Fundamentals of Finance & Accounting

DAY 1

The Basics

• Accounting Terminology and Policies

• Accounting as an information system

• The accounting equation- what does it mean

• Generally accepted Accounting Principles

• Differentiating between cash and accrual basis accounting

• Basic cash flow statements

• Walking through an Annual Report

• The annual report package

• The role of an external auditor

• The accountant’s report and auditor’s opinion

DAY 2

How To Interpret Accounts and Financial Statement Analysis

• Preparing income statement & balance sheet

• Financial and liquidity ratios

• The cash conversion cycle

• Working capital management

• Profitability and gearing ratios

• Du Pont Formula

• Financial & Non-financial analysis

• Credit analysis

• Z- Scores and credit ratings

• Bank lending decisions

DAY 3

Planning for Profit

• Understanding and working with costs

• Plan for cost reduction and profit improvement

• Fixed and variable costs income statement

• Break-even analysis

• Contribution margin

• Costing approaches – Full Absorption, Marginal, ABC

• Standard Costing

• New ideas in cost management – lean principles

DAY 4

Budgeting in Today’s Competitive Business

• The Budgeting Process

• The role of budgeting

• Annual budgeting process

• Identifying and resolving budgeting variances

• Different budgeting systems in use today

• Budgeting tips and techniques

• Variance analysis

DAY 5

Cash Flow & Investment Decisions

• Capital budgeting

• Weighted Average Cost of Capital

• Present Value

• Internal Rate of Return – method

• Profitability Index

• Discounted cash flow