Course Overview:
This course provides non-financial professionals with essential accounting and finance knowledge to better understand and manage financial aspects of their roles. It demystifies key financial concepts, statements, and decision-making tools, enabling participants to engage confidently with finance teams, interpret financial information, and contribute to financially sound business decisions.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Understand fundamental accounting principles and terminology
- Read and interpret key financial statements
- Analyze financial performance using basic ratios
- Understand how business activities affect financial outcomes
- Apply budgeting, cost control, and investment decision tools
- Communicate effectively with finance professionals
- Make informed decisions with financial implications in mind
Who Should Attend:
- Managers, supervisors, and team leaders with no formal financial training
- Professionals in operations, HR, marketing, procurement, and technical roles
- Project managers and administrators involved in budget management
- Entrepreneurs and business owners seeking financial acumen
- Anyone who needs to interpret financial reports or support financial planning
Course Outline:
Introduction to Accounting and Finance
- Role of accounting and finance in business
- The language of finance: key terms and concepts
- Understanding financial vs. management accounting
- The accounting cycle and basic principles (GAAP/IFRS overview)
- Accruals, depreciation, and matching concepts
Understanding Financial Statements
- Overview of the three key financial statements:
- Income Statement (Profit & Loss)
- Balance Sheet
- Cash Flow Statement
- Interrelationship among the statements
- Key components and what they reveal about a business
- Common formats and how to read them
Analyzing Financial Performance
- Introduction to financial ratio analysis
- Profitability, liquidity, efficiency, and solvency ratios
- Interpreting trends and variances
- Using financial metrics for decision-making
- Limitations of financial statement analysis
Budgeting and Cost Control
- Types of budgets: operating, capital, and cash flow
- Budget preparation and review cycles
- Fixed vs. variable costs and break-even analysis
- Monitoring and controlling costs effectively
- Variance analysis and corrective action
Financial Planning and Decision-Making
- Principles of sound financial decision-making
- Time value of money: NPV, IRR, and payback period (simplified)
- Cost-benefit analysis and investment appraisal
- Capital expenditure vs. operational expenditure
- Risk considerations in financial decisions
Communicating Financial Information
- Presenting financial data to non-financial audiences
- Working with finance teams: what to ask and how to collaborate
- Building financial awareness across the organization
- Ethical considerations in financial reporting
- Final case study: interpreting financial results and making recommendations