Financial Analysis and Management Course

INTRODUCTION

In the globally competitive world of the 21st century business decision-makers face unprecedented levels of risk and uncertainty - to survive and flourish in this challenging environment organizations need the right tools with which to analyses problems and anticipate and manage the many opportunities and threats that may emerge.

Traditional forms of financial analysis and forecasting no longer meet these needs and the most progressive firms are using the power of financial models to help them analyses the challenge and take a more powerful approach to manage risk in their planning and forecasting.

Financial management is the planning, organising, directing and controlling an organisation’s financial activities such as procurement and the utilisation of funds. The purpose of this course is to provide participants with the fundamental financial knowledge and skills to enable them to participate in business activities such as financial planning, financial control and to make savvy financial and investment decisions.

DURATION

5 Days

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

• Finance Professionals
• Budgeting and Planning Managers
• Commercial Managers
• Divisional Managers
• Purchasing and Supply Chain Managers
• Project Managers
• Chief Financial Officers and Financial Controllers
• Treasury Team Members
• Capital Investment and Project Staff
• Managers involved in Financial Decision-Making

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the course participants will be able to:

• Appreciate the importance of the accounting and finance function
• Understand accounting for routine business transactions
• Be able to prepare simple financial statements
• Be able to analyses company performance using basic ratios
• Be aware of costing and budgeting techniques to maintain efficiency and profitability 
• Distinguish between financial accounting and financial management;
• Detail the definitions and terminology used in financial management;
• Underline the various accounting principles and definitions in order to build a foundation in accounting terminology on which to better understand financial management;
• Prepare a set of financial statements;
• Perform financial analysis of a set of financial statements;
• Establish the purpose of working capital management;
• Discover the role of budgeting in short-term financial planning;
• Explain the meaning of time value of money and calculate its impact on investment decisions;
• Explain the relationship between risk and return on an investment.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

         Module 1

• Introduction to financial analysis
  • Identifying the relationship between cash flow and profit
  • Development of an integrated cash flow model
  • Recognising it’s all about cash
  • Understanding the relationships between the three main accounting statements
  • Exercise 1 - Accounting terminology

Fundamentals of accounting statements-the profit and loss account

• How the P&L has changed over the last 25 years
• Detailed review of the Profit and Loss account including explanation of all significant accounting terminology
• Profit types - trading, asset and business
• Inventory, depreciation, capitalised interest
• Minority interests and consolidation
• Exceptional and material items

Fundamentals of accounting statements-the balance sheet

• Detailed review of the balance sheet including explanation of all significant accounting terminology
• Understanding the fixed assets note
• Accounting goodwill – what is it?
• Liabilities, pension fund accounting
• Debt and other liabilities like debt
• Deferred tax, contingent liabilities

Financial analysis techniques-ratio analysis

• Objectives of ratio analysis
• Developing ratio analysis skills
• Different types of ratios
• How much information is there in ratios?
• Ratio rules – avoiding errors of principle

Module 2

Cash flow analysis and accounting issues

Understanding cash flows

• Detailed review of the cash flow statement
• Analyzing and interpreting cash flows
• Summarizing cash flows for analysis

Cash flow analysis

• The four phases in the life of a business

Cash flow analysis-taking it further

• Dealing with the consequences of growth and no-growth

Accounting abuses and update

• Abuses of Fair Accounting
• Basic abuses relevant to all businesses
• More complex abuses relevant to larger groups

Global accounting in the new century

• Overview of the International Accounting Standards Board
• The implications of the IAS Initiative
• Review of new standards produced in the last five years

Module 3

Financial mathematics and project analysis

The time value of money

• Present and future values
• Defining the discount factor
• Exercises: Discounting calculations

Net present value -developing the concept

• NPV’s and varying future cash flows
• Perpetuities and annuities
• Exercises: Annuities and perpetuities

Project analysis

• Introduction to project analysis
• Developing a forecast of the project cash flows
• Identifying the key risk areas

Evaluating capital investment projects

• Discounted cash flow techniques
• Calculating the internal rate of return

The responsibilities of management

• The essential aspects of the management task

Costing and break-even analysis

• Fixed and variable costs
• Marginal, absorption and standard costing

Module 4

Spreadsheet analysis skills

Introduction to spreadsheets

• Using spreadsheet programmes for business analysis and forecasting
• The issue of spreadsheet risk

    Module 5: Financial Accounting

    Module 6: Analysis of Financial Statements

    Module 7: Short-term Financial Management Decisions

    Module 8: Long-term Financial and Investment Decisions