All courses are free. They use a combination of vlog episodes organized by topic, selections from the Balancing Act textbook, and downloadable resources. Feedback and suggestions on additional courses are welcome.
Reclassification Processes Course
The most complete course on the site — the only one currently with assessments. Covers the full lifecycle of reclassification: the problem it solves, the recast view, the reclass view, the switch view, effective-date joins, backdating, and code sets.
Reclassification is one of the most expensive and error-prone processes in financial services. This course explains why it exists and what a better architecture would look like.
Module 1: Overview
Reclassification Problems Overview — what reclass is, why it costs so much, and the three views.
Module 2: The Recast View
How the recast view works and its relationship to the source data hierarchy.
Module 5: Effective Date Joins
Reclass effective-date joins and their implications for temporal data.
Module 6: Backdating
Backdating and reclassification — how history restatement compounds complexity.
The Accounting Cycle
A five-part series walking through each step of the accounting cycle grounded in real ledger data — not abstract theory. Each episode uses actual bank statement data to illustrate what's happening at each step and why it matters.
Step 2: Journal Entries
Create Journal Entries — translating business events into the accounting record.
Step 3: Post to Ledger
Posting — what it means, why banks do it every night, and what it costs.
Step 4: Trial Balance
The trial balance — verification step and its limitations in modern systems.
Step 5: Create Reports
Create Reports — the final step and where most of the cost and delay lives.
Estimating Reporting Processes
A practical 5-step methodology for estimating the size, performance characteristics, and hardware requirements of financial reporting processes — essential for system architects and project managers working on financial system modernization.
Step 1: Transactions
Transactions needed for a Metric Engine — identifying the event data requirements.
Step 3: System Performance
Building an initial hardware environment size model and timing estimate.
Fundamentals of Finance Data (C101)
A foundational curriculum establishing why business events, data normalization, and metric engines provide a better foundation than traditional posting cycles and fragmented data warehouses.
Module 1: Business Events & Data
From unstructured data to business event measurement and transparency.
Module 2: Posting vs Data Warehouses
Comparing posting processes with data warehouse reconciliation pitfalls.
Module 3: Metric Engine Architecture
The core concepts of metric engines, Chart of Accounts, and high-speed normalization.
Blockchain Gaps & Real Financial Systems
An architectural investigation of why blockchain ledgers alone do not automatically solve core financial system requirements — examining liquidity management, double-entry models, posting, and reporting integration.
Module 1: Double Entry & Trust
Blockchain gap analysis: trust, efficiency, and double-entry reconciliation.
Module 2: Posting & Reporting Gaps
Why shared ledgers require high-performance posting engines for reporting scale.
Module 3: Next-Gen ERP Integration
How next-generation ERP and core banking systems integrate with distributed ledgers.
Where to Start
New to Financial Systems?
Start with the Bangalore session — 57 minutes that build the entire argument from scratch with no assumed knowledge.
Experienced Practitioner?
Jump straight to the Reclassification course or the Estimating Reporting Processes series — the most technically dense material on the site.
Academic / Researcher?
The MSU Guest Lecture with Dr. William McCarthy and the white papers cover REA theory, minimum cost curves, and event-based data models at depth.