An insightful, enjoyable and experiential programme to help you analyse data and information and make a balanced decision based upon sound commercial reasoning. It will enable you to identify options, make decisions and take actions based on a thorough analysis combined with instinct and intuition to make a positive effect on profitability.
This programme will help you:
Identify ways to analyse data and sort relevant from irrelevant information
Develop analytical and numerate thinking, and consider the financial implications of a decision
Make decisions based on sound commercial reasoning - a mix of intuition and analysis
Select from a range of tools to analyse a situation and apply these effectively
Understand how costs and profits are calculated
Use tried-and-tested techniques to manage and control your budgets
Appreciate the fundamentals of financial analysis
Focus on the bottom line
Identify the basics of capital investment appraisal for your business
Evaluate results and seek opportunities for improvement to your business
1 The commercial environment
What do shareholders and investors want?
What do managers want?
Profit v non-profit organisations
Investor expectations
2 Financial and non-financial information
Risk and reward considerations
Drivers of commercial decisions
3 Running a business
A practical exercise to bring financial statements to life
Different stakeholder interests in a business
The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements
4 Where do I make a difference to the organisation?
How can I contribute to an improved business performance?
Key performance indicators - measuring the right things
A 'balanced scorecard' approach - it's not all about money!
5 A 'balanced scorecard' approach
Analysing and reviewing my contribution to the business direction
What is the current focus of my commercial decisions?
Developing the business in the right way - getting the balance right!
Where should/could it be in the future?
Do my decisions support the overall vision and strategy?
6 Making commercial decisions
Left-brain and right-brain thinking
Convergent and divergent thinking
Analysis and instinct
Interactive case study exercise - emotional and rational decisions
Reflection - what is my style of making decisions
7 Let's consider the customer!
Identifying target markets
Differentiating propositions and products
Customer service considerations
Marketing considerations and initiatives
Pricing strategies and considerations
8 Strategic analysis
The external environment
The internal environment
LEPEST analysis
SWOT analysis
Forecasting
Group activity - analysing markets and the competition
How do these improve your decisions?
9 Comparing performance
Analysing key financial ratios
Ways to compare performance and results
Break-even analysis
10 Profit and loss accounts and budgeting
Managing income and expenditure
The budgeting process
How does this link to the profit and loss account?
Managing and controlling a cost centre/budget
The role of the finance department
Different ways of budgeting
Incremental budgeting
Zero-based budgeting
11 Understanding the balance sheet
Purpose of balance sheets
Understanding and navigating the content
What does a balance sheet tell you?
How do you affect your balance sheet?
Links to the profit and loss account
A practical team exercise that brings financial statements to life
12 Business decisions exercise
How does this improve your decisions?
A practical exercise to apply new knowledge and bring commercial thinking to to life
The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements
13 Working capital
Why is this important?
The importance of keeping cash flowing
Business decisions that affect cash
Calculating profit
14 Capital investment appraisal
Capex v Opex
Payback
Return on investment
The future value of money
The concept of hurdle rate
15 Lessons learned and action planning
So what?
Recap and consolidation of learning
The decisions that I need to consider
Actions to achieve my plan
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
Businesses that don't control their costs don't stay in business. How well are you doing? Is everyone in your organisation sufficiently aware of costs, managing them effectively and maximising opportunities to reduce them? If there is scope for improvement, this course will help get you back on track. It will demonstrate that cost reduction is so much more than cost control and cost cutting. True cost management is about being aware of costs, seeking to reduce them through good design and efficient operating practices whilst taking continuing action on overspending.
