Finance for Non-Finance Managers, for Schools, Colleges, Universities and Charities

• Delegate Comments

  ‘Course leader had excellent subject knowledge and covered a large amount of information.’
  Edward Rees – Headmaster, Hornby House School

  ‘I enjoyed the course. The background knowledge is invaluable. I am now in a position to question my Finance Directors with some degree of confidence.’
  James Mitchell, Deputy Head Teacher, The Gilberd School

  ‘I really enjoyed the course and learnt a lot.’
  Finance Officer, A large primary school

  ‘Really well pitched. Lots of food for thought.’
  Grant McAllister – Service Director, SSERC

  ‘High level and very useful.’
  Elliott Gathercole – Senior Manager, London Nightline

  ‘An absolutely brilliant training session on finance for non-financial managers. It was the best training course I’ve ever attended.’
  Charlotte Sansom – Senior PR Manager, DWF LLP

• Course Overview

  This course is specifically designed for executives from Schools, Colleges, Universities and Charities. The course is being constantly updated to always contain the latest financial issues and includes information on financial matters that have only come into force in 2015. In particular it includes the impact of SORP 2015 and FRS 102, which are the latest relevant accounting standards. This course places a great emphasis on hands-on case studies, where attendees get the opportunity for frequent practice to reinforce the skills and knowledge learned and really to integrate them into their core knowledge and skill set, so that their future use becomes instinctive and automatic.

  This course will provide the essential knowledge of those key financial management issues and concepts that are needed by successful Managers, Executives, Directors, Trustees and Consultants in order to provide the best possible service to their organisations and to remain ahead of their fellow professionals. The increasingly complex and fast moving world of today, with its very flat management structures, requires a firm grasp and an in depth understanding of a whole range of financial concepts and skills.

  The completion of this course will provide a good grasp of the key elements of Management Accounts and Statutory Financial Accounts. It will also provide a sound theoretical financial knowledge base upon which to build and acquire new and more advanced financial management skills. The theoretical knowledge will be reinforced by hands-on case studies.

  Attendees will become highly skilled at reading and understanding Income and Expenditure accounts, as well as company Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss Accounts. You will be able to identify and understand the reasons for the key differences between company accounts and charity accounts. You will become more involved with all types of financial discussions within your organisation. You will be more confident and comfortable when communicating with financial managers, directors, trustees, investors, suppliers and key clients.

  There will be numerous case studies based around real published accounts of Schools, Colleges and Charities.

• Course Content

  Charities Commission

  • Sector overview
  • Definitions and key requirements
  • Key information

  Charity, College, University and School Financial Statements

  • Income and Expenditure Account
  • Statement of Asset and Liabilities
  • Cash Flow Statements: Importance of cash flow and Impact of credit and credit control, Problems affecting cash flow, Dealing with Debtors and Creditors
  • Comparison with standard company accounts to highlight the key differences

  Accounting and the Law

  • Accounting principles & policies, as well as (GAAP)
  • The different legal structures under which organisations can operate
  • Terminology & Jargon

  Income Surplus and Treatment of Reserves

  • The importance of reserves
  • What they represent
  • Relationship to cash
  • Relationship to real future expenditure
  • Adequate but not excessive reserves
  • Management of the total reserves

  SORP 2015, FRS17 and FRS 102

  • What are they
  • To whom do they apply
  • What are the key changes
  • What will be their main impact

  Using Key Ratios to Analyse Accounts and to Support Investment Decisions

  • Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
  • Current Ratios and Quick Ratios
  • Debtor Days and Creditor Days
  • Stock days and Stock Turn
  • Gearing and its impact upon risk and returns; is the level of borrowing too risky?
  • Liquidity, could the organisation hit cash flow problems?

  Working Capital Management and Cash Flows

  • Converting operating profits into cash flow
  • Cash forecasts
  • Cash Management and Liquidity
  • Capital Expenditure and Revenue Expenditure
  • Phasing of capital spend and its implications for budget holders

  Depreciation and Amortisation of Assets and liabilities

  • What is Depreciation
  • What is Amortisation
  • Goodwill; its purpose, calculation and impact

  Costing and the Impact of Costing Assumptions on Business Decisions

  • Cost types & behaviours and their Impact on decisions
  • Break-even and Contribution Analysis
  • How costs are determined
  • Direct and Indirect Costs: Fixed, Mixed and Variable costs
  • Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Activity Based Management (ABM)
  • Marginal Costing, Absorption Costing and Activity Based Costing (ABC)
  • How frequently used cost allocation methods and calculated profitability by product. can influence key strategic decisions by determining and predicting artificially constructed surpluses or losses
  • How the chosen cost structure can affect the planning and decision making process

  Corporate Financial Statements

  • Balance Sheets: Assets; Liabilities; Net current assets, capital employed and how to interpret the information;
  • Profit & Loss Account, Types of profit, and the layout & use of the profit & loss account

  Other Financial Factors and their Influence on Decision Making

  • The interaction of regulatory changes and business planning
  • Accounting policies as significant drivers of business decisions
• Learning Objectives

  This one day course enables participants to understand better, the key attributes and approaches that underpin a strategic and tactical financial approach to management and help to develop the key skills and styles that will allow participants to be more effective when adopting and applying a structured methodological decision making approach to management.

