Who Can Benefit?

• Non-financial managers and anyone from non-financial disciplines who needs to know more about business finance terminology

Course Objectives:

• Understand the financial and accounting terms used in business.
• Develop skills in financial literacy.
• Understand the main financial statements and how to be used to monitor and control business performance.
• Understand the financial language, asking relevant financial questions, and making business decisions using financial criteria.
• Highlight the need for good budget construction and the basic techniques for budgetary control.
• Develop operating budgets
• Understand how cash budgeting can affect motivation and control

Course Outline

• Finance and Accounting

• The World of Finance and Accounting.
• Why Do We Have Accounting Systems?
• The Goal of Good Management is to Create Value
• The Three Management Functions
•  Financial vs. Managerial Accounting
•  New Management Trends to Create Value

• What is Profit?

• Definition and Importance of Profit.
• How much profit can we make?
•  Management by the Numbers
• Volume Based Cost Behavior Patterns
• Contribution Margin Based income Statements
• Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) Analysis
• Using CVP to Manage
•  How does the CVP Chart Change to Reflect Cost Management
•  What Questions Can we Answer?

•  The importance of Cash Flow

• How money works in business.
• Why profit and cash are not the same.
• How much cash can we take?
• The Cash Management Process
• Planning Motivates Control Through Evaluation

• Budgeting in an Uncertain Business World — Solvency Management
•  Factors Influencing the Need for Budgeting & Planning
• What Makes the Budgeting Process Successful?
•  Breaking Down the Financial Statement Barrier

•  Assets and Liabilities.
• Working Capital Management.
• Key ratios to improve asset utilization and profitability.

•  Expenditure Planning and Financial Decision Making

•  Cost benefit analysis.
•  Capital expenditure decisions.
• What is Capital Expenditure?
• Nature of Capital Investment Decisions
• What is Capital Budget?
•  Stages of Capital Budgeting Process
• Relevant Cash Flows
•  Methods of Evaluating Capital Investments
•   Sensitivity analysis.

• Budgeting for Profit

• Definition of a budget.
•  Purpose of a budget.
• How to construct a budget.
•  How to use a budget for financial control.

• Motivation and Control through Budgeting

• The Motivational Cycle
• The Control Environment
• How Much Accounting Control Do We Need?
• Types of Controls
•  Centralized vs. Decentralized Controls
• Responsibility Centers used in Accounting Control Systems
• Limitations for 'Management by the Numbers' or Accounting Control
• Evaluation of Managers and Divisions
•   Cost of Capital Employed
•   Accounting Performance Measures
•  Do Our Accounting Systems Encourage Good Judgment?