The 6 Best Online Accounting Courses of 2023

The Develop Your Finance and Accounting Skills Path offered by LinkedIn Learning is a detailed online accounting program that's designed to help people understand the major types of accounting: tax, financial, and managerial.

It covers how accounting is used to make decisions. It also teaches how to evaluate the health of a company, interpret financial reports, and communicate financial results. There are no prerequisites to complete this program, and the LinkedIn Learning subscription is affordable, starting at $19.99 per month.

The program includes seven courses that progressively move the learner through the basics of accounting to financial statement analysis and communication. It’s good for business professionals who want to understand how accounting and finance work, entrepreneurs who want to manage their own companies’ finances, students who want to brush up on their skills, and even accounting professionals who need to earn CPE credits.

Most of the courses included in this program have a one-time cost of $34.99 to $39.99 if you don’t sign up for the monthly subscription. This program includes about 14 hours of on-demand video content, so a monthly subscription is likely the more affordable option if you plan to move through the content fairly quickly.

You’ll earn a completion badge for the finance and accounting skills path (on LinkedIn Learning) when you’ve completed all the courses included in the program, as well as a shareable certificate of completion for each course you complete. You can earn CPE credits from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for the courses included in this online accounting program. None of the other programs we reviewed included all this.

The free Introduction to Financial Accounting course offered by Udemy is a great option if you want to learn about financial accounting and you’re on a tight budget. You’ll have access to over an hour of on-demand video tutorials about accounting. You don’t need any prerequisite knowledge, although you’ll find it helpful to know basic high school math.

This online accounting class will teach you key financial accounting terms, how to record basic financial transactions, the difference between profit and cash flows, and how to prepare the three primary financial statements. It offers good accounting information for anyone who wants to learn accounting basics without spending any money.

One of the main drawbacks to the Introduction to Financial Accounting course by Udemy is that you won’t earn a certification of completion when you finish the class. There isn’t a Q&A discussion forum, and you won’t be able to ask the course instructor any questions.

Udemy was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco. The company is one of the largest global marketplaces for online learning, with about 54 million learners and 204,000 courses.

The Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization from Coursera is a program offered by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. You don’t need any knowledge or experience to enroll, but you should be comfortable with high school math. 

This accounting program consists of four classes that progressively cover the basics of financial accounting and corporate finance, including accounting standards, financial statement preparation, and corporate decision making. You’ll complete the four Introduction to Finance and Accounting Specialization classes fully online. 

You can expect to spend about 40 hours on this program. You’ll be able to complete it in about five months if you spend two hours a week. The amount of time it takes you to complete it is up to you because it's self paced.

The materials include videos, homework problems, quizzes, downloadable Excel spreadsheets, and more. You’ll get personalized feedback on assignments and will even complete a hands-on project at the end of the program. You can post questions in the Q&A forum for each class and get a response from your peers or a content expert. You’ll earn a certificate of completion when you finish each course, although you won’t earn any CPE credit.

The Northwestern University School of Professional Studies offers an Online Fundamentals of Accounting Certificate program that’s great for business professionals with a bachelor's degree who haven’t previously studied accounting. You must take four online courses to complete this online accounting certificate program, and you’ll learn all the basics of accounting from a well-known university. 

The Online Fundamentals of Accounting Certificate program is great for managers who are responsible for department budgets, for entrepreneurs, and for individuals who want to become accountants. You can progress to Northwestern's Advanced Accounting Certificate program if you want to continue your studies after you finish this program. Depending on the requirements of your state, this second certificate program may be enough coursework to sit for the CPA exam.  

You’ll complete the program fully online. The courses aren't self paced, so be prepared to submit coursework when required by your professor. Each class takes an academic quarter (about three months) to complete. You can expect to complete the Online Fundamentals of Accounting Certificate program in about a year If you take one class each quarter.

You’ll earn a post-baccalaureate certificate from a university so this program costs more than most of the other online accounting classes we reviewed. The tuition is $2,179, plus a technology fee of $125 for each of the four classes. Financial aid isn’t available, so make sure you can pay for the program yourself or find a form of financial assistance.

The Becker CPA Review program offers the best online accounting class for CPA exam prep if you’re an accountant who hasn’t yet taken the CPA exam or a recent college graduate with an accounting degree.

Not only does Becker have an excellent reputation, but also you can choose from three different learning plans with adaptive learning technology that customizes the coursework to your learning needs. You can even get tutoring, and there are live classroom options. 

You’ll get access to 190 hours of recorded lectures regardless of the plan you choose, nearly 900 multiple choice questions, 100 videos to help you master tasks and accounting skills, three simulated exams similar to what you’ll experience when you take the real CPA exam, and one-on-one support from academic support staff.

Unlike printed materials that quickly become out of date with changes to the CPA exam, the materials you’ll get from Becker are always kept in sync with the CPA exam. You can upgrade to a higher-level plan if you want more one-on-one support or the ability to attend synchronous classes online to interact with your teacher.

The tuition cost of $2,499 to $3,799 is expensive, but Becker offers payment plans that make it easier to afford. All the plans come with a flexible monthly payment option. Payment plans range from 6 to 24 months and are completely interest free, but you'll be required to pay a non-refundable processing fee ranging from $49 to $99.

The Financial Learning Library by Kaplan Financial Education offers the best online accounting classes for accounting professionals, including certified public accountants, certified management accountants, certified internal auditors, and certified fraud examiners who need to earn CPE credits on a routine basis. You’ll have access to 329 on-demand online CPE courses for an annual cost of $275. 

A $275 fee might seem like a lot of money at first glance, but it can be less expensive than paying for classes one at a time. It’s not unusual for accountants to need 30 to 40 CPE credits per year, although this varies by state and by the type of certification held, such as a CPA or CMA. Many online accounting courses cost between $25 to $50 per CPE credit. You could spend $750 to $2,000 a year on your required CPE coursework if you buy the courses one at a time.

Courses included in Kaplan's Financial Learning Library cover a wide variety of topics, including financial accounting, auditing, ethics, finance, technology, and taxes. This makes it easy for accounting professionals to choose courses covering the topics they need to meet their CPE requirements. It can also be a great way to stay up to date on the industry’s changes and fill any skill gaps. 

The time necessary to complete each course will vary from less than an hour to a couple of hours or more. You won’t have access to course instructors to ask questions, nor is there a Q&A forum. Kaplan offers various other CPE courses for accountants if you prefer one-on-one guidance and support, including online programs, webinars, and conferences.