CFA® L1 — Financial Statement Analysis
Reading balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows the way analysts do. The most exam-weighted topic in Level 1.
Quick info
- Layer
- Professional Certifications
- Track
- CFA® Level 1
- Estimated hours
- 50 hrs
- Chapters
- 3
- Exam body
- CFA Institute
- Cost on Trustner
- Free
Every chapter below has Foundation, Deep Dive, and Advanced material — read in any order, expand each chapter to see the full content.
About this course
Financial Statement Analysis is 13-17% of CFA L1 weight — the single largest topic. Reading balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements the way analysts do. Master this and you have the foundation for equity valuation, fixed-income credit analysis, and corporate-issuer evaluation throughout the program.
Who this is for
- CFA L1 candidates building foundation for L2/L3.
- Equity research analysts and PE associates.
- Working CAs adding global FSA framework.
What you'll learn
- Three financial statements and how they connect
- Inventory, long-lived assets, leases under IFRS and US GAAP
- Revenue recognition and earnings quality
- Cash flow statement preparation and interpretation
- Financial ratio analysis and DuPont framework
Course material — 3 chapters
Each chapter offers three tiers — Foundation for the core concept, Deep Dive for worked examples and practitioner depth, and Advanced for edge cases and exam tips. Click any chapter to expand.
- 1Reading 1
Introduction to FSA
- Three statements and relationships
- IFRS vs US GAAP
- Filing landscape
✓ Full chapter — read, examples, FAQ, MCQs - 2Reading 2
Income statements and cash flow
- Revenue recognition
- Operating vs non-operating
- Cash flow direct vs indirect
✓ Full chapter — read, examples, FAQ, MCQs - 3Reading 3
Balance sheet and ratios
- Asset, liability, equity classifications
- Liquidity, solvency, profitability ratios
- DuPont analysis
✓ Full chapter — read, examples, FAQ, MCQs
About the exam
- Provider
- CFA Institute
Note: ~13-17% of CFA L1 weight — largest single topic.
The exam is administered by CFA Institute. Trustner Academy is not affiliated with CFA Institute; we provide independent preparatory educational material. See our disclaimer.
More from CFA® Level 1
CFA® L1 — Quantitative Methods
Time-value of money, statistics, probability, hypothesis testing, regression. The mathematical scaffolding under everything else in the curriculum.
CFA® L1 — Economics
Micro and macro foundations, exchange rates, monetary and fiscal policy, business cycles — the global lens through which CFA candidates think about markets.
CFA® L1 — Corporate Issuers
Capital structure, working capital, dividend policy, ESG, and the corporate-finance fundamentals every analyst is expected to know cold.
CFA® L1 — Equity Investments
Markets, indices, equity valuation, industry analysis. The introduction to equity investing that L2 builds heavily on.