Essentials of Finance & Accounting for Non-Financial Managers with Lee Warren, Ph.D.

Program Outcomes:

How will this information help you in your job?

•   You’ll gain working knowledge of the all-important numbers side of your business.
•  You’ll be able to recognize and interpret financial statement information.
•  You’ll be able understand and work with financial managers.
•  You’ll be able to evaluate your decisions with insights from the financial information.
•  You’ll have a better understanding of your company and its performance.
•  You’ll be able to deal more effectively with budgets—formulating them, evaluating them, and using them.
• You’ll learn the behavioral implications of financial decisions and how these translate into performance measures.

Target Audience:

• Non-financial managers in every functional area of responsibility
• Managers from areas such as marketing, sales, human resources, manufacturing, and engineering
• General managers from all types of industries
• Professionals and individual contributors with non-financial backgrounds
• Internal or external consultants and small business owners
• Anyone without a financial background who wants to gain a better understanding of the numbers side of their business
• Anyone who wants to gain the confidence to work more productively with financial managers

Program Outline:

Day 1

I.    Learning the Language

    • Key finance terms—assets, liabilities, capitalization, and more

   • The general ledger system—how debits and credits work

II.  The Rules—Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

   • Accounting assumptions and conventions

   • Cash-basis versus accrual-basis accounting

   • Who sets the rules?

III.  The Financial Statements

   • Using the balance sheet to evaluate a firm’s financial position

   • Using the income statement to evaluate a firm’s performance

   • Using the statement of cash flows to evaluate a firm’s cash position

  • Understanding how you can use financial statement information in your job

IV.  Current Issues in Earnings Management

   • Revenue recognition

  • Capitalizing versus expensing costs

  • Extraordinary items

  • Reserves

Day 2

V.  Financial Statement Analysis

   • Vertical and horizontal analysis

   • Common ratios

   • Notes to the financial statements

VI. Budgeting

     • Mechanics of the budget

     • The budgeting process

     • Behavioral implications of budgets

     • Short- and long-term planning

     • Flexible budgeting and performance evaluation

As part of your registration confirmation package, you will receive a list of financial and accounting terms that will give you a head start in understanding the language of finance. You will leave the program with not only enhanced financial knowledge but also with practical tools and tips on how to use this information on your job.