This course will develop the participants' skills in:
Being aware of costs at all times
Seeking cost reduction from the start (including life-cycle costing)
Appraising projects / production to identify and take out risk
Understanding real budgeting
Using techniques such as ZBB and ABC where appropriate
Ensuring cost reports lead to action
Managing a cost reduction process that delivers
Benefits to the organisation will include:
Identification of cost reduction and business improvement opportunities
Better reporting and ownership of costs
Greater awareness and control of everyday costs
1 Introduction - the cost management process
The risks of poor cost control
Capital and revenue costs
The importance of cost awareness
The importance of cost reduction
Cost management - the key aspects
How to build a cost management and control process checklist for your areas of responsibility
2 Cost removal - taking out costs
Cost awareness
Costs of poor design / poor processes
Value engineering
Removing redundant costs
3 The need for commercial, technical and financial appraisals
Understand the problems before cash is committed and costs incurred
Making the effort to identify commercial and technical risk
The time value of money - DCF techniques for long term projects
Cost models for production processes and projects
Costing models - project appraisals
The use of spreadsheets to identify sensitivity and risk
How to focus on risk management
4 Budgeting - proper budgeting challenges costs
The philosophy of the business - are costs an issue?
The importance of having the right culture
The need for detailed business objectives
Budgetary control measures
Designing budget reports - for action
5 Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) - the principles
Much more than starting with a clean sheet of paper
What ZBB can achieve
The concept of decision packages - to challenge business methods and costs
Only necessary costs should be incurred
A review of an operating budget - demonstrating what ZBB challenges and the costs it may lead to being taken out
6 Awareness of overheads and other costs
Definitions of cost - direct and indirect
Dealing with overheads - what is meant by allocation, absorption or apportionment?
The apparent and real problems with overheads
Different ways of dealing with overheads
Review of overhead allocation methods and accounting and reporting issues
7 Overheads and product costing
Activity-based costing (ABC) - the principles
Where and how the ABC approach may be helpful
Know the 'true' cost of a product or a project
Should you be in business? Will you stay in business?
Identifying weaknesses in a traditional overhead allocation
How ABC will help improve product or service costing
Identifying which products and activities should be developed and which abandoned
8 Cost reduction culture
The need for cost reports
What measures can be used to identify over-spends as early as possible
Cost control performance measures and ratios
9 Design of cost control reports
Reports should lead to action and deliver
Selecting cost control measures which can be acted upon
Practice in designing action reports
10 Course summary - developing your own cost action plan
Group and individual action plans will be prepared with a view to participants identifying their cost risks areas and the techniques which can be immediately applied to improve costing and reduce costs
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
Power BI is a powerful data visualisation program that allows businesses to monitor data, analyse trends, and make decisions. This course is designed to provide a solid understanding of the reporting side of Power BI, the dashboards, where administrators, and end users can interact with dynamic visuals that communicates information.
This course focuses entirely on the creation and design of visualisations in dashboards, including a range of chart types, engaging maps, and different types of tables. Designing dashboards with KPI's (key performance indicators), heatmaps, flowcharts, sparklines, and compare multiple variables with trendlines.
This one-day programme focuses entirely on creating dashboards, by using the many visualisation tools available in Power BI.
You will learn to build dynamic, user-friendly interfaces in both Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.
1 Introduction
Power BI ecosystem
Things to keep in mind
Selecting dashboard colours
Importing visuals into Power BI
Data sources for your analysis
Joining tables in Power BI
2 Working with data
Utilising a report theme
Table visuals
Matrix visuals
Drilling into hierarchies
Applying static filters
Group numbers with lists
Group numbers with bins
3 Creating visuals
Heatmaps in Power BI
Visualising time-intelligence trends
Ranking categorical totals
Comparing proportions
View trends with sparklines
4 Comparing variables
Insert key performance indicators (KPI)
Visualising trendlines as KPI
Forecasting with trendlines
Visualising flows with Sankey diagrams
Creating a scatter plot
5 Mapping options
Map visuals
Using a filled map
Mapping with latitude and longitude
Mapping with ArcGIS or ESRI
6 Creating dashboards
High-level dashboard
Migration analysis dashboard
Adding slicers for filtering
Promote interaction with nudge prompts
Searching the dashboard with a slicer
Creating dynamic labels
Highlighting key points on the dashboard
Customised visualisation tooltips
Syncing slicers across pages
7 Sharing dashboards
Setting up and formatting phone views
Exporting data
Creating PDF files
Uploading to the cloud
Share dashboards in SharePoint online
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
Overview
This is a 2 day applied course on XVA for anyone interested in going beyond merely a conceptual understanding of XVA and wants practical examples of Monte Carlo simulation of market risk factors to create exposure distributions and profiles for derivatives used for XVA pricing
Learn how to do Monte Carlo simulation of key market risk factors across major asset classes to create exposure distributions and profiles (with and without collateral) for derivatives used for XVA pricing.
