Understanding Finance for the Entrepreneur

The aim of this course is to heighten the participants’ financial awareness by ensuring that they understand:

•         The difference between management accounting and financial accounting
•         What drives your organisation’s financial and management information requirements
•         How to read the key financial statements
•         All the important accounting terms and concepts
•         How to use the key ratios
•         Investment appraisal and financial decision-making

Accounting, finance, planning and control

•         What is management accounting? What is financial accounting?
•         Financial accounting and business management – what are we trying to measure and why?
•         Types of organization, accountants, information and requirements

Tools and techniques of financial accounting

•         Balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, cash flow statements – what they tell you, and what they don’t tell you
•         An introduction to: fixed v variable; direct v indirect; contribution and break-even; opportunity costs; costs for comparisons

Understanding key terms, such as assets, liabilities and reserves

•         The appropriation of profits – interest, taxation, dividends and retentions
•         Distinguishing between subsidiaries, associates and trade investments
•         How the accounts of groups of companies are consolidated

The City and its impact on financial management

•         How to read the financial pages: yields, price/earnings ratios, market capitalization
•         What influences share prices, and what is meant by terms such as ‘equity’ and ‘shareholder value’?
•         Understanding capital market pressures on businesses
•         Other sources of capital, their influence on the enterprise and the importance of liquidity
•         Understanding analysts’ reports

Financial analysis

•         Use and calculation of key ratios
•         Profit margins, assets velocity, return on investment
•         Gearing and liquidity
•         Earnings per share, dividend cover, interest cover

Decision-making and investment appraisal

•         Measuring profit over time – understanding the time value of money
•         An introduction to discounted cash flow techniques
•         Internal rate of return or net present value?
•         Real terms or inflated, before or after tax?

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

The training methodology combines lectures, discussions, group exercises and illustrations. Participants will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge of the topics. The emphasis is on the practical application of the topics and as a result participant will go back to the workplace with both the ability and the confidence to apply the techniques learned to their duties.