Course details

Overview ?

Introduction

This seminar provides an introduction to finance and accounting for those who have no prior knowledge of this business area. It is designed to train the participants to support operational and financial processes. Those attending this seminar will gain a clear understanding of the essential terminology of finance and accounting. They will also learn the principles and techniques of accounting systems through practical examples and exercises.

The overall aim of the programem is to ensure that those who attend will be able to perform more effectively and efficiently within the workplace.

The highlights of this seminar will be:

The basic principles of accounting clearly explained
Knowledge and confidence in accounting for a range of business transactions will be developed by using straightforward worked examples
Simple but effective tools for analysing your business performance and position
Basic cost accounting principles that help to ensure your business is efficient and profitable
How and why the use of budgets can help to achieve overall business targets and objectives

Seminar Objectives

Appreciate the importance of the accounting and finance function and how it links with every part of the organisation and its suppliers, customers, shareholders, lenders and society in general
Understand commonly used finance and accounting terminology, thereby allowing them to make a valuable contribution to the workplace in meetings or in a supportive role
Understand the principles of accounting for routine business transactions
Be able to summarise the results of business transactions over a period of time and prepare simple financial statements, including the Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement
Be able to analyse and compare company performance using basic ratios
Understand how costing and budgeting techniques can help the company to maintain efficiency and profitability

Training Methodology

This seminar is highly interactive: in the very first session you will be working with case exercises and solving problems. You will be encouraged to make the link between the training room and your office and organisation. The programme will utilise a range of learning methodologies, including short presentations with opportunity for question and answer, exercises and mini cases to develop knowledge and skills, and group discussions where you can share your opinions and experiences with your fellow delegates.

Organisational Impact

Be able to make more effective contributions to workplace meetings and discussions
Have the knowledge and skills to assist their managers more effectively
Appreciate the importance of finance within their organisation
Be motivated to use their acquired skills and knowledge to add value to their role within the organisation
Understand and be able to interpret basic financial statements and reports
Be more willing to take ownership of financial responsibilities in their organisational role

Personal Impact

You will acquire skills and knowledge that will help your personal development within the organisation
You will improve your working role
You will become more aware of the major issues facing your business
It will enable you to further your professional skills.
It will enable you to liaise effectively with line managers and other departments
It will improve your status in the organisation as those around you realise and appreciate your knowledge and understanding

Who Should Attend?

Secretaries
Office administrators
Personal assistants, and executive assistants
Administrative professionals and support staff
Anyone wishing to increase or update their awareness and understanding of finance and accounting methods and terminology

Programme Outline

Day 1 – Introduction to Finance and Accounting

What is accounting?
What is finance?
What are the major sources of Long-term and Short-term finance?
What is Financial Accounting ?
What is Management Accounting?
Simple rules of double-entry bookkeeping that can be applied to all financial transactions
How to record the things you buy and the things you sell
How to record business payments and receipts
What is depreciation? – explanation of the various methods and their impact on profit

Day 2 – The Financial Statements

How to prepare basic financial statements – the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet
The key elements of financial statements defined and explained
How is profit calculated?
The difference between revenue & capital expenditure
Assets – current and non-current
Liabilities – current and non-current
The meaning of working capital
Company net worth
Profit or cash – what is the difference?
Published Annual Reports for stockholders

Day 3 – Basic Evaluation of Financial Statements

Why do we need to evaluate financial statements?
Who are the stakeholders and what are their information needs?
How to ‘common-size’ financial statements for ease of comparison
How to calculate accounting ratios
How to use ratio analysis to assess performance
Profitability ratios
Liquidity ratios Operating efficiency ratios
Gearing ratios
The Cash Flow Cycle and Working Capital
Valuing a company – Book Value versus Market Value

Day 4 – Introduction to costing systems

Collecting and analysing costs
Types of cost analysis: by type, by location, by behaviour, by purpose
What are overheads, and how should we analyse them?
What is the Cost of Production – Marginal and Total Costing explained
What is inventory, and how does it affect the cost of production?
Methods of valuing inventory – FIFO, LIFO, and AVCO explained Marginal Costing – how costs and profit vary with volume
How to measure the break-even point and the margin of safety
What-if Analysis

Day 5 – Budgets

Why do we need budgets? – the link between corporate strategy and operations at all levels of the organisation
The benefits & limitations of budgets
The key features of budgets
Types of budgets
Basic budget forecasting techniques
How to prepare a departmental budget
Comparing actual performance with the budget using variance analysis
Do budgets motivate or de-motivate?

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Training Methodology

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