  By the end of this training course participants will be better able to:

  • Discuss the format and definitions of the headings within the Balance Sheet, the Income and Expenditure Account
  • Read, analyse and interpret any set of Financial Statements, including the Balance Sheet, the Income and Expenditure Account, the Profit & Loss Account and the Cash Flow Statement
  • Understand the significance of and the thinking behind, the various types of reserves in the Balance Sheet
  • Discuss and understand the underlying management issues facing organisations, due to the application of the rules of Pension Accounting embodied in FRS17
  • Understand and quantify the impact of the fundamental accounting concepts and the chosen policies upon any set of accounts
  • Recognise and understand the underlying impact of FRS 102 and SORP 2015 on any Balance Sheet and Income and Expenditure Account
  • Recognise and understand the underlying impact of generally accepted accounting principles and policies on the Balance Sheet, Income and Expenditure Account or Profit & Loss Account
  • Understand the key differences between statutory published accounts and the internal monthly management accounts
  • Select the most appropriate method of costing for your organisation and be able to explain the impact of your choice
  • Analyse and make sound investment decisions based upon break even analysis and contribution analysis, with a good understanding of their relative strengths and weaknesses
  • Identify and discuss the key financial issues facing an organisation
  • Understand the wider commercial impact of any business decision and its interaction with non-financial aspects of the organisation, enabling you to make a better contribution to key discussions and decision making amongst managers and within the organisation
  • Understand and implement widely used valuation techniques such as Net Asset Value and Enterprise Value
  • Communicate more effectively and easily with Finance Managers, Directors, Trustees and other Finance professionals; through an in depth understanding of financial terminology, management and evaluation techniques.
  • Understand the principal legal and financial duties of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors, as well as their main differences.
• Who will benefit from attending this training?

  General Managers, Board Directors, Trustees, Company Directors, Department Heads, Sales Managers, Marketing Managers, Administration Managers, Human Resources Managers, Purchasing Managers, IT Managers, Budget Holders, Production Managers, Technical Managers, Facilities Managers, Site Managers, Property Managers, Advertising Managers, Media Managers, Medical Managers, Charity Heads, Charity Managers, Medical Services Managers, Communications Managers, Logistics Managers, and any other managers or executives interested in improving their financial skills and knowledge for the benefit of their organisation and their personal career development.

• Course Leader

  The Course Leader is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, an FCA, and a Chartered Director; the Board Director qualification awarded by the Institute of Directors. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, , a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a former Councillor. He serves on the Thames Valley Board of the Chartered Management Institute and the Accreditation and Standards Committee of the Institute of Directors. and the Institute of Directors. He sits on the Thames Valley Board of the Chartered Management Institute. He also delivers a similar course to the clients of the Chartered Management Institute.

  He has over 30 years of successful UK and International experience, including 7 years as the Finance Director and then the Chief Executive of a Plc, as well as 13 years with KPMG Management Consulting, IBM and Arthur Andersen.

  His delivery style is dynamic, approachable and highly engaging, enabling him to deliver a workshop that you will remember and enjoy.

• Internal Staff Training and Development

  This training workshop, along with most of our other best practice training workshops, can be delivered as an internal training course at your premises. Even with groups as small as 6-8 delegates, the course fees per person for internal training workshops can be lower than for open events. The potential savings are even greater, if the travel time and the travel costs of the delegates are included.

  Running training workshops internally is very convenient and it allows the participants to explore how key issues will impact on them and their organization. Then as a team they can begin to agree upon a development action plan, with priorities. This approach is favoured by many of our clients as it combines a high quality service with excellent value for money and is a highly effective route for staff development.

• Certificates of Professional Development

  This course is recognised for CPD purposes by most professional institutes and associations including the Law Society, the CIM, the CMI, the ICAEW, the Institute of Learning and the CIPD. Formal Certificates of Professional Development will be issued by email to participants who successfully complete this course. These certificates will enable participants to evidence the update of their CPD records. The workshop will consider how to best apply the knowledge gained by the delegates upon their return to the workplace. This element of the programme is designed to maximise the benefits of attending and enable participants to make valued judgments when recording CPD activities.