What do engineers and project managers need to know of finance? 'Nothing - leave it to the accountants!'
No, no, no! Engineers must be conversant with the terminology and statements that accountants use. Technical expertise in projects, service delivery, production or other areas can only really be harnessed if the managers understand the accounting and reporting that drives businesses.
This course gives the necessary understanding to project, production and technical managers. It develops their skills in understanding financial and management accounting.
Accountants may not always like it but a major part of their work is to be the 'servants of business' and to gather, compile and present your figures. So you must understand the figures - they belong to you, your processes or projects. There are many reasons for maintaining accurate accounts. This course focuses on the strategic issues (those over-used words) - what figures reveal about the drivers of business and what they reveal about the day-to-day issues that accountants bother you with. The course will enhance your understanding of finance and of the accounting issues which affect your projects, production and technical areas of business.
This course will help you:
Understand the business world in figures - make sense of what the accountants are telling you
Appreciate what drives business - and how this affects your role in your part of the business
Relate your activities to the success of the business - through figures
Gain the skills to advance in management - financial awareness is a 'must have' if you are to progress in your career
1 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
2 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
3 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
4 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
5 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
6 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
7 Costing
The type and detail of costing very much depends on your business - eg, manufacturing piston rings is quite different from the construction of a power plant
Issues with overhead allocation
Accounting for R&D
8 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
9 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)