Learn how to calculate each XVA.
Learn sensitivities of each XVA and how XVA desks manage these.
Learn regulatory capital treatment of counterparty credit risk (both for CCR and CVA volatility) and how to stress test this within ICAAP or system-wide external, supervisor-led capital stress test.
Who the course is for
Anyone involved in OTC derivatives
XVA traders
XVA quants
Derivatives traders and salespeople
Risk management
Treasury staff
Internal audit and finance
Course Content
To learn more about the day by day course content please click here
To learn more about schedule, pricing & delivery options, book a meeting with a course specialist now
Delivered in Internationally or OnlineInternationallyorOnlineFlexible Dates
In the past, popular thought treated artificial intelligence (AI) as if it were the domain of science fiction or some far-flung future. In the last few years, however, AI has been given new life. The business world has especially given it renewed interest. However, AI is not just another technology or process for the business to consider - it is a truly disruptive force.
Delivered in Loughborough or UK Wide or OnlineLoughborough or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
This one-day course focuses on issues such as writing formulas and accessing help while writing them, and taking formulas to the next level by nesting one inside another for a powerful formula result. It also looks at ways of analysing data with reports, summarised by varying criteria. A range of time-saving tips and tricks are shared.
This course will help participants:
Calculate with absolute reference
Group worksheets
Link to tables
Use the function library effectively
Get to grips with the logical IF function
Use conditional formatting
Create pivot table reports
Use data validation
Master the VLOOKUP function
1 Calculating with absolute reference
The difference between a relative and absolute formula
Changing a relative formula to an absolute
Using $ signs to lock cells when copying formulas
2 Grouping worksheets
Grouping sheets together
Inputting data into multiple sheets
Writing a 3D formula to sum tables across sheets
3 Linking to tables
Linking to a source table
Using paste link to link a table to another file
Using edit links to manage linked tables
4 The function library
Benefits of writing formulas in the function library
Finding the right formula using insert function
Outputting statistics with COUNTA and COUNTBLANK
Counting criteria in a list with COUNTIFS
5 Logical IF Function
Outputting results from tests
Running multiple tests for multiple results
The concept of outputting results from numbers
6 Conditional formatting
Enabling text and numbers to standout
Applying colour to data using rules
Managing rules
Copying rules with the format painter
7 View side by side
Comparing two Excel tables together
Comparing two sheets together in the same file
8 Pivot table reports
Analysing data with pivot tables
Managing a pivot table's layout
Outputting statistical reports
Controlling number formats
Visualising reports with pivot charts
Inserting slicers for filtering data
9 Data validation
Restricting data input with data validation
Speeding up data entry with data validation
10 VLOOKUP function
Best practices for writing a VLOOKUP
A false type lookup
A true type lookup
Enhance formula results with IFNA
11 Print options
Getting the most from print
Printing page titles across pages
Scaling content for print
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
This one-day workshop is designed to give you an awareness of the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel and, in particular, to give you the confidence needed to efficiently create, edit and manage spreadsheets.
This course will help participants:
Create tables
Use functions
Manage rows and columns
Write formulas
Manage sheets
Use content formats
Handle larger tables
Create reports and charts
1 Creating a table
Creating an Excel table from scratch
Wrapping text in cells
Speeding up data entry using AutoFill
Sorting columns
2 Inserting function
Inserting function calculators
Using AutoSum to sum numbers
Statistical calculations AVERAGE, MAX and MIN
3 Table rows and columns
Inserting and deleting rows and columns
Adjusting multiple column widths and row heights
Hiding and unhiding rows and columns
4 Formula writing
The basics of formula writing
Understanding mathematical symbols
Using multiple mathematical symbols in a formula
When to use brackets
Troubleshooting calculation errors
5 Managing sheets
Inserting, renaming, moving and deleting sheets
Copying a worksheet to another file
Copying a table to another sheet
6 Managing content formats
Applying data formats
Managing number formats
Controlling formats with the Format Painter
7 Managing larger tables
Applying freeze panes to lock tables when scrolling
Sorting on multiple columns
Using filters to extract table information
8 Creating and modifying charts
Creating a pie chart
Creating a column chart
Inserting chart titles and data labels
Controlling chart formatting
Changing chart types
9 Printing
Previewing and printing tables and charts
Modifying page orientation
Adjusting print margins
Printing a selection
10 Calculating with absolute reference
The difference between a relative and absolute formula
Changing a relative formula to an absolute
Using $ signs to lock cells when copying formulas
11 Pivot tables
Create a pivot table report
Insert a pivot chart into a report
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
Most people only use a fraction of Excel's capabilities. This workshop shows what you've been missing!
This course will help participants:
Nest formulas
Get the most from pivot tables
Use conditional formatting
Write array formulas
Explore the lookup functions
Calculate by criteria
Use 'goal seek' and 'scenario manager' for what-if analysis
Record macros
1 Nesting formulas
Principles of nesting formulas together
Using IF with AND or OR to answer questions
Nesting an AND function in an IF
Nesting an OR function in an IF
2 Advanced pivot table reports
Grouping dates, numerical and text items
Running percentage analyse
Running analyses to compare data
Inserting Field calculations
Finishing off with a user-friendly dashboard
3 Advanced conditional formatting
Colour table rows based on criteria in it
Applying colour to approaching dates
Exploring the different rule types
4 Lookup functions
Going beyond the VLOOKUP function
Lookups that retrieve data from left or right
The versatile INDEX and MATCH functions
Retrieving data from columns with duplicates
5 Calculate by criteria
Using SUMIFS to sum by criteria
Finding an average by criteria with AVERAGEIFS
Use SUMPRODUCT to multiply then add different values
6 What-if analysis
Use Goal Seek to meet targets
Forecast reports with the Scenario Manager
7 Recording Macros
Macro security
Understanding a Relative References macro
Recording, running and editing macros
Saving files as Macro Enabled Workbooks
Introduction to VBA code
Making macros available across workbooks
Add a macro button to the Quick Access toolbar
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates
This one-day workshop will give you a better understanding of the components and operations of an Access database. It is designed to build on a user's existing skills and includes useful action queries to allow greater manipulation of a database.
This workshop will help participants:
Ensure the integrity of their databases
Manage field properties
Use the query functions effectively
Save time with the query expression builder
Create different types of query more quickly
Design better forms
Link expressions in forms
Create better and more useful reports
Import and export tables more easily
1 Table relationship integrity
Identifying relationships
Identifying criteria for data integrity
Applying referential integrity
Managing relationship join types
2 Table field properties
Field properties overview
Using input mask field
Using default value fields
Using field validation rules
3 Query functions
Running aggregate function calculations
Running sum, average, count, max and min functions
Grouping calculated data
4 Query calculations
Using query operators and expressions
Adding calculated fields to a query
Using the query expression builder
5 Action queries
Creating make table queries
Creating append queries
Creating update queries
Creating delete queries
6 Designing forms
Adding form controls
Aligning and arranging form controls
Adding pictures and labels to forms
Adding new fields to a form
Controlling tab order
Adding command buttons
Adding a combo box control
Formatting data using conditional formatting
7 Form expressions (calculations)
Using the form expression builder
Working with a property sheet within a form
Linking expressions within a form
8 Working with reports
Creating reports with the report wizard
Inserting report fields
Formatting fields
Inserting report headers and footers
Working with a property sheet within a report
9 Grouped reports
Creating groups with the report wizard
Sorting grouped data
Grouping alphabetically
Grouping on date intervals
Creating sub reports
Adding calculations to groups
10 Importing and exporting tables
Importing tables into Access
Exporting tables from Access
Importing and linking data in Access
Delivered in Harpenden or UK Wide or OnlineHarpenden or UK WideorOnlineFlexible Dates