Overview:

Financial management draws extensively on accounting information. Financial management is seen as a decision making function that uses accounting information. Financial accounting is mainly concerned with recording, classifying and reporting the financial transactions of an organisation. Knowledge of basic financial accounting is a prerequisite to becoming a financially astute manager.

Organisations operate in a very competitive and ever changing environment where effective decision-making is crucial for an organisation to be able to survive or even be profitable. An important resource for decision-making is financial information. It is important for managers in an organisation to interpret, analyse and evaluate this information effectively.

Benefits:

This course will provide the learner with an introduction to financial accounting. It assumes no previous knowledge of the topics presented and that the learners may come from a wide variety of backgrounds. It, therefore, tries to avoid technical jargon and does not assume that learners have high levels of numerical ability.

The course does not cover double-entry bookkeeping. It is believed that learners can gain a sufficient grasp of how transactions are recorded, and their ultimate effect on the balance sheet and income statement, by dealing with them on a ‘plus and minus’ basis.

Learners will gain an understanding of the nature and purpose of the main financial statements by experiencing the preparation of such statements. The user-friendly approach adopted is conducive to the learning and understanding of the principles that guide their preparation.

Learners will gain an understanding of how to analyse a company’s overall performance and assess its financial standing through ratio analysis.

Topics include:

1. Financial statements The first seminar deals with the main principles that guide the preparation of basic financial statements. The purpose, role and structure of the main financial statements will be explained on a step-by-step basis.
2. Preparation of financial statements
3. Based on the knowledge gained from the first seminar learners will experience the preparation of basic financial statements in a user-friendly way and on a step-by-step basis.
4. Ratio analysis: the theory behind the analysis
5. After the demonstration of the preparation of financial statements, learners will be introduced to the nature, role and usefulness of ratio analysis.
6. Ratio analysis in practice
7. Learners will experience the practice of ratio analysis. They will be able to analyse the financial statements they learnt to prepare. Learners will be able to measure key financial aspects of a company’s performance.