17 Courses in Edinburgh

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)

The course helps participants understand the role of demand and inventory planning in the wider context of supply chain management. It aims to demonstrate how to improve the alignment between supply and demand to maintain good levels of customer service and on-shelf availability whilst eliminating excess stock and reducing inventory investment. PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN HOW TO: • Understand the role of demand management and its benefits • Identify the key demand characteristics and patterns; learn how to use them to improve forecast accuracy • Develop an understanding of key qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods • Learn how to conduct fundamental inventory analyses with a view to achieving the appropriate trade-off between stock and service level COURSE TOPICS INCLUDE: The role of Demand Management • The end-to-end view of Supply Chain Management • Demand Characteristics and the Product Life Cycle • Demand patterns • Push and pull systems Background to forecasting • The forecasting Process • Time-series methods of forecasting • Calculating forecast errors Inventory Analysis • Categorisation of stock • ABC Analysis • Economic order quantity and minimum order quantity • Safety stock and stock cover Inventory Management • Materials requirements planning (MRP) • Stock replenishment systems • Practical inventory management • The cost of managing stock

This course will provide the key to successful inventory management, by combining practical inventory control techniques with sound procurement practice, to produce a solid foundation to enable your supply chain to meet customer expectations at the lowest possible cost. PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN HOW TO: • Understand the role of inventory in an effective supply chain. • Understand categories of stock and how to tailor stockholdings. • Learn how to utilize key concepts, variables and metrics that allow for effective management of inventory. • Understand how product demand and product lifecycle are connected to inventory management. COURSE TOPICS INCLUDE: • Demand Characteristics and the Product Life Cycle • Push and pull systems • Demand forecasting • Categorisation of stock • ABC Analysis • Economic order quantity and minimum order quantity • Safety stock and stock cover • Materials requirements planning (MRP) • Stock replenishment systems • The cost of managing stock

What are the long-term effects of having been sent to boarding school? For one a reticence to ever talk about it is pretty common! This structured talk gets boarders reacting with "I thought I was the only one!" and helps the therapists 'see' the experience beyond what is depicted in popular culture. Carefully crafted to give former boarders a way to express their experiences without sounding 'spoit' or 'ungrateful'.

Overview Understand the role of corporate structure, dividends and equity indices in equity markets. Become familiar with the building blocks of repos / stock lending, futures and forwards – and how to use these products. Understand how to price, and risk manage equity swaps and dividend swaps. Gain experience in their uses in trading, corporate finance and portfolio management. Learn how to price equity options and the features that make them different from other asset classes, explore how to use these products for taking equity risk, yield enhancement and portfolio protection. Understand strategies designed to trade / hedge volatility using options. Who the course is for Risk management Finance Sales and trading Treasury Technology Financial Engineering Course Content To learn more about the day by day course content please request a brochure To learn more about schedule, pricing & delivery options, book a meeting with a course specialist now

This course was developed for one of the largest investment institutions in the world, a multi-trillion household name. We explain in detail our tips and tricks to build an accurate and rolling enterprise value, and then review different valuation methodologies, from DCF, through the sum of the parts and football field analyses to LTV/CAC based methods. We conclude with a series of case studies examining the valuation of individual stocks.

Our Forensic Accounting Course is designed to help investment analysts detect earnings manipulation. It focuses on creative accounting rather than conducting detailed forensic analysis but we explain the tools short sellers employ to detect fraud and some of the techniques we used at hedge funds to identify short opportunities.