Finance for Non-Financial Managers

This program is developed for mid-to-senior level executives in general management, corporate planning, marketing and sales, or other functional areas who have little or no academic training in finance or accounting and who wishes to update his or her knowledge of basic finance and accounting. Appropriate for executives from organizations of any size or industry.

Breakthrough the language of finance and understand the basic accounting model and its limitations;
Understand financial statements and their relationship to your strategic decisions;
Analyse and interpret financial statements within the context of industry analysis and macroeconomic fundamentals;
Understand forecasting techniques;
Provides rigorous tools and approaches to measure the effectiveness of your expenditures;
Communicate more effectively with financial managers and accountants;
Understand different valuation techniques and respective benchmarks.

Award the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics "Finance for Non-Financial Managers" Advanced Training Course Certificate of completion.

As a business executive, you experience the tide of global change in ways few others do. And you know that to manage this tide, which will only intensify in the years ahead, you need a foundation that is at once timeless and flexible.
Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, ratio, variable, EVA, LIFO, FIFO――for many executives, the terms of accounting and finance seem like a foreign language. What do these terms mean and how do they relate to your role in your organization? How do your decisions affect your organization´s profitability? Most important, how can you utilize these concepts to become a greater asset to your company?
Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager teaches how financial data is generated and reported, as well as how it is used for decision making, analysis and valuation. The course blends broad financial principles with practical applications. The course begins by describing the accounting process and the creation of financial statements. It examines specific accounting methods and demonstrates how these choices affect earnings. Once you gain an ability to read financial statements in depth, you will be better able to spot trends and study your company and its competition with a keener eye. More importantly, they show you exactly how these concepts and techniques are applicable in real business situations. A primary objective of this course is to make its content applicable to your own business or managerial circumstances.


[Topics Covered ]
DAY ONE
Part 1 Accounting Information――The language of business
The key concerned in this part is how financial data is generated and reported.
What is financial accounting?
Why Financial Accounting is Necessary?
Some process, terminology and concepts
Learn how financial data is generated and reported
Users and Interpretation of Financial Statements
Managers and Financial Statements
Discussion: Business Ethics
Part 2 Demystify financial statements
The second part is devoted to an analysis of financial statements. Analytical tools designed to shed light on the impact of alternative accounting methods are also emphasized.
How many earnings do we have?
Components of Financial Reports
Basic Understanding: How Accounting Information Assists in Decision making
Understand how accountants measure income, and show how it is related to a balance sheet.
Use financial data to evaluate the performance of your department, organization, or division
What limits the levels of relevance and reliability?
Earnings management
Case: Analyzing the effects of price-changes on financial statements.
Analysis of Financial statements――where do you find useful information？
Revisit the Income Statement
Cash Flow Statement
Distinguishing income from cash flow
Provide a framework which can be applied to analyze and interpret any set of financial accounting statements.
Know effects of price-changes on financial statements.
Implications of Revenue Recognition
Qualitative Characteristics of Financial Information
Know effects of fair value measurement on financial statement
Case: Analyzing and interpreting a listed company’s annual report.
Part 3: Use of Financial Data in Decision Making
The third part focuses on the major objectives of users of financial information and on techniques applied by them in reaching significant conclusions and decisions.
Financial decision Making:
Locate and use sources of information about business performance
Brand as a platform strategy
Linking marketing metrics to financial metrics
Project Evaluation
Preparing a business plan
Cases: When Art Meets Science: The Challenge of ROI Marketing
Cash is king!
Produce project cash flows that are more real than wishful
Cash flow forecasts as a planning tool.
Model the risk of technical failure
Cases: A time to Harvest: This Could Be The Time to Cut R&D and Marketing
……………………………………………………………………
DAY TWO
Part 1 Management accounting and strategic management
How to use the Management Accounting to make decisions? How to use the data to cut cost or create value?
Accounting creates value
Functions of management accounting
Management accounting compared to financial accounting
Behavioral implications of management accounting information
The balanced scorecard
Introduction to financial reporting and budgeting
Case: A example of the balanced scorecard
Selecting the best costing method for situation
How the use of cost information defines its focus and form.
The costing principles and avoiding costing traps.
The difference between traditional cost management systems and activity-based cost management systems.
Break-even analysis: ensuring fixed costs are covered.
Case: Freeconomics
Practical pricing theory
The cost information for pricing and product planning.
cost based pricing: a value-added approach
customers: an outside in pricing
competitors: predict their price
how to price effectively for profit, evaluating pricing methods
Cases: The Long Tail and The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule)
Part 2 being a successful investment decision maker
Perhaps the biggest mistake that an established business can make is paying too much for an acquisition, or selling part of the business for too little. The course will discuss the most commonly applied valuation tools.
Capital Markets and Financial Instruments
An introduction to capital markets
Cost of capital
Managing risk
Forward rate agreements
Futures\Options\Swaps
Case: A introduction about the EVA
Risk and Corporate Characteristics
The fundamental tools of investment appraisal.
The cost of capital and WACC, and how these are determined.
Gearing and beta factors
The analysis of return of capital employed, payback period, and discounted cash flow.
The sensitivity analysis: how sensitive are key decision to potential changes in circumstances.
Risk management processes
Approaches to Valuation
Case: Focus on Fundamentals: Finance and Investing


[Training Fee]
Duration of public course is two days; and charge of training is 9800RMB including cost for training, information and tea break. Prices for group or internal training may be discussed in details.