Financial Awareness (Graduate Level Programme)

A high level overview of the key financial statements, ratios and performance indicators a business requires to ensure it is meeting its forecasts and budgets.

Who Will The Course Benefit? 

Graduates and anyone who needs a re-fresh of the finance function of a business.

Course Objectives:

Providing the basic tools required to be able to communicate with financial management within and outside of the organisation. To explode the myths around financial analysis which are perpetuated by those in the finance industry in order to maintain a mystique that financial management is extremely complicated as it maintains healthy fee levels for Accountants and other finance professionals.

Skills Gained:

• Understand and analyse the key financial reports of the balance sheet, profit and loss account and cash flow statement.
• Be able to interpret financial statements using ratio analysis
• Understand the need for budgeting and costing and the practical application of the tools used in the process.

Course Structure:

• Day 1 – Session One:
• Mastering basic financial concepts and accounting process to develop an understanding of the sources of financial information
• Gaining insights into finance and accounting systems, terminology and concepts to find its factual value to organisations’ financial direction
• Developing an understanding on the elements of financial reports to access financial risk to your corporate structures
• Examining the importance of transaction timing and recording to ensure consistency of finance function
• Exploring the ‘formal’ Management reports: Balance Sheet and The Profit and Loss Statement
• Group activity A
• Extracting key financial information from published accounts
• Assessing into Income vs. Expenditure
• Reviewing Assets vs. Liabilities
• Evaluating Capital vs. Revenue expenditure
• Day 1 – Session 2
• Valuing the key concepts of financial information and analysing the financial flow trends to understand the current financial position of the organisation
• Over viewing the accountant’s role and the content of annual financial report
• Evaluating the key financial ratios and measuring your corporate performance by using these financial ratios
• Defining the rules in financial management and accounting book
• Comprehending the terminology and essence in accruals, prudence, substance over form, true, fair and materiality
• Group activity B
• Balance sheet: How to analyse and interpret the data to gauge the current financial standing of your organisation
• Getting the core information tabulated on balance sheet
• Familiarising with the report to find useful information to formulate appropriate questions to get your job done
• Day 1 – Session 3
• Exploring the driving forces behind financial information
• Appreciating the role and function of finance: How the information provided is valid and useful
• Assessing the income Structure: Profit and loss
• Forecasting techniques – Balance Scorecard: How does it work and why use it to measure performances
• Group activity C
• Revenue Budget in action
• Applying the accounting concepts
• Day 1 – Session 4
• Highlighting the importance of cash flow and cash management
• Cash is not profit!: Differentiating cash and profit
• Comprehending why and how cash is the king ruling your business direction
• Introducing the cash budget
• Focusing on ways a business manages this important resources
• Highlighting the importance of cash flows in analysis and forecasting
• Group activity D
• Cash Budget in action
• Identifying cash movements to predict future cash flows
• Gauging stability, adaptability and long term potential of a company through cash flow statements
• Day 1 – Session 5
• Working Capital: The essence and its management
• Calculating working capital
• Analysing the working capital cycle
• Identifying working capital ‘culprits’
• Group activity E
• Enhancing the ‘flow’ of working capital
• Day 2 – Session 1
• Defining costing concepts and how the controls determine profit
• Introducing to key costing techniques and over viewing its principles
• Analysing the costing concepts and its benefits
• Grasping opportunities in costing through accurate calculation to ensure profits
• Group activity F
• You have $50,000 to spend!
• Working in a group on how you spend it and compare to the others
• Determining accurate cost via application of costing techniques for effective decision making
• Day 2 – Session 2
• Costing: essential tools for effective management
• Reviewing the costing principles
• Budgeting Pyramid : cash budgeting to capital budgeting
• Differentiating the direct and indirect costs
• Group activity G
• Where is the information?
• Day 2 – Session 3
• Breaking down the barriers between finance and operations department through planning and budgetary control
• Over viewing the key budgeting techniques
• Static vs. flexible budgeting: The language of costs and costing
• Connecting your strategic plan to company culture with budgets as the motivator
• Relating the budgets and cash flows and appreciating their differences
• Analysing variances in post-budgeting review
• Group activity H
• Breaking even the brain teaser
• Day 2 – Session 4
• Discovering the positive management of cash and the impact of cash cycle to your operations
• Profit is absolutely not cash!
• Understanding cash cycle and the importance of its management
• Cash conversion cycle (CCC): receivables, payables and inventories
• Day 2 – Session 5
• Polishing effective business communication with the leaders via comprehensive perception on financial and accounting information
• Financial reporting made simple
• Speeding up financial data interpretation and connect the facts with figures while communicating with leaders/colleagues easily in financial terms
• Group activity J
• Presenting the accounts of a company