What is business finance?

Business finance is the initial capital that is required to start a business and the managing of that money. It is usually in the form of funding that you've raised to start, maintain, or expand the commercial business venture. In a broader sense, business finance refers to the entire category of a company or organization managing its money, to have clarity on the company's investments, budgeting, credit, savings, and business forecasting. The financial decisions for a small startup or a sole proprietorship usually fall to the owner of the business. In a larger company, the matters of business finance are under the responsibility of an accountant or financial manager. These managers may have a team of people to help with the administrative tasks involved with company payroll, taxes, payments, and other areas of business finance.

Why is it important to learn business finance?

It's important to learn business finance because you can gain insights into funding a business operation, whether through a commercial loan, line of credit, or crowdfunding. Business finance can help you understand the pros and cons of raising money for your business, how to allocate capital, and how to best fund the day-to-day operations of the business. If you want to work in business, you'll have to learn to deal with financial issues of all kinds, especially if you own or manage the business. Learning business finance helps you determine how to make capital investment decisions, how to obtain business loans as needed, assess business valuation for the business, apply for grant funding, or liquidate some of your business to raise money.

What career opportunities can arise from learning business finance?

The types of careers associated with business finance knowledge and a good educational background include financial management roles like financial analysts, budget analysts, tax accountants, financial forecasters, and financial managers. Once you're armed with good work experience, you can branch out to work on your own or move into different industries as an insurance agent, a real estate broker, or a commercial loan officer.

How can taking online courses help me learn business finance?

Taking online courses about business finance can open up new areas of interest to you in venture capital financing, cash flow analysis, international finance, investments and markets, and more. If you're already working in a financial role, and want to expand your knowledge, taking online courses in business finance can help you to better understand income statements, balance sheets, and financial ratio analysis models.

What are the benefits of taking an online Business Finance course?

Online Business Finance courses offer a convenient and flexible way to enhance your existing knowledge or learn new Business Finance skills. With a wide range of Business Finance classes, you can conveniently learn at your own pace to advance your Business Finance career skills.

What Business Finance courses are best for training and upskilling employees or the workforce?

When looking to enhance your workforce's skills in Business Finance, it's crucial to select a course that aligns with their current abilities and learning objectives. Our Skills Dashboard is an invaluable tool for identifying skill gaps and choosing the most appropriate course for effective upskilling. For a comprehensive understanding of how our courses can benefit your employees, explore the enterprise solutions we offer. Discover more about our tailored programs at Coursera for Business here .

Top Business Finance Courses - Learn Business Finance Online

Explore the Business Finance Course Catalog

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Financial Management Graduate Certificate
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Management Accounting, Fund Accounting, Operations Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, Risk Management, Machine Learning Algorithms, Business Strategy, Financial Auditing, Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis, Process Improvement, Marketing Analytics, Generative AI, Financial Market, Strategic Decision-Making, Corporate Tax, Global Marketing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
Status: New
Coursera Instructor Network
GenAI for Loan Officers: Revolutionizing Credit Scoring
Skills you'll gain: Loan Origination, Lending and Underwriting, Consumer Lending, Commercial Lending, Workflow Management, Generative AI, Regulatory Compliance, Customer Communications Management, Compliance Management, Loans, Customer experience improvement, Credit Risk, Document Management, Financial Services, Business Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Ethical Standards And Conduct, Automation, Risk Management
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Certificado en Finanzas Corporativas
Skills you'll gain: Financial Statement Analysis, Financial Statements, Capital Markets, Digital Transformation, Accrual Accounting, Financial Analysis, Derivatives, Financial Market, Business Valuation, Financial Regulation, Financial Accounting, Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Accounting, Investments, Securities (Finance), Strategic Leadership, Capital Budgeting, Corporate Strategy, Corporate Finance
Credit offered
Mastertrack · 6 - 12 Months
Universidad de Palermo
Maestría en Dirección de Empresas (MBA)
Skills you'll gain: Business Planning, Business Modeling, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Human Resource Strategy, Selling Techniques, Financial Statements, Business Intelligence, Strategic Marketing, Portfolio Management, Digital Transformation, Regression Analysis, Entrepreneurial Finance, Market Dynamics, Enterprise Resource Planning, Statistical Methods, Influencing, B2B Sales, Corporate Sustainability, Equities, Marketing Management
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Magíster en Inversiones y Finanzas Aplicadas
Skills you'll gain: Financial Statement Analysis, Descriptive Analytics, FinTech, Financial Statements, Business Analytics, Business Valuation, Derivatives, Corporate Finance, Portfolio Management, Customer Analysis, Credit Risk, Digital Transformation, Cloud Security, Risk Analysis, Assertiveness, Governance, Financial Analysis, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Investments, Data Collection
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Graduate Certificate in Accounting Data Analytics
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Management Accounting, Fund Accounting, Operations Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, Risk Management, Machine Learning Algorithms, Business Strategy, Financial Auditing, Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis, Process Improvement, Marketing Analytics, Generative AI, Financial Market, Strategic Decision-Making, Corporate Tax, Global Marketing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Graduate Certificate in Strategic Leadership & Management
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Management Accounting, Fund Accounting, Operations Management, Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, Risk Management, Machine Learning Algorithms, Business Strategy, Financial Auditing, Descriptive Statistics, Variance Analysis, Process Improvement, Marketing Analytics, Generative AI, Financial Market, Strategic Decision-Making, Corporate Tax, Global Marketing
Credit offered
Graduate Certificate · 6 - 12 Months
University of Huddersfield
MSc Management
Skills you'll gain:
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
University of London
Bachelor of Science in Marketing
Skills you'll gain: Process Design, Global Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Statistical Analysis, Organizational Change, Integrated Marketing Communications, Advertising, Innovation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Supply Chain Management, Training and Development, Virtual Teams, Diversity and Inclusion, Databases, Cost Accounting, International Finance, Research, Branding, Economic Development, Cultural Diversity
Earn a degree
Degree · 1 - 4 Years
Status: New
Google Cloud
BigQuery pour les analystes de données
Skills you'll gain: Looker (Software), Data Transformation, Data Cleansing, Data Manipulation, Big Data, Data Processing, Data Warehousing, Extract, Transform, Load, SQL, Data Quality, Data Storytelling, Business Intelligence, Data Analysis, Analytics, Data Integrity, Data Store, Data Pipelines, Data Visualization Software, Data Import/Export, Google Sheets
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Certificado en Gestión de Inversiones
Skills you'll gain: Financial Statement Analysis, Financial Statements, Capital Markets, Portfolio Management, Accrual Accounting, Risk Management, Financial Analysis, Financial Market, Investments, Financial Regulation, Financial Accounting, Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Accounting, Ethical Standards And Conduct, Risk Analysis, Finance, Financial Modeling, Financial Data, Financial Trading
Credit offered
Mastertrack · 6 - 12 Months
Google Cloud
Work with Gemini Models in BigQuery - 简体中文
Skills you'll gain: Applied Machine Learning, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Generative AI, Customer Relationship Management, Predictive Modeling, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), SQL, Prompt Engineering, Data Analysis, Python Programming
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks