Financial Development for Non-Financial Managers

Those for whom finance is part of their responsibility and need a greater understanding of finance. They will be from all sectors, including private, public and not-for-profit including:

• Those who are non-specialists in finance
• Budget holders who are responsible for creating and managing their department’s budgets
• Operations managers who want to know more about cost management and projects
• Senior sales and marketing employees who have to understand financial statements
• Senior managers who require greater financial literacy skills
• Managers facing financial decisions or expect to make a contribution to a wider planning process

• Interpret and apply financial information in a business environment
• Put together a budget to justify expected expenditure
• Develop skills in interpreting financial statements and calculating selected key ratios
• Measure budgetary performance
• Conduct effective investment appraisals

Key Financial Concepts and Principles

• Bookkeeping versus accounting
• Cash accounting versus accrual accounting and use in private and public sectors
• Types of accounts in the General Ledger, their purpose and the chart of accounts
• Double-entry bookkeeping concepts and implications
• Depreciation and amortisation

Reading Financial Statements, Public and Private Sector

• International standards in the private and public sectors, IFRS and IPSAS
• Format and content of the statement of financial position (balance sheet)
• Format and content of the statement of profit or loss
• IPSAS principles of financial statements presentation for the public sector
• Investor ratios

Management Accounting

• Financial accounting and management accounting compared
• Types of management information prepared for internal consumption
• Financial information managers need to manage – the power of comparisons
• Analysing costs, key ratio calculations for management and variance analysis, including ROE, ROA and liquidity ratios

Managing the Finances and Costs of Projects

• Financial aspects of building the business case and getting approval for funding
• Estimating project costs – different estimating techniques, expert, analogous, parametric, bottom up etc
• Project forecasts, cost variances and cost control
• Project risks and financial implications

Building an Effective Budget

• Public sector v. Private sector budgeting differences in purpose, processes and motive
• Budgetary methodologies, incremental and zero-based
• Budget and variance analysis
• End of week quiz to appraise learning achieved