Advanced Accounting and Budgeting for Managers

Key Financial Concepts and Principles

• Bookkeeping versus accounting
• Cash accounting versus accrual accounting and use in private and public sectors
• Types of accounts in the General Ledger, their purpose and the chart of accounts
• Double-entry bookkeeping concepts and implications
• Depreciation and amortisation

Reading Financial Statements, Public and Private Sector

• International standards in the private and public sectors, IFRS and IPSAS
• Format and content of the statement of financial position (balance sheet)
• Format and content of the statement of profit or loss
• IPSAS principles of financial statements presentation for the public sector
• Investor ratios

Management Accounting

• Financial accounting and management accounting compared
• Types of management information prepared for internal consumption
• Financial information managers need to manage – the power of comparisons
• Analysing costs, key ratio calculations for management and variance analysis, including ROE, ROA and liquidity ratios

Managing the Finances and Costs of Projects

• Financial aspects of building the business case and getting approval for funding
• Estimating project costs – different estimating techniques, expert, analogous, parametric, bottom up etc.
• Project forecasts, cost variances and cost control
• Project risks and financial implications

Building an Effective Budget

• Public sector v. Private sector budgeting differences in purpose, processes and motive.
• Budgetary methodologies, incremental and zero-based
• Budget and variance analysis
• End of week quiz to appraise learning achieved

Interpreting Financial Statements

• The income statement (P & L) statement, format, content and key concepts
• Interpretation of key ratios derived from the income statement; P/E ratio, Profit margin
• The language and major components of the balance sheet
• Business ratios derived from the balance sheet and P & L together, liquidity, debt, profitability etc.

Investment Appraisal

• Defining the value generated and the required return – the hurdle rate
• Return on capital employed – calculation methodology and interpretation
• Payback period calculations
• NPV and IRR calculations
• Non-financial aspects of investment appraisal and decision making

Essential Budgeting Processes

• Purpose and benefits, problems and limitations of capital and operational budgets and the important differences
• Budget processes in the private sector
• Budget processes in the public sector
• Identification of risks to the budget and actions to mitigate them

Measuring Financial Performance

• What is financial performance?
• Financial performance in the public sector
• The importance of cash flow – how to measure and improve it
• Gross profit, operating profit, net profit margin
• Key investor ratios