FINANCE ESSENTIALS FOR NON-FINANCE PROFESSIONAL

This workshop is specifically designed for professionals, managers and executives to help reinforce their understanding of key finance principles that are a part of everyday business and to raise their level of financial awareness. The workshop will be delivered in an easy-to-understand manner to eliminate the mystery behind the numbers.

Professionals, managers and executives involved in business activities with financial implications. This workshop is not for Accounting or Finance specialists.

Selected Session Topics

Where Companies Get Their Funds From

• Investors and their expectations
• How investors measure return on their investments
• Sources of funds: share capital, loan capital, reserves and retained profits

How Companies Use Their Funds

• Uses of funds: current and non-current assets

Some Major Components of Financial Reports

• The balance sheet, income statement and cashflow statement

Interpreting the Balance Sheet

• What the balance sheet tells us
• Understanding the balance sheet equation
• Understanding the terminology  relating to assets:
• depreciation, amortization, impairment, etc
• net book value, carrying value, net realizable value, etc
• Understanding the terminology  relating to liabilities: accruals, provisions, etc

Interpreting the Income Statement

• Categories and types of income and expense
• Understanding the difference between capital and revenue expenditure
• Understanding the terminology  relating to profits: margin, contribution, EBIT, etc

Cashflow Management

• The cash operating cycle
• What affects a company’s cashflow
• Monitoring cashflows
• Working capital management                        

Analysing Business Performance

• How to compare financial performance between companies
• Relevant financial ratios: profitability, efficiency, liquidity, leverage and investment ratios

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Explain the importance of understanding investor expectations and how investors measure financial performance of organizations
• Identify the accounting framework that governs financial reporting
• Read simple financial statements including the balance sheet, income statement and cashflow statement
• Perform a quick assessment of the financial position and performance of companies based on their financial statements
• Clarify other common financial terms used in business

Ms. Lum Woon Foong.As a practitioner, consultant and trainer for more than 15 years, Ms Lum has wide experiences in designing training that has a strong link with real life business requirements. She has conducted training for a wide range of personnel, from clerks to managers to Board members. Her passion is in making subjects which are perceived as difficult to understand into something enjoyable and easy to learn.

FINANCE & ACCOUNTING FOR THE NON-FINANCIAL MANAGER

Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager provides a rock-solid foundation in the core language and principles of financial analysis and decision making. In a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner, the course covers the essential concepts of how financial data is generated, reported, and used – including terminology and principles, financial statements, distinctions between income and cash flow, and valuation. Participants will learn how to become a more discerning reader of financial information and gain a practical understanding of how financial data is used to make busines decisions or evaluate an organisation’s past, present, and future performance.

This “fundamentals” course is an excellent foundation for anyone new to financial concepts and techniques or for any executive who wants to update his or her knowledge of basic finance and accounting. It is particularly applicable to individuals whose backgrounds are in creative, scientific, or technical fields.

Selected Session Topics

- Accountingterminology and underlying concepts

- The role of various financial statements

- Distinguishing income from cash flow

- The accounting process

- The quality of earnings

- Financial decision making

- Analysis of financial reports

- Learn to adeptly read and assess financial statements.

- Understand how the numbers are generated, how they can be
  manipulated, and which ones to rely on for making informed
  decisions.

- Become familiar with the different types of financial reports,
  cash flow, and investment analyses.

- Understand the core financial tools used to evaluate business
  opportunities, assess financial risks, and communicate your
  ideas to others.

- Gain exposure to diverse financial approaches, including
  methods of valuation and ways to use hedging and derivatives
  to reduce risk exposure.

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANNING

All to often organisations operate on a very ad-hoc and reactive basis. This normally means that they are failing to optimise their performance. Having clear strategies in place, recognising potential future problems, and enabling pre-emptive action to be identified and actioned is something that all organisations can benefit from. This course will enable individuals to evaluate the main facets of the organisation and therefore to be able to create a planning framework for the future and so capitalise on the strengths of the organisation.

Anyone who has been asked to put together a strategic plan. All personnel involved in, or wishing to gain a better understanding of, the planning process.

Selected Session Topics

- Management responsibilities – planning, decision
   making, control

- Levels of management (Strategic, Tactical, Operational)

- The Mission Statement

- Strategic objectives (SMART)

- Stakeholders – Power & Interest

- The position audit

- Environmental analysis

- SWOT and corporate appraisal

- Strategic choice

- Strategy implementation

- Control & review – GAP Analysis

- Freewheeling opportunism

- Know how to assess the current position.

- Learn how to identify future strategies.

- Discover why organisations fail or fail to grow.

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT: CREATING CORPORATE VALUE

Enterprise Risk Management: Creating Corporate Value is one of the first executive programmes to provide strategies for using risk management as a lever for increasing company value. The programme bridges the gap between corporate finance and risk management.

The course is designed for senior executives from both financial and non-financial firms who have significant managerial responsibility for finance, risk, and corporate governance. This includes leaders of business units with risk and financial responsibilities, as well as corporate directors, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CROs, treasurers, and members of their staff.

Selected Session Topics

- The risk financing decision

- Conventional capital structure and risk management
   theories

- The capital structure of a firm

- Responsibility for risk and capital decisions

- Learn how to develop a “risk map” to identify and manage the
   complete set of risks facing a company across all operations.

- Make wiser corporate finance decisions by understanding how
   enterprise risk factors impact capital structure.

- Use risk management as an additional lever to create
   shareholder value.

- Gain a more strategic perspective on risk management, and
   become more aware of the risks that could create or destroy
   value.

- Assess whether investments in risk mitigation, such as
   insurance, actually build or erode value for the organisation.

- Understand your true cost of capital, and better deploy capital in
   light of risks.

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE FOR NON-ACCOUNTING MANAGERS

Accounting is the language of business. Finance is its fuel. Familiarity with the principles and practice of accounting and finance is indispensable for professionals who need to function within multidisciplinary working teams.

The objectives of this two-day workshop is to equip non-accounting managers with the knowledge and skills needed for understanding the accounting and financial processes within the organization, appreciating fundamental accounting concepts, understanding and analyzing financial statements, using costing and managerial accounting tools, undertaking basic financial calculations and evaluate investment proposals.

Participants will appreciate the managerial aspects of accounting and finance through facilitation by a professional trainer who has numerous years of experience in senior accounting and finance roles.

• Non-Accounting managers and executives who need to grasp the managerial aspects of accounting and finance for corporate effectiveness
• Technical Specialists in Engineering, Information Technology and Applied Sciences
• Sales and Marketing Managers
• Human Resources Managers
• Business Development Managers

After attending this 2-day workshop, participants will:

• Appreciate the functions of business finance in evaluating investment proposals
• Be familiar with financial mathematics
• Evaluate investment proposals using the ROI, Payback and the Net Present Value methods
• Be familiar with the managerial aspects of management accounting and costing
• Know how to undertake Cost-Volume-Profit analysis using Microsoft Excel
• Know how to derive cost functions using Microsoft Excel
• Understand the budgeting, planning and performance management processes within organizations
• Understand the differences between financial accounting and management accounting
• Understand fundamental accounting concepts and principles
• Be comfortable interpreting financial statements (Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statements)
• Be able to analyze important financial ratios
• Understand the basics of share valuation techniques