Not from a commerce background?
Basics of Financial Statements — a live course for NISM candidates
You are not bad at numbers. Nobody ever taught you what a balance sheet is. Fifteen live sessions that take a science, arts or engineering graduate from zero to reading a real Indian company’s annual report.
Founding batch — first 8 seats. Then ₹2,999.
First batch: Tuesday 3 November – Monday 23 November 2026
Weekdays, 11:00–12:30 IST. Sessions are recorded.
See all 15 daysThe batch runs once 6 seats are booked. If it doesn’t reach 6, you are refunded in full.
Someone cleared it last week
Bhavik Dalwadi passed NISM Series XV on 27 October 2026 with 72.5 out of 100, against a pass mark of 60. This course covers Unit 8 — the financial-analysis chapter most non-commerce candidates lose marks in.
10-second recap · Download · All verified passes
Which series actually need accounting
This matters more than any study tip. If you are sitting a series where financial statements barely appear, stop worrying about them and spend the time on regulation instead.
| Series | Financial statements needed? | Where |
|---|---|---|
| XV — Research Analyst | Yes, substantially | Unit 8 covers balance sheets, profit and loss, cash flows, notes to accounts, audit reports and ratios. Units 9 and 10 build on it. |
| X-A — Investment Adviser L1 | Indirectly | You evaluate a client’s finances — household assets, liabilities and cash flow — not a listed company’s accounts. |
| V-A — Mutual Fund Distributor | Barely | Fund structure, regulation, taxation and distribution. Almost no company accounting. |
| V-D | Barely | Scheme-level content, not company statements. |
| X-B — Investment Adviser L2 | No | — |
| XXI-A | No | — |
Unit names are from NISM’s published curriculum. Syllabi are revised periodically — confirm the current one for your exam at nism.ac.in before you plan around it.
The short version
If you are sitting Series XV, the commerce gap is real and worth closing deliberately. If you are sitting almost anything else, it is not your problem — and the hours you were going to spend worrying about debits and credits are better spent on regulation, which is examinable everywhere.
What actually blocks non-commerce candidates
Having taught commerce for sixteen years, the pattern is consistent. It is almost never the arithmetic.
1. Vocabulary, mistaken for difficulty
Accrual, carrying value, retained earnings, working capital. These sound technical and are not. A commerce graduate met them at eighteen and stopped noticing them. You meet them for the first time in a workbook that assumes you already know them, and conclude the subject is hard when it is merely unfamiliar.
2. Formulas learned as strings of words
Return on equity is profit after tax divided by shareholders’ equity. Anyone can memorise that. The trouble starts when a question gives you operating margin, asset turnover and leverage instead, and expects you to assemble the same answer from different parts. Memorised formulas break the moment the inputs change; understood ones do not.
3. Three statements treated as three unrelated documents
This is the big one. Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow are one system described three ways. Depreciation is an expense in one, reduces an asset in the second, and is added back in the third — not a contradiction, the same event seen from three angles. Candidates who never make that connection can still answer simple recall questions, and fall apart on anything that combines them.
4. Not knowing that profit and cash are different things
A company can report healthy profit and still run out of money. Until that sentence makes obvious sense to you, cash flow questions will feel arbitrary.
What is not your problem
The maths. The hardest arithmetic anywhere in NISM is dividing one number by another. If you got through an engineering or science degree, the calculation is not what will fail you.
Your degree. There is no eligibility requirement to sit most NISM examinations. Check your specific series, but a commerce qualification is not a prerequisite.
Close the gap for free, first
Before paying anyone — us included — work through these. For many people they are enough.
Take a mock test early, before you feel ready. The score does not matter. What matters is seeing which chapters you lose marks in — because if financial analysis is not one of them, everything on this page stops applying to you and you have saved yourself three weeks.
Who this is for
Yes, if you are
A science, arts or engineering graduate preparing for NISM Series XV · stuck on the company-analysis chapters · returning to work and rebuilding a skill set · free on weekday mornings for three weeks.
Probably not, if you are
A B.Com, M.Com, CA or CS student — you will find this slow · looking for bookkeeping, Tally or tax filing · hoping to learn valuation or financial modelling · unable to attend live at 11am.
What you will be able to do
- Read a profit and loss statement line by line, and explain what each step removed
- Sort anything a company owns or owes into the right part of a balance sheet — including items you have never seen
- Explain why a profitable company can run out of cash, using an example you build yourself
- Calculate twelve ratios and, more importantly, say what each one suggests and where it misleads
- Open a 200-page annual report and find revenue, profit, borrowings and the auditor’s opinion in under five minutes
- Compare two years of a company’s results and form a defensible view
All 15 days, published before you pay
Nobody should hand over money for an unspecified three weeks.
Every session: 10 min recap · 25 min concept · 25 min worked examples · 20 min you practise · 10 min questions.
Which NISM exam does this help with?
Series XV (Research Analyst). NISM’s published curriculum has fifteen units. Unit 8, “Company Analysis: Financial Analysis”, covers balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cash flows, notes to accounts, audit reports and financial ratios. That is this course, almost line for line.
Series X-A (Investment Adviser). Useful groundwork — you evaluate clients’ financial positions using the same ideas applied to a household rather than a company.
Everything else. General financial literacy, which helps. We are not going to tell you this course prepares you for a syllabus it does not cover. The table above shows which series do and do not need it.
BullWiser is not affiliated with or endorsed by NISM. This is not a substitute for the official NISM workbook, and the completion certificate carries no regulatory standing. Check the unit list yourself at nism.ac.in — it takes two minutes.
What this course does not cover
| Excluded | Why |
|---|---|
| Full double-entry bookkeeping | You need to understand that records balance. You do not need to post fifty journal entries. |
| Ind AS / IFRS in detail | Naming the framework is enough; teaching the standards would consume the course. |
| Valuation and DCF modelling | A different course. P/E appears only as vocabulary you will meet. |
| Tally, Excel modelling, software | This is a reading course, not a tools course. |
| Bank and NBFC statements | Structured differently; they would confuse the general template. |
In one line: you will finish able to understand financial statements, not to prepare them.
Two guarantees, in plain words
The batch runs or you get your money back. We need 6 students. If we do not reach 6, you are refunded in full, with no email chain required.
Don’t pass the final assessment? Sit the next batch free. The pass mark is 45%, set deliberately low for a beginner course. If it does not click the first time, come back.
Who teaches it
Deepak Kumar Jha — sixteen years as a commerce educator, eleven of them running his own coaching classes. CA articleship, then corporate finance roles in the UAE and Mumbai. He has spent most of his working life explaining accounts to people who were convinced they could not understand them.
BullWiser takes no commission from any asset management company or distributor. That is why this page tells you which NISM series do not need this course.
Questions
I failed maths at school. Can I still do this?
Yes. The hardest arithmetic in the course is dividing one number by another. What makes financial statements difficult is vocabulary and logic, and both are teachable.
Will this alone get me through Series XV?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. This covers Unit 8 thoroughly — the unit non-commerce candidates most often lose marks in. The other fourteen units are still yours to study, and the official NISM workbook remains essential.
What if I miss a session?
Every session is recorded and shared the same day. Miss two in a row and you will get a phone call, because three weeks is long enough to drift.
Is this live or recorded?
Live, every weekday, one teacher and at most fifteen people. You can interrupt and ask. A recording cannot tell you which bit you have misunderstood.
Do I get a certificate?
A BullWiser certificate of completion with your name, the hours and the dates. It is not a NISM credential and carries no regulatory standing.
When does the batch start and finish?
It starts on Tuesday 3 November 2026 and finishes on Monday 23 November. Sessions run weekdays, 11:00–12:30 IST. The first week has four sessions because the 3rd is a Tuesday; the remaining weeks run Monday to Friday. The batch goes ahead once 6 seats are booked — if it does not reach 6, everyone is refunded in full.
Fifteen days from now
You could open any annual report in India and know what you are looking at.
Questions first? [email protected]