Course Overview
Understanding financial principles is essential for everyone, regardless of their role in an organization. As business processes are interconnected, it is crucial for all professionals to grasp and communicate financial information—not just to record or budget but to make informed decisions that drive the organization forward.

Key Features
This training equips participants with practical financial tools and techniques that can be immediately applied. Key benefits include:

• Gaining actionable financial skills to enhance management decision-making.
• Using financial tools to communicate insights that improve competitive positioning and strengthen cash flow.
• Becoming better informed to support organizational growth and performance.

Learning Objectives
Participants will learn to:

• Analyze income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, using ratios to interpret results and recognize limitations.
• Understand the critical importance of cash flow and discounted cash flow (DCF) in maximizing shareholder value.
• Develop cost systems, including activity-based costing (ABC), to support strategic decision-making.
• Engage effectively in the budgeting process, applying activity-based budgeting (ABB).
• Calculate the cost of capital to evaluate financing options and determine the optimal financial structure.
• Manage cash and working capital efficiently to reduce costs and improve liquidity.

Target Audience

• Professionals in non-financial roles across all industries.
• Employees from any function, including finance, seeking a deeper understanding and practical use of financial information.

Training Methodology
The course combines engaging presentations with practical, real-world applications. Participants receive a “toolkit” of financial techniques, reinforced with case studies and worked examples. Practical exercises, such as investment appraisal, break-even analysis, and budgetary control, utilize spreadsheets, so participants should bring an Excel-enabled laptop.

Effectiveness will be measured using pre- and post-course assessments.

Course Contents

Module 1 – Company Objectives, Accounting Standards, and Financial Statements

• Key Topics: Measuring performance, wealth maximization, profit and loss account, balance sheet, cash flow statement.
• Reading Financial Statements: Operating performance, financial position, risk assessment, ratio analysis limitations.
• Cost/Volume/Profit (CVP) Analysis: Relationships between cost, volume, and profit; break-even analysis; profit modeling and its limitations.

Module 2 – Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)

• Key Topics: Timing of cash flows, future and present values, loan payments, annuity valuation.
• Capital Investment Appraisal: Payback, net present value, internal rate of return, discounted payback.
• Capital Budgeting: Capital rationing, project ranking, inflation effects, decision-making using expected values and standard deviations.

Module 3 – Financial Structure

• Key Topics: Cost of debt and equity, weighted average cost of capital (WACC), optimal capital structure.
• Costing: Fixed, variable, and overhead costs; activity-based costing (ABC); expense vs. inventory; contribution vs. profit.
• Decision-Making: Make-or-buy, shutdown vs. contribution, product mix, limiting factors, decision trees.

Module 4 – Budgeting

• Key Topics: Budget purposes, the budgeting process, activity-based budgeting, risk and uncertainty, motivation, behavioral aspects, common budgeting problems.
• Budgetary Control: Organizational control systems, standard costing, flexible budgets, variance analysis, planning vs. operational variances.

Module 5 – Working Capital Management and Cash Improvement

• Key Topics: Working capital management, cash improvement techniques, banking facilities.
• Business Valuation: Stock market valuation, net asset valuation, capitalized earnings, P/E ratio, Gordon growth model, DCF valuation.