Course Outline

What do accountants do?

• The finance function, types of accountant, financial v management accounting and the treasury function
• Understanding the role of the finance function and how the information you provide may be used

 The basic financial statements

• Balance sheets and income statements (P&L accounts)
• What they are, what they contain and above all what they can reveal – how to read them
• The accounting process – from transactions to financial statements
• What underpins the statements – accounting systems and internal controls

 Why be in business? – from a financial perspective

• The driving forces behind financial information
• Performance measures – profitability, asset utilisation, sales and throughput, managing capital expenditure

 Accounting rules – accounting standards

• Accounting concepts and the accounting rules: accruals, ‘going concern’, substance over form and other ‘desirable qualities’
• Accruals – why the timing of a transaction is so important to the finance function
• Depreciation and amortisation – the concepts and practice
• Accounting standards – the role of International Financial Reporting Standards

 Cash

• The importance of cash flow – working capital management
• Cash flow statements – monitoring overall cash flows
• Raising cash – levels of borrowing, gearing
• Spending cash – an outline of capital expenditure appraisal

Budgeting

• Why budget? – good and bad practice
• Determining why budgets play a key role and should not be simply an annual ritual
• Justifying your budgets – the link between the strategic plan and day-to-day budgeting – alignment of company culture
• Budgets as motivators – the importance of the right culture
• Techniques to improve budgeting – whether day-to-day or capital budgeting

 Costing

• The type and detail of costing very much depends on the nature of your business
• Issues with overhead allocation
• Accounting for R&D

Reading financial statements

• Annual financial statements – why they are produced, what’s in them and what you should look for
• Learning what a set of accounts reveals about a company’s current situation, profitability and future prospects

Performance measurement – analytical reviews and ratio analysis

• ROI/ROCE
• Profitability, margins and cost control
• Sales – asset turnover
• Efficiency (asset / stock turnover, debtor / creditor days)
• ‘City’ measures
• Investment (interest / dividend cover, earnings per share, dividend yield)