Finance for Non-Financial Managers Course

This two-day business finance course is ideal for any manager or spending official whose role requires an understanding of finance. This includes:

• Managers with budgetary responsibilities
• Officials who oversee any income or expenditure
• Managers who need to prepare a business case to justify investments
• Managers whose decisions have financial implications

No prior knowledge of finance or accountancy is required other than a basic knowledge of Maths (GCSE Grade C or equivalent).

The full two-day Finance for Non Financial Managers training course aims to:

• Demystify business finance terminology, including current assets, non-current assets, working capital and expenses
• Clarify the difference between profit and cash flow
• Define the components of a Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position), Income Statement (Profit & Loss Report) and Cash Flow Statement
• Calculate financial adjustments to the Income Statement, including accruals and prepayments
• Identify the users of financial statements and discuss their needs
• Use ratio analysis to measure and understand:
  • growth, profitability and return
  • liquidity
  • efficiency (working capital cycle)
  • financial risk
• Analyse an organisation’s financial performance and recommend suitable actions
• Understand the stages of the budgetary cycle and consider different ways of setting a budget
• Prepare the budget for an organisation based on a Case Study scenario
• Debate the behavioural challenges surrounding the management of budgets
• Practise applying project appraisal techniques including:
  • Payback
  • Breakeven
  • Net Present Value
  • Internal Rate of Return

See course overview

Day One

Session 1: Business finance

• Identify and understand sources of capital for a business
• Consider the uses of capital, including current assets, non-current assets and expenses
• Explain the working capital cycle and its implications for an organisation
• Clarify the difference between profit and cashflow

Session 2: The primary financial statements – balance sheet

• Understand accounting concepts of accruals, going concern, prudence and consistency
• Define the components of a Balance Sheet (Statement of Financial Position)
• Calculate the value of assets and liabilities on the balance sheet, including depreciation

Session 3: The primary financial statements – income and cash flow statements

• Define the components of an Income Statement (Profit & Loss Report)
• Calculate financial adjustments to the Income Statement, including accruals and prepayments
• Briefly consider the double-entry nature of financial transactions
• Define the components of a Cash Flow Statement

Session 4: Using financial statements

• Identify the users of an organisation’s financial statements
• Discuss different methods of corporate governance and reflect on their implications on financial statements

Session 5: Analysing financial statements

• Calculate and analyse ratios to measure:
  • growth, profitability and return
  • liquidity
  • efficiency (working capital cycle)
  • financial risk

Note: There is the opportunity for the organisation’s own financial statements to be used for the analysis exercise.

Day Two

Session 1: Introduction to budgeting

• Understand budgeting from a broader business perspective
• Explore the stages of the budgetary cycle
• Consider different ways of setting a budget, including:
  • Top Down and Bottom Up
  • Fixed / flexible
  • Incremental, zero-based and rolling

Session 2: Preparing a budget

• Trace the budgeting pyramid through all components of the organisation’s budget
• Case Study: prepare a budget for an organisation using the information provided
• Apply the balanced scorecard to highlight non-financial Key Performance Indicators
• Debate behavioural challenges to setting an effective budget

Sessions 3 – 4: Making the numbers talk

• Case Study: analyse an organisation’s financial performance against budget and recommend appropriate actions

Note: There is the opportunity for the organisation’s own management accounts to be used for this exercise.

Session 5: Introduction to project appraisal

• Conduct an initial appraisal of a project using breakeven and payback
• Categorise the relevant and non-relevant cash flows of a project
• Understand the cost of capital and demonstrate how it impacts on relevant cash flows

The finance training will be supported with:

• Half a day’s consultancy time to personalise the training to meet your organisation’s needs and practices
• A participant workbook with tips, techniques and space for personal notes. For a sustainable solution, we offer editable workbooks for online use and exercise handouts for printing

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• Budgeting for Managers