Understanding Corporate Performance

This application-driven, hands-on practical 2-day program provides delegates with the opportunity to become familiar with the basic elements of finance, and the financial systems of the organisations.

Participants are required to complete exercises to reinforce concepts and principles. The course director acts as a facilitator rather than a lecturer, and videos are also used to convey concepts.

The key objectives of the course are as follows:

To give operational managers a basic understanding of accounting terms and methods
To assist managers to understand and evaluate financial statements
To help non financial managers to understand concepts such as working capital and cash flow
To expose managers to various performance ratios and yardsticks
To understand the concept of breakeven analysis and fixed and variable costs
To understand what creates profit and adds value to a business

Who Should Attend

All managers and supervisors who create or receive financial reports, and who need to be able to interpret and use the information to make effective business decisions.
All managers who are cost and profit responsible.
All managers who acquire or manage company assets.

Pre Requisite(s)

A basic understanding of financial statements.
An understanding of working capital.
An understanding of cash flow and profit.
Understanding the relationship between fixed and variable expenses.
Understanding what creates profit and value.
Better, more informed business decisions.

Outcomes

By the end of this course delegates will know how to structure models correctly, and will appreciate the necessity for so doing.

They will have gone through the process of building a real estate model, completing the required sheets and financial statements.

They will understand the interaction between Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow statements in financial models, and the necessity for having them.

They will enhance considerably their knowledge of Excel so far as it pertains to financial models, e.g. they will understand how to perform sensitivity analyses, create scenarios and data tables, etc.

They will also benefit from the discussions and exercises on the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), Net Present Values (NPVs) and Internal Rates of Return (IRR), and will learn the importance of these measurements.

Knowledge gained in setting up "switches" in their models, allowing them to investigate the effect of different alternatives, will be of great value to them.

Course Content

Summary of accounting terms
Accounting - an information system
Basic elements of income statements
Assets and Liabilities - the balance sheet
Ratios and analysis
Breakeven analysis techniques
Cash Flow - is it different to profit?
Economic Value Added - is the business becoming more valuable?
Forecasting and Budgeting