Finance for Non-Financial Managers

Money is the language of business. The ability to understand and analyse financial data is essential for successful management. This two-day course is designed to help executives come to grips with the fundamentals of finance and accounting.

Can you read a balance sheet? Or what a profit and loss is telling you? Or recognise the difference between cash and profit? How about interpreting key financial ratios? Or optimising the working capital cycle?

This highly interactive, positive programme shows you how. The content transforms the jargon, concepts and ratios of finance into a set of straightforward business tools the non-financial manager can use every day to sharpen performance.

Tutorial input is complemented with practical exercises, plus examples taken from case studies, the Financial Times and (if appropriate) delegates own published accounts.

Participants return to their jobs equipped to apply the fundamentals of finance to influence business decisions, improve profits, sell new business plans, manage budgets and communicate more confidently with finance-based colleagues.

The programme is ideal for managers who believe a clear understanding of money matters is essential to their career progression.

At the end of the course participants will:

• Know how to read, interpret and understand a set of accounts.
• Be able to hold their own when communicating with financial personnel.
• Know how to prepare and manage a meaningful budget.
• Be more aware of the financial implications of the decisions they make.

• The manager's role and responsibility in today's cost conscious environment.
• Why accountants have so much influence.
• Profit vs cash. How not to go bust while business is booming.
• How money moves within a business. Working capital management.
• How to read and interpret the three basic financial statements. Profit and loss. The balance sheet. Cashflow forecast.
• What to look for in a set of accounts. How to read between the lines.
• How to differentiate between cashflow, revenue and capital.
• How to use ratios to analyse performance.
• How to compile a realistic budget.
• How to manage a budget once you've got it.
• Profit centre and cost centre reporting
• The difference between management accounts and financial accounts. Interim comparisons.
• How to establish pricing policy. Introduction to costing methods - marginal, absorption and standard.
• How to find out about your customers'/competitors'/suppliers' financial position.
• How to use the numbers to get your financial story across.How to prepare job and person profiles.