations who want applied practice beyond the syllabus.
Prerequisites
Comfortable reading IFRS or US GAAP financial statements; standard ratios (margins, turnover, liquidity, leverage); basic spreadsheet work.
The course does not re-teach bookkeeping or basic ratios. If you can read a set of IFRS or US GAAP statements and compute standard margins and turnover ratios, you are ready.
What you will be able to do
- Reformulate financial statements into operating and financing components and reconcile the three statements under real-world complications.
- Measure earnings and cash-flow quality, quantify the effect of accounting estimates and build your own adjusted earnings.
- Construct free cash flow correctly and explain the gap between EBITDA and cash.
- Decompose returns with advanced DuPont, ROIC and economic profit, and attribute margin changes to price, volume and mix.
- Benchmark against peers fairly by normalising earnings and adjusting for accounting differences, inflation and currency.
- Assess liquidity, debt capacity and covenant headroom, and run a liquidity stress test.
- Use distress and screening models properly, including their limits, and design an early-warning dashboard.
- Build, balance and govern a driver-based three-statement forecast with scenarios, sensitivities and variance attribution.
- Write a credit memo, an investment thesis and an executive report that reconcile competing indicators into a defensible conclusion.
Curriculum
11 modules, 55 lessons, a final assessment and a capstone project. Each lesson includes worked examples, original charts or diagrams, an exercise with a full solution and a knowledge check. Times are estimates based on the actual lesson content.
Module 1: Analytical Framework and Statement Architecture · about 4.3 h
Set up analysis around a decision, reformulate statements and understand where accounting choices break comparability.
Module 2: Earnings Quality · about 4.8 h
Separate persistent, cash-backed earnings from accounting noise and management discretion.
- What Earnings Quality Means · 55 min
- Accrual Analysis · 43 min
- Revenue Recognition Risk under IFRS 15 and ASC 606 · 53 min
- Estimates and Judgement Sensitivity · 55 min
- Non-GAAP Measures and Recurring Items · 80 min
Module 3: Cash Flow Quality and Working Capital · about 4.7 h
Test whether operating cash flow is sustainable and build free cash flow correctly.
- Operating Cash Flow Quality · 62 min
- Cash Conversion Cycle Decomposition · 54 min
- Working-Capital Trend Analysis · 43 min
- Free Cash Flow Construction · 54 min
- The EBITDA-to-Cash Bridge · 71 min
Module 4: Profitability, Returns and Operating Performance · about 4.3 h
Decompose returns and margins into the drivers management actually controls.
- Advanced DuPont Analysis · 49 min
- Return on Invested Capital · 46 min
- Economic Profit and Value Creation · 45 min
- Margin Bridges: Price, Volume and Mix · 49 min
- Operating Leverage and Incremental Margins · 70 min
Module 5: Segments, Peers and Normalisation · about 5.0 h
Build fair comparisons across segments, peers, time, inflation and currencies.
- Segment Analysis under IFRS 8 and ASC 280 · 62 min
- Designing Peer Benchmarks · 53 min
- Normalising Earnings · 56 min
- Comparability Adjustments · 53 min
- Inflation, FX and Constant-Currency Analysis · 76 min
Module 6: Liquidity, Solvency and Credit Risk · about 4.1 h
Assess debt capacity, covenants and survival under stress.
- Liquidity Beyond the Current Ratio · 49 min
- Defining Debt and Leverage · 46 min
- Debt Capacity and Coverage · 43 min
- Covenant Analysis and Headroom · 42 min
- Liquidity Stress Testing · 68 min
Module 7: Capital Intensity, Reinvestment and Asset Quality · about 3.9 h
Judge how much capital growth really needs and whether reported assets are sound.
Module 8: Financial Distress and Early Warning · about 5.3 h
Use screening models properly and build an early-warning system.
Module 9: Integrated Forecasting · about 4.5 h
Build a driver-based three-statement forecast that balances and can be defended.
- Forecast Architecture · 45 min
- Revenue Drivers · 58 min
- Cost, Margin and Working-Capital Drivers · 46 min
- Capex, Depreciation and Debt Schedules · 45 min
- Building the Integrated Forecast · 76 min
Module 10: Scenarios, Sensitivity and Forecast Governance · about 4.4 h
Quantify uncertainty honestly and keep forecasts accountable.
Module 11: Professional Synthesis and Reporting · about 4.3 h
Apply the toolkit to real decisions and communicate a defensible conclusion.
- Industry and Business-Model Lenses · 50 min
- Writing a Credit Memo · 51 min
- Investment Thesis and Valuation Support · 44 min
- Executive Reporting · 43 min
- Reconciling Competing Indicators · 72 min
Final assessment and capstone
- Final assessment · 210 min
- Capstone project · 600 min
Practical work and assessment
- Every lesson has a full worked example, an exercise with a complete solution and a knowledge check with explanations.
- Each module ends with an integrative checkpoint including numeric problems and a written decision question with a model answer.
- A 40-question final assessment (pass mark 70%) plus three written analysis questions with marking guides.
- Capstone: a credit-committee paper on a proposed refinancing and special dividend at Kestrel, built from adjusted statements, a three-scenario forecast and policy tests, assessed against a detailed rubric with a full model solution.
A look inside
Every lesson is built around original exhibits, charts and diagrams made for the course from its case data. This diagram from Module 2 frames how far an accounting choice can move before it stops being judgement and becomes misstatement.
What is included for ₹1,999
- All 55 lessons, the final assessment and the capstone project, with model answers.
- Original charts, diagrams and data exhibits, plus downloadable CSV datasets for the exercises.
- Progress tracking and saved assessment scores when you are signed in.
- Access from your account on any device for as long as the course is offered on this site.
This is self-paced, text-based learning. It does not include live sessions, personal tutoring, a formal qualification or continuing professional education (CPE/CPD) credit.
About the instructor
The course is written and published by Aditya Gupta, who has spent 12 years working with startups in Europe and the US, including fractional-CFO work for Y Combinator-backed startups. More about Aditya.
Frequently asked questions
Which accounting framework does the course use?
The main case reports under IFRS. Lessons explain where US GAAP differs when the difference matters for analysis (for example leases, development costs, inventory and cash-flow classification).
Do I need specialist software?
No. Every calculation can be reproduced in a spreadsheet, and exercise datasets can be downloaded as CSV files.
How do I get access after paying?
Payment is processed by Razorpay. When the payment is confirmed, your order is marked paid and the lessons unlock for the account linked to your order email. You receive an email with your sign-in details; you can also find the course under My Account → My Courses.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, within 7 calendar days of purchase if you have completed less than 25% of the lessons, as set out in our Refund & Cancellation Policy. Email the address in the policy with your order number.
Do I get a certificate or CPE credit?
No. The course is not accredited and does not award CPE/CPD credit or a professional qualification. Your scores and progress are saved to your account for your own records.
Are the companies in the case studies real?
No. Case companies and datasets are fictional and built for teaching. Where a lesson refers to a real standard or a well-documented public case, it says so.
See the Refund & Cancellation Policy and Terms of Service. Educational content only — not investment, legal or tax advice.
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