Finance for Non Finance Professionals Training Course in Dubai, UAE

Course overview

Finance skills have become crucial for every business professional who is involved in making financial decisions. Understanding of fundamental budgeting principles can help to make more rational and justified financial management decisions which are backed up with calculation.

This basic finance skills training provides you with all the tools you need to effectively analyze your business and work from a financial performance perspective. You will be able to analyze the three financial statements and how they are linked with each other: the Profit & Loss Statement (P&L), the Balance Sheet, and the Cash Flow Statement. You will learn how to analyze the performance of the company or your department even further by using key financial ratios; you will get a basic understanding of financial reporting and financial investment decision-making. The course will cover Investment Appraisal, which means how to determine whether a new investment or new business venture will provide a good Return on Investment. This course on financial performance and analysis has a high level of involvement. For each section of the course, once you learn the structure and approach, you will do practical tasks, quizzes, and exercises. We will use the same fictional business throughout the course for financial statements and analysis.

The participants of this finance for non-finance managers course will get the following outcomes from the training:

• Understand the structure of the P&L, the Balance Sheet, and the Cash Flow Statement
• Be able to grasp the financial statements to understand the performance of the business
• To understand the connections between the three fundamental financial statements
• Know how to manage Working Capital to increase cash flow on the same revenue
• Understand how to use financial ratios to analyze the performance of the business
• Get an essential understanding of budgeting and how to connect it with your strategy

Who Should Attend

• Project Managers and Team Leaders
• Divisional and Department Heads
• Department Heads & Managers
• Investment professionals
• Business Owners and Entrepreneurs
• Experienced Managers and Directors who want to improve their financial acumen
• Managers and Executives of all levels with a non-financial background
• Individuals who want to raise their financial awareness

What will you gain

• Acquire fundamental knowledge of financial principles to improve budget management
• Become an advanced decision maker with the help of modern financial tools and methods
• Understand how provisions such as bad debts and warranties affect your P&L
• Be aware of how to understand the Balance Sheet and analyze Working Capital
• Grasp the essentials of the structure of the Cash Flow Statement and its importance
• Know how accruals and prepaids are dealt with on the three fundamental financial statements
• Realize the importance of optimum asset utilization and its practical application
• Know how to efficiently use breakeven analysis for better decision making
• Use variance analysis for successful operational controlling and monitoring
• Understand budgeting foundations and be able to operate with various budgeting approaches
• Apply Investment Appraisal techniques (ROI) to evaluate investment decisions

Course content

• The role of finance and accounting in the modern organization
• The proper relationship between finance and operations
• The main three financial statements
  • Quick overview
  • The purpose of financial statements
• The purpose of profit
• Understanding and analyzing the P&L
  • Direct costs and indirect costs
  • Analyzing gross profit
  • Analysing operating expenses
  • Defining more controllable vs. less controllable costs
  • Comparison and contrasting EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) and PAT (Profit After Tax)
  • Reading the P&L for the “story of the business.”
• Gross margin vs. mark-up
• The 1% difference
  • How small changes leverage to big changes
• Allocation of overheads to the operations
• Two forms of analysis and its difference
  • Vertical analysis
  • Horizontal analysis
  • Performing an Interpreting vertical and horizontal analysis on the P&L
• Understanding and analyzing the Balance Sheet
  • Balance Sheet Structure: Assets, Liabilities and Owner’s Equity
  • Reading the Balance Sheet to extend the “story of the business”
  • Analyzing Working Capital
  • Analysing the capital structure
  • What does a “weak” Balance Sheet vs a “strong” Balance Sheet mean?
• Accrual accounting
  • The Revenue Recognition Principle
  • The Matching Principle
  • Provisions
  • Sales commissions
• Managing Prepaid Expenses and Customer Advance Payments
  • Effect on the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement
• Depreciation
  • Depreciation calculation method
  • Depreciation effects on the P&L and the Balance Sheet
  • Depreciation as accrual accounting
• Understanding and analyzing the Cash Flow Statement
  • The structure of the Cash Flow Statement: Operating Cash Flow, Investing Cash Flow, Financing Cash Flow
  • Free Cash Flow
  • Extend the “story of the business” even further with the Cash Flow Statement
• The link between Working Capital and Cash Flow
• How the P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement connect
• Ratio Analysis
  • Profit ratios: Gross Margin, EBITDA Margin, Net Margin
  • The Dupont Ratios: arriving at ROA (Return On Assets), ROCE (Return On Capital Employed), ROE (Return On Equity)
  • Liquidity ratios: Current Ratio, Quick Ratio
  • Operational efficiency ratios: Inventory Turn/Days, Days Sales Outstanding, Days Payable Outstanding
  • Financial risk ratios: Leverage Ratio, Interest Cover
• Breakeven analysis (cost-volume-profit analysis)
  • Unit contribution and contribution margin
  • Determining the breakeven volume and revenue
  • Determining the required volume for a target profit
  • Volume targets to maintain profits after price changes
  • Using breakeven analysis as a criterion in decision making
• Budgeting and controlling
  • The connection between the budget and strategy
  • Different budgeting approaches
  • Sales budgeting
  • Expenses budgeting
  • The steps in the budgeting process
  • Information flow in the budgeting process
• Controlling and variance analysis
  • The role and function of controlling
  • Variance analysis
• Investment Appraisal for capital budgeting and business expansion (ROI – Return on Investment)
  • What is investment appraisal?
  • Determining the investing cash flows
  • The first filter: Payback Period
  • The time value of money
  • The cost of capital (discount rate, WACC, hurdle rate, etc.)
  • Deciding the required/targeted rate of return (WACC)
  • Net Present Value (NPV)
  • Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
  • Sometimes we invest despite a poor ROI!