Self-Paced Online Course
Utility Finance & Accounting
for Non-Financial Professionals and Attorneys
A working understanding of finance and accounting in the regulated utility, taught by Joel Berk on video,
with new interactive quizzes and content on AI in the utility industry.
How the Course Works
Utilities are different, and this course is built to show you how utility finance actually works. It assumes no accounting background.
Watch on your schedule
About 14 hours in all, broken into eight sections, each with multiple short topics. The topics average about 14 minutes, so you can take one over coffee or work through a section in an afternoon. Start, stop and come back whenever you want.
Built to stick
Every topic ends with a recap, and there are quizzes along the way to lock in what you learned. The sections build on each other, so the course moves in order. Finish everything and you earn the course certificate.
A printed book, mailed to you
As soon as you enroll we mail you the spiral-bound course book that ties to the online topics. You can start Section 1 right away while it is on its way to you.
It is the same course Joel Berk has taught to more than 40,000 people from over 1,000 organizations, recorded and rebuilt for the way you actually have time to take it.
Who This Course Is For
Anyone at a utility who needs to understand the language of finance and accounting, without an accounting background.
Attorneys
Regulatory, transactional, and litigation attorneys at utilities and law firms who handle ratemaking, M&A, or compliance.
Operations & Engineering
Operations managers, engineers, and project leaders who need to understand the financial impact of their decisions.
Regulatory & Strategy
Regulatory affairs staff, strategic planners, and customer relations leaders working with rate cases or financial reports.
What You’ll Be Able to Do
Upon completion, participants will be able to:
- Understand accrual accounting, and how a utility’s rates are set from its books
- Read a utility’s annual report, including items no other industry carries, such as regulatory assets
- Calculate key utility ratios, from allowed vs. earned return on equity to total shareholder return
- Build a revenue requirement and judge which costs a commission will allow in rates
- Understand how a utility makes money, by earning a return on its rate base, and what needs to be done for the future
- See the link between finance and accounting and a utility’s strategic plans, from rate cases to data-center growth
- Analyze whether a utility decision creates shareholder value, as opposed to just net income
- Do a capital budgeting analysis (engineering economics) for a regulated utility project
- Recognize the ethical questions in utility finance, from prudence reviews to executive pay in rates
Curriculum
Every topic is taught through the lens of a utility company, down to the accounting basics. This is Joel Berk’s foundational curriculum, refined over 40 years of teaching at utilities.
Basic Accounting Concepts
- Why Utilities Are Different: Rates Are Set from the Accounting
- A Utility’s Balance Sheet & Income Statement, Built from Scratch
- Book Value, Revenue & Expenses
- Where a Utility’s Deferred Taxes Come From
Financial Statement Analysis
- Reading a Real Utility’s Income Statement
- Allowed vs. Earned Return on Equity (ROE)
- Above-the-Line vs. Below-the-Line: What Goes into Rates
Four Sets of Books & Rate Case
- The Utility’s Four Sets of Books: GAAP, Tax, Rates, Managerial
- How a Rate Case Begins
Ratemaking
- Cost of Service Regulation
- Rate Base, Operating Expenses, Allowed Return
- Mock Rate Case: Executive Compensation, Take-or-Pay Contracts
- Adjustment Clauses & Decoupling
Present Value & Shareholder Value
- Present Value Analysis for Utility Investments
- Valuing a Utility’s Stock
- Theory: Income vs. Shareholder Value Maximization
- Risk Considerations
- How to Make Decisions That Create Value
Accounting for Plant & Income Taxes
- Accounting for Utility Plant: Straight-Line vs. Accelerated Depreciation
- Capitalization vs. Expense: Why Utilities Prefer to Capitalize
- Income Taxes: Temporary Differences, Deferred Taxes (Normalization)
Cost of Capital & Capital Project Analysis
- Cost of Capital in Rate Cases: WACC, Risk Premium, DCF Method
- A Real Utility’s Total Shareholder Return
- Capital Project Review Case: Taxes, Ratemaking & Regulatory Lag
AI’s Impact on the Utility Industry
- Data Centers, Load Growth & the Rate Base
Ethics
- Ethics Considerations in Utility Finance, Woven throughout the Course
- Prudence Reviews, Disallowances & Oversight of Contractor Billing
- Executive Pay in Rates & Fairness to Today’s and Tomorrow’s Ratepayers
New for 2026: interactive quizzes after each topic, plus a new section on AI’s impact on the utility industry.
Your Instructor
Dr. Joel Berk
For 40 years, Joel Berk has been the voice of FAI, teaching utility finance and accounting to over 40,000 participants from more than 1,000 organizations. While Joel is stepping back from live teaching in 2026, his complete curriculum has been preserved on video so the next generation of utility professionals can still learn from him.
Joel is known for making dry topics fun and interesting, and that quality comes through clearly in the recorded lectures.
Enroll in the Course
Available now. $2,500 per seat, including your printed course materials, with a fourteen-day full refund.
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