Over the past decade, the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) profession has exploded, becoming the 13th fastest-growing role in the United States.
The FP&A professional harnesses a wide range of skills including strategic and critical thinking, communication, tech savvy data analytics, technical accounting and finance skills, leadership and collaboration. The expectations of good FP&A only continue to grow.
To fill the range of skills both those new to FP&A and experienced practitioners are increasingly turning to a raft of new FP&A training courses. These are often designed by those who have been there and done that in FP&A and offer advice on the best and most modern techniques to deliver instant value to companies. But are these courses worth it? If so, which is the best certification to choose among the host of options now available? What do the different courses cover?
The Benefits of an FP&A Course
Firstly, the benefits of an FP&A Certification are threefold:
- Making yourself more marketable
- Keeping up to date with skills
- Earning a salary increase
Discussing marketability, Casey James, Manager, Financial Planning and Analysis Manager, at The Cheesecake Factory, says: “For me as a hiring manager, it’s important to see that somebody qualifies for the FP&A role. If I know you are certified I know you have done the work and you are pursuing the job I am looking for.”
Secondly, the need to stay up to date with skills is particularly crucial in the midst of an economic downturn and issues from pandemics to supply chains and inflation. FP&A professionals are increasingly asked to go beyond their comfort zones, with courses providing ample opportunity to network with students and course mentors on how to handle unexpected situations. Finally, many of the offerings analyzed below suggest something close to a 10% bump in earnings after completion. Here for instance are the numbers presented for the FPAC credential (taken from 2019 AFP Compensation Survey Salary difference for FPAC Credential holders vs non-holders).
| Job Title | Average Dollar Difference | Average % Base Salary Difference |
| FP&A Analyst | $10,565 | 13% |
| CFO | $17,526 | 7% |
| Director FP&A | $9, 266 | 6% |
| FP&A Senior Analyst | $2,985 | 3% |
That said, let’s dive into the 6 FP&A Training Courses that are attracting the most traction and buzz (in no particular order).
| FP&A course | Hours | Cost | What students say |
| LinkedIn Learning: Excel for Financial Planning and Analysis | 2 hours, 34 mins | $45 | Financial analyst Luyu Gan, FCCA: “A fantastic course combines various functions and knowledge together in coherent examples. Models with dynamic features are a thing of beauty.” |
| FPAC | 80-100 | From $1025 | Jake Bailey, III, Split Rock Resources: “My career took off when I earned the FP&A certification – I moved into a controller and director of finance position.” |
| Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Certificate by Wharton Online and Wall Street Prep | 64 | $4,800 | Wiss & Company: “The content, Q&A sessions, self-study component, and individual learning lessons were all excellent and exactly what we were looking for.” |
| FP&A Bootcamp | 10 | $900 | Gerrit Cloete, Vice President Finance FP&A at Clickatell: “The course material and pace strike the perfect balance between learning new insights and key reminders, as well as putting them into practice through useful interactive small group exercises.” |
| CFI | 7 | From $41/month | Angel Turnbull Jr, iVita Financial: “I’ve worked in FP&A for 18 years and I still found this course very informative.” |
| Become a high-performing finance-professional | 8 | €290 | Enid Silva, manufacturing controller at energy tech company SLBL “You will be very satisfied. I have already implemented what I have learned in my current job.” |
| Best-Practice FP&A Course | 10 | $500 | Jennifer Caron, Mars Canada “All 4 sessions added tremendous value to my role and team. They were all very relevant to not just F&PA, but any Finance role.” |
1. LinkedIn Learning: Excel for Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)
Good old LinkedIn Learning provides a quick overview of some of the technical skills required FP&A (not as detailed as some that follow in this list which cover many of the soft skills that take you further in your FP&A career). Excel for Financial Planning and Analysis is led by instructor, CSP, and CPA Carl Seidman who provides an overview of what FP&A is, and how to harness the power of Excel for forecasting, planning, analysis, and modeling. Launched in January 2024 four weeks later, it attracted more than 5,000 learners and a 4.9/5.0 rating.Though this is on demand and not interactive there is plenty to digest across the 27 videos. The course moves across 4 modules: Why does Excel matter to FP&A, dynamic data tables in Excel for FP&A, dynamic data ranges, and dynamic data ranges
Like all LinkedIn Learning courses, you can pay for an individual course with the price for an individual course ranging from $20 to $50 (including VAT).
2. Certified Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis Professional (FPAC)
Though only eight years old, this is the grandaddy of courses and the most famous on the market. The FPAC establishes a set of core competencies for the corporate financial planning and analysis profession and addresses areas that are “not necessarily covered by traditional accounting degrees” in their words. The first part of the exam tests candidates’ ability to gather, interpret and communicate financial information. The second part probes the ability to analyze financial information, build financial projections and use technology and software. Relatively recent bonus: The AFP also recently announced that current holders of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA and FCCA) credentials are both eligible to waive Part I of the Certified Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis Professional (FPAC) exam. The cost for an AFP member is $1025 (early bird deadline) or $1125 (standard price). Or for non-members of the AFP it is $1420 (early bird deadline) or $1520 (standard price). It is roughly 80-100 hours of study time.
3. Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) Certificate by Wharton Online and Wall Street Prep
Wharton Online and Wall Street Prep created a one-of-a-kind, theory-meets-practice, FP&A certificate program. The priciest course on the list at $4,800 over 64 hours, this reflects the rigorous approach to learning. Over 8 weeks, you will be able to learn from the faculty at the Wharton School, experienced, FP&A professionals, and senior executives from global companies. You’ll learn the art of forecasting, analysis, business partnering, and financial storytelling. And you will join a community through in-person office hours, meet-ups, and guest lectures. This certificate program is a great fit for those looking to build a career in FP&A or just looking to refine their existing skill set.
4. FP&A Bootcamp by Christian Wattig
FP&A Bootcamp was explicitly designed for professionals who work full-time. It focuses on the most relevant FP&A skills. There are no introductions or philosophical discussions – every minute is full of advice you can implement immediately.
It’s for finance professionals who want to develop their FP&A skills, business leaders who recently took over forecasting and planning responsibilities, and anyone who needs to tell the financial story of their business.
FP&A Bootcamp is a live online course delivered via Zoom. That means students learn with (and from) a community of peers and by applying what they learn right away via exercises and group discussions. The time commitment is a total of 4 to 5 hours per week (for two weeks), depending on if you join the optional Q&A sessions. There are no required assignments outside of the scheduled workshops. Christian Wattig is FP&A Lead at Squarespace (formerly at Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Avon). The online classroom teaches over 8 hours covering everything from telling the financial story of the business, finance business partnering, planning, and financial modeling. (Disclosure: Datarails sponsors this course though it is entirely independent of us). In addition, the investment is 100% risk-free. If you attend the sessions, actively participate, do the exercises, and still don’t find the course valuable, you will get a refund. In Christian’s words: “The course is relevant, even if you already have 3, 5, or even 20 years of experience. That’s because it doesn’t teach theory that you may or may not already know. Instead, it’s a skills class that challenges you to step out of your comfort zone and improve your skills, no matter your starting point.” There is even a useful form for reimbursement. The cost is $900.
5. CFI: Budgeting and Forecasting
Corporate Finance Institute’s (CFI) Budgeting and Forecasting course is a 7-hour online and self-paced course covering the fundamentals of, well, budget and forecasting. It is one part of the Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst (FMVA)® certification, which includes 29 courses.
The financial budgeting course alone makes up about 8% of the overall FMVA certification. It teaches students about the entire budgeting process from start to finish, including how to create a disciplined culture of budgeting in your organization, the various methods for building budgets, techniques to analyze results, and how to increase the chances of organizational performance improvements.
The cheapest option is a self-Study Subscription to CFI which starts at $41 a month. More benefits are offered for $70 a month which includes access to tools and feedback on financial models created. Overall the FMVA takes 100 hours to complete.
6. Become a high-performing finance professional by Nicolas Boucher
In a new entry to our list Become a high-performing finance professional packs 14 years of FP&A experience into 78 videos over 8 hours. Nicolas Boucher brings 14 years experience as an auditor of PwC alongside finance leadership roles at France’s Thales group, an IT company with 81,000 employees. This experience fills the self-paced course which includes five modules: how to analyze variances, how to perform quick analysis, headcount related KPI and analysis, making your reporting faster, how to be a better business partner, and Excel efficiency-savers. This last module comes complete with 17 Excel templates created by Nicolas. The course starts at €290 rising to €370 (Standard Plus) including a 30-minute coaching session. The premium price is €970 for the standard course, with 4 coaching sessions with Nicolas, plus a LinkedIn coaching session on building a personal brand (Nicolas is one of the top FP&A influencers whose practical daily finance insights and infographics are enjoyed by 120,000 followers). In Nicolas’s words: “This is the course I would create for myself if I was going to teach the younger me all the secrets to be a successful finance professional.”
7. Best-Practice FP&A Course
The newest course on our list (April 2023) is designed by two FP&A Professionals with more than 30 years of accounting and finance experience. Paul Barnhurst (AKA The FP&A Guy) may also be familiar to many as the host of top finance podcast FP&A Today. He is joined by Ron Monteiro, whose credentials include Director of FP&A at Campbell Soup and VP Finance, Ya YA Foods. They provide 4x two and a half hour Live instructor-led Virtual Sessions running through 1) FP&A Overview & Analytics That Drive Insights 2) Best Practices in Budgeting & Forecasting 3) Management Reporting & Best-in-Class Data Visualization. The course includes analytical and visualization Excel files for use in daily work, and a 15-Minute conversation with an instructor prior to the course starting. The course hones FP&A skills and promises the “ability to drive value for your business”. The $500 cost includes a 30-minute consultation with one of the instructors and free access to the digital course Financial Modeling Design Principles.
Courses for specific FP&A skills
While the above courses provide an immersion in all skills, other courses promise to train specific FP&A muscles. For instance, CFO.University (a selection of articles videos and thought leadership for CFOs) offers Finance – Business Planning I: Introduction to Planning ($49.99 for 268 minutes of anytime online learning) covering “the foundational elements of business planning including the importance of the handoff from accounting to preparing the annual budget.”
Whichever course is chosen the chance to enhance skills in a collaborative and closed setting will undoubtedly enhance your immediate FP&A skills and long term career prospects.
If you are looking for the best Excel courses for finance professionals check out our article on the top 7 online courses.