The Best Online Bookkeeping Classes for 2022

Coursera
Coursera

Why We Chose It: The Financial Accounting Foundations class offered through Coursera covers all the basics beginners need to know about bookkeeping. Plus, you can audit the course for free or earn a certification of completion if you purchase a Coursera subscription.

What We Like

  • Course is offered by the University of Illinois through Coursera

  • You can audit the course for free

  • Coursera subscriptions allow you to complete as many courses in a specialization as you want for $49.99 a month

What We Don’t Like

  • To earn a certificate of completion, you’ll need to purchase a Coursera subscription

  • Doesn’t include materials related to common bookkeeping software programs

Coursera partners with over 200 top universities and companies to provide affordable content to learners across the globe. We chose the Financial Accounting Foundations class offered by the University of Illinois via Coursera as the best online bookkeeping class for beginners because it covers the basics of accounting you’ll need to know as a bookkeeper. 

Through Coursera, beginners can audit a Financial Accounting Foundations course offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for free. If you want a certificate of completion, you can purchase a Coursera subscription for $59 a month (new subscribers get a free seven-day trial period).

You’ll complete this course fully online at your own pace, although you can expect it to take about 14 hours to go through all of the materials. The materials include course videos, readings, and practice quizzes. Plus, you’ll get access to discussion boards where you can ask questions and get feedback from course moderators and your classmates. 

The topics covered in this Financial Accounting Foundations course are as follows:

  • Introduction to Financial Accounting
  • Recording Transactions and Financial Statement Preparation
  • Fundamental Accounting Concepts and Revenue Recognition
  • Short-Term Assets

At the end of the course, you’ll understand the main types of financial statements and why they’re used, how to record financial transactions and their impact on the financial statements, the basics of the accrual basis of accounting, and how to account for accounts receivable and inventory. These are the most basic accounting topics any beginning bookkeeper needs to understand. 

However, you won’t learn how to use common accounting software programs like QuickBooks with this course; you’ll need to take a separate course for that. 

If you purchase a Coursera subscription, you’ll get a certificate of completion that you can share with others once you’ve completed the course materials. Plus, you can even decide to continue and earn an iMBA from the University of Illinois, as this course is a part of that program’s curriculum.