Finance for Non-Finance Personnel

Introduction

In today's changing business conditions and intense competition, there is a need for all functional or business heads to grasp, understand and apply fundamentals of financial accounting knowledge in respective areas or business units to be all rounded professional managers. Moving forward, most functional and business managers are expected are deemed 'owners' of the profit and loss numbers.

Course Objectives

• Master the interpretation of financial statements
• Identify key financial concerns via variance analysis
• Know how to analyze and evaluate key financial indicators in view to contribute towards improving organization's performance
• Understand the concepts, language and basic rules of accounting and finance and types of ratios for decision making
• Equip oneself with knowledge in order to effectively manage a business organization

Key Content

Module 1: Introduction to Finance Accounting & Finance Analysis

• Building Financial Knowledge
  • Financial terminology
  • Practical understanding of finance and accounting concepts
• Understanding financial statements
• Types of financial statements: Profit & Loss, Cash Flows, Balance Sheet and its importance
• Evaluate business performance and visibility through:
  • Profit margins and trends
  • Return of Investment (ROI), gearing and liquidity ratios
• Application of techniques to evaluate company's financial health via Profit and Loss account, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Staement
• Golden rules of financial management for Companies and Personal Finance
  • 10 tips for managing cash flow for companies
  • Understanding operating cash flow by work capital management
  • Working capital management and its importance in cash flow management
  • Differentiate profit versus cash

Module 2: Understanding Cost

• Introduction
  • Cost element classification
  • How cost is estimated
  • Cost method and structure
  • Cost drivers and impact on budget setting and reporting variances
• Management reporting: Variance Analysis
  • Understanding essentials of variance analysis and how variances are calculated
  • What causes budget variances?

Module 3: Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting

• Explore budgeting, planning and forecasting process and its importance
• Bases of annual operating plan (budget)
• Types of budget preparation
• Capital expenditure and revenue expenditure concepts
• Understanding of fixed cost and variable cost for cost driver analysis
• Budget format and development process
• Accountability: explore budgetary slack and goal congruence concept
• Examples of budget format prepartion
• Top down vs bottoms up concept

Module 4: Evaluate Project Investment

• Apply key ratio analysis on project financials
• Accepting and rejecting projects
• Activity: case study interpretation

Target Audience