Financial Bootcamp for Non-Financial Professionals

Course Title:

"Finance Essentials Bootcamp for Non-Financial Professionals"

Course Description:

Accelerate your financial literacy with Skilllinkx's Finance Essentials Bootcamp, tailored for non-financial professionals. This comprehensive course covers the core principles of finance, accounting, and budgeting, empowering you to understand, interpret, and utilize financial information effectively. Designed to meet the latest demands of 2024 and 2025, this bootcamp equips you with the skills to make informed decisions and contribute to your organization's financial success.

Key Features:

• Fundamental understanding of financial accounting and reporting
• Practical management accounting techniques
• Investment appraisal methods
• Treasury and risk management strategies
• Real-world applications and case studies

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the purpose of key financial statements: Income Statement, Statement of Financial Position, and Cash Flow Statement
• Analyze and evaluate an organization’s performance through its Annual Financial Report
• Apply management accounting techniques such as product costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, budgeting, and variance analysis
• Utilize investment appraisal techniques to assess the viability of proposed investments
• Implement methods to manage financial risks in multinational organizations

Course Syllabus:

Day One: Business Organizations, Sources of Finance, the Finance Function

• Development of business organizations
• Role of Finance and the Finance Function
• Sources and types of finance for business organizations
• Teamwork exercise: Preparing a business plan for potential investors
• Structure of the financial accounting system
• Income Statement and Statement of Financial Position
• Teamwork exercise: Financial accounting and reporting case study

Day Two: The Annual Financial Report

• Purpose and format of the Annual Financial Report (AFR) according to IFRS
• Financial and non-financial elements of the AFR
• Teamwork exercise: Assessing the effectiveness of the AFR for key stakeholders
• Difference between cash flow and profit
• Teamwork exercise: Preparing and presenting a Cash Flow Statement
• Analyzing and interpreting the AFR
• Teamwork exercise and presentation: Assessing a company’s performance by analyzing their AFR

Day Three: Management Accounting

• Difference between management accounting and financial accounting
• Calculating product costs and managing overheads (indirect costs)
• Overhead apportionment: Absorption costing vs. Activity Based Costing
• Teamwork exercise: Preparing cost estimates for a contract bid
• Cost-Volume-Profit and break-even analysis
• Budgeting: Objectives and process
• Teamwork exercise: Preparing next year’s budgets for a manufacturing business
• Variance Analysis: Analyzing differences between budget and actual

Day Four: Investment Appraisal

• Time value of money: Future values, present values, perpetuities, and growth
• Group discussion: Identifying new investment opportunities
• Teamwork exercise: Basic appraisal methods – Accounting Rate of Return and Payback
• Cost of capital: Equity and Debt
• Teamwork exercise: Calculating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
• Teamwork exercise: Advanced appraisal methods – Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Dealing with capital rationing using the Profitability Index method
• Dealing with forecasting uncertainty using Sensitivity Analysis
• Teamwork exercise: Comprehensive investment appraisal mini-case

Day Five: Treasury and Risk Management

• Interest rate risk
• Group discussion: The role of Treasury
• Managing interest rate risk using options and swaps
• Teamwork exercise: Devising an effective interest rate swap
• Foreign currency risk
• Managing foreign currency risk using natural and transactional techniques
• Teamwork exercise: Hedging the risks of a foreign currency transaction