The seminar covers 8 main areas:

1: The nature of financial analysis – the backdrop
2: The scope and process of financial analysis – what is involved
3. The Income Statement – your dynamic measure of financial performance
4: The Balance Sheet – A snapshot of your financial health
5: The Statement of Cash Flows – the lifeblood of your business
6: Analytical tools and techniques – your management tool-bag
7: Capital project analysis – the throttle or brake decision
8: Risk analysis – covering all the bets

The approach taken in the seminar will be practical as well as conceptual, qualitative as well as quantitative, and strategic as well as tactical.  The intention is that you’ll be able to apply conceptual principles to practical situations at whatever level of management involved.  The seminar will incorporate various solved examples and case studies with step-by-step guidelines at appropriate intervals so that you get an opportunity to integrate practice and theory with ample chance to discuss various issues aired during the seminar.  We want you to be able to apply your new knowledge from Day 1 back at work!
 

You’ll gain essential knowledge and benefit from knowing how to:

• Interpret the meaning of any financial statement and quickly focus on the most pertinent and significant numbers.
• Undertake genuine financial analysis instead of just performing lip service to the accounting moguls.
• Read between the lines of a financial report and avoid getting mislead by facts and figures which are presented in ‘financial speak’.
• Recognise when numbers look questionable and should be more carefully analysed – rather than simply taking them at face value.
• Be able to make money-based decisions with confidence and justify them.
• Discuss complex financial issues confidently with those inside and outside your organisation.
• Be assertive in dealing with financial facts and figures.
• Be able to plan more robust investment proposals.
• Present your plans and ideas on a solid financial foundation – and gain faster acceptance.
• Understand your own financial strengths, vulnerabilities and challenges.
• Monitor and control the performance of your department and projects in financial terms.
• Forecast future revenue and expense with greater certainty.
• Identify early on key risk indicators that call for ‘now’ action.

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Any manager or executive in whatever functional area, project team-leader, facilitator or member of the finance team who wants an incisive understanding of how to read, understand and interpret financial statements.

For those with little or no background in finance wanting to gain confidence in this vitally important area of management.

For those promoted to the area of financial analysis needing to gain a useful insight for handling reporting issues.

Topic 1: The nature of financial analysis – the backdrop

• What financial statements are – and what they’re really supposed to tell us.
• The corporate cash flow cycle versus the cash operating cycle.
• The sources of reliable, well-prepared financial data.
• The guiding principles underlying strong financial reporting.
• 6 serious limitations of financial statements – and how to defend your reported position.
• 8 characteristics of a well-prepared financial statement – know what to look for.
• External versus internal reporting – in particular, what managers want to see.
   

Topic 2: The scope and process of financial analysis – what is involved

• The objectives that drive the financial analysis process – the 3 essential aims.
• The ‘What’s’, ‘’Why’s’, How’s’ and ‘When’s’ of financial analysis.
• Five vital areas of corporate performance – you must know them.
• Comparison, comparison, comparison – but what to compare?
• Identify industry nuances – it’s competitors you’re looking at.
   

Topic 3: The Income Statement – your dynamic measure of financial performance

• Deciphering the components of the Income Statement – and the 3 important profits.
• The concept of ‘top’, ‘middle’ and ‘bottom’ lines – get your focus right.
• Important things the income statement can tell you - all by itself.
• Ways the income statement can misrepresent – and mislead.
• The dangers in accepting reported revenues and expenses at face value – and the art of “reading between the lines”.
• The balance between ‘fixed’ and ‘variable’ costs – check that your operating leverage makes sense before you invest.

Topic 4: The Balance Sheet – A snapshot of your financial health

• The relationship between account balances and balancing accounts.
• Decoding balance-sheet syntax: assets, liabilities and equity – and the impact of GAAP on its structure.
• What the balance sheet on its own tells you about your business - and what it leaves out.
• Off-balance sheet items – make sure you know what they are, they’re often not ‘visible’.
• Critical information sometimes hidden in the footnotes – read them!
• How valuing assets can be tricky – and misleading.
• The difference between balance sheet value and real value – something you should know when investing in corporate shares (stock).
• Your debt-to-equity ratio – when should you stop borrowing.
• 4 ways of valuing a business – and deciding the ‘real’ value of its stock (shares).

Topic 5: The Statement of Cash Flows – the lifeblood of your business

• An overview of the GAAP Statement of Cash Flows – It’s historical, so what’s the purpose?
• Management’s Statement of Estimated Cash Flows’ - 2 useful models.
• Proactive versus reactive cash management – recognise warning signs early on, before a crisis occurs.
• How to calculate the duration of your cash conversion cycle – and what it tells you.
• Deciding the optimum cash balance – not too much, not too little. What to do!
• The symptoms of overtrading – the danger from being too successful.

• Why the balance sheet and income statement are analysed together – the dynamic interaction of two orientations.
• The how’s and why’s of the ‘common-sized’ statement – the questions it answers, and what is left out.
• Using horizontal analysis – to measure your performance.
• The dynamic impact of ‘common-size’ analysis and ‘horizontal’ analysis – and why you must do them together to get 360°.
• Financial ratio analysis – the ