To succeed at any employment level and position, knowledge of basic financial principles is critical. 'Finance for non-Finance Professionals' transforms financial and accounting concepts into decision making tools you can use successfully every day. You will learn to apply the fundamentals of finance to improve budget management, increase potential profits, and assess the financial performance of business activities. You will also understand the terminology used by accounting and finance staff and will feel more confident when being involved with them or using them. This course will help you do a better job and prepare you for senior management positions where financial awareness is crucial.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Define the four key financial statements: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow and changes in owner equity as well as key financial terms such as profit, margins and leverage used in organizations
- Interpret the financial health and condition of a company, division or responsibility center and use financial information for management and evaluation
- Prepare a company's operating budget and relate it to the organization's strategic objectives
Managers, supervisors and staff from any function including finance who need to improve their understanding and usage of financial information.
The key financial statements
- Understanding the accounting cycle
- The five main accounts in financial statements
- Income statement: tool for performance measurement
- Accrual basis versus cash basis
- Balance sheet: tool for financial position
- Statement of owners’ equity
- Statement of cash flows: cash is king
- Wrapping-up: the cycle of financial statements
- External and internal auditors’ responsibilities
The building blocks of financial statements analysis
- Horizontal and trend analysis
- Vertical analysis and common size financial statements
- Liquidity analysis
- Current ratio
- Quick ratio
- Cash ratio
- Debt to assets
- Equity ratio
- Interest coverage
- Activity and investment analysis
- Receivables turnover
- Inventory turnover
- Payables turnover
- Cash conversion cycle
- Total assets turnover
- Profitability analysis: margins and returns
- Gross profit margin
- Operating profit margin
- Net profit margin
- Return on equity
- Return on assets
Operating budget process and techniques
- What is an operating budget
- Steps to budget development
- Master budget components
- Sales forecasting
- Approaches to budgeting
- Incremental budgeting
- Zero-based budgeting
- Budgetary control and correction
