Financial Management for Non-Financial Professionals

Financial awareness is an essential requirement for every role and at every level in organisations. The integration of all processes within businesses means that accounting and financial information and techniques must be understood and communicated by all functions but at a level greater than the budgeting and recording of financial information. Participants in the Financial Management for Non-Financial Professionals training course will be provided with knowledge that can be shared amongst their own colleagues, and with other departments. The awareness and understanding of the various financial techniques available will enable delegates to communicate better with financial professionals, within and external to their organisation.

Important Features

The important features of the Financial management for non-financial professionals training course are:

• Immediate use of the tools and techniques of financial analysis and financial management that will be acquired.
• Becoming better informed and using new financial skills that will help improve management decision-making.
• Communication of the various financial tools that are available to help the organisation enhance its competitive positioning and improve the all-important cash flow

Learning Objectives

• Analyse the profit and loss account (income statement), balance sheet, and cash flow statement, and use ratios to interpret financial statements and identify their limitations.
• Appreciate the significant importance of cash flow (rather than profit) and discounted cash flow (DCF) in creating shareholder value.
• Develop costing systems such as activity-based costing (ABC) for optimal decision-making to maximize shareholder wealth.
• Appreciate the role of managers in the budget process and the use of activity-based budgeting (ABB).
• Determine the cost of capital to evaluate alternative sources of financing and optimal financial structure (gearing).
• Effectively manage cash and working capital to reduce costs and improve cash flow

Target Audience

• Non-financial professionals in every functional area of responsibility in all industries
• Personnel from any function, including finance, who need to improve understanding and usage of financial information

Training Methodology

Achieving Customer Service Excellence training course will be presented with the aid of highly motivating presentations

The Financial Management for Non-Financial Professionals training course provides theoretical background to some key areas of financial management, which are put into a real-world context by providing a practical “toolkit” of financial techniques. It includes many worked examples and case studies relating to each of the topics covered. Participants are therefore provided with an opportunity to apply financial techniques in practice and to discuss the various issues that may arise.

Since many of the practical examples, for investment appraisal, breakeven analysis, and budgetary control, are illustrated using spreadsheets, delegates need to bring their own Excel ® enabled laptop for practice.

Pre and Post course assessments will be used to measure the effectiveness of this training.

Course Contents

Day 1 -Company Objectives, Accounting Standards and Financial Statements

• Measuring company performance
• Value creation and the primary objective of maximization of wealth
• Profit and loss account (income statement)
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow statement
• Reading and Interpreting Financial Statement
• Measurement of operating performance
• Measures of financial performance and financial position
• Risk measurement
• Limitations of ratio analysis
• Cost/Volume/ Profit (CVP) Analysis
• Cost, volume, profit relationships
• Break-even analysis
• Profit modelling
• Limitations of break- even analysis

Day 2 - Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)

• The importance of the timing of cash flows
• Future values
• Present values
• Loan payments and valuation of annuities
• Capital Investment Appraisal
• Methods for evaluating capital projects
• Payback
• Net present value
• Internal rate of return
• Discounted payback
• Capital Budgeting
• Capital rationing
• Ranking investment projects
• Inflation and investment
• Using expected values and standard deviations to make decisions

Day 3 - Financial Structure

• Cost of debt
• Cost of equity
• Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
• Optimal capital structure
• Costing
• Fixed costs, variable costs, and overheads
• Overhead allocation, absorption, and the use of activity-based costing (ABC)
• Expenses versus inventory (stock valuation)
• Contribution compared with profit
• Decision-Making
• Make versus buy decisions
• Shut down or contribution decisions
• Product mix decisions and limiting factors
• Decisions trees

Day 4 & Day 5

Budgeting

• Purposes of budgeting
• The budget processes
• Activity based budgeting
• Uncertainty and risk – worst and best outcomes
• Maximin and minimax regret rules
• Motivation and behavioural aspects of budgeting
• Problems in budgeting
• Budgetary Control
• Organisational and accounting control systems
• Standard costing
• Flexed budgets
• Variance analysis
• Types of variances and the reasons they occur
• Planning and operational variances

Working Capital Management and Cash Improvement

• Working capital and working capital requirement
• Managing working capital
• Cash improvement techniques
• Cash management and the banking facilities
• Business Valuation
• Types of valuation methods
• Stock market valuation
• Net assets valuation
• Capitalised earnings valuation
• P/E ratio valuation
• Gordon growth model valuation
• DCF valuation

Who Should Attend?

• Internal auditors
• Finance & Accounting Officers
• Internal controls officers
• Planning Officers
• Financial auditors
• Procurement officers

Compliance