Understanding Finance in Organisations

A Certificate of Participation is awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/learning activities for the duration of the course. This tutor-led, cohort-based online course is 7-weeks in duration and is made up of 5 teaching units. Unit 1 - Financial reporting and accounts Participants will gain a sound appreciation of the meaning and practicalities of financial reporting and accounts, together with its key terminology and conventions. By studying this unit the students should have: - Understood the key conventions of the five primary financial statements in the financial reports of a large organisation, and the links between them. - Appreciated and applied the important accounting concepts of recognition, disclosure, depreciation, and amortisation. - Understood and worked with accruals, provisions, debtors, creditors, and other receivables and payables. Unit 2 - Financial planning and forecasting Participants will grasp the fundamental importance of financial planning and forecasting, via mini-case studies. By studying this unit the students should have: - Understood the key conventions of budgets, forecasts and variance analysis, including examples of favourable and adverse variances. - Understood and applied the concepts of gross and net profit, EBITDA, direct and indirect costs, and contribution. Unit 3 - Making friends with spreadsheets This week we'll aim to improve the reliability and speed of your financial modelling work to support and deepen understanding of financial reporting, forecasting and decision making. By studying this unit the students should have: - Appreciated the enormous potential of Excel to increase the speed, reliability and presentation of financial analysis. - Understood the fundamental importance of structuring Excel workbooks. - Learned the most important of Excel’s native functionality. - Understood the important differences between navigation, selection and editing. - Used the keyboard when appropriate, in place of the mouse. Unit 4 -  Financial decision making Participants will gain comfort and confidence with the practice and theory of financial decision making. By studying this unit the students should have: - Appreciated the meaning and importance of production and pricing decisions, and scarce resource analysis. - Understood and applied payback and discounted cash flow analysis. - Integrated this understanding with their work in Units 1, 2 and 3. Unit 5 -  Getting your proposals considered In this unit we'll appreciate why and how financial decision makers require proposals to be presented for consideration, and will apply this understanding in a self-chosen case study. By studying this unit the students should have: - Understood the reasons why financial decision makers need particular information about operational proposals, presented in conventional ways. - Connected this understanding with their learning from units 1 to 4 of the course. - Deepened and broadened their practical appreciation of these concepts, by applying them to a self-chosen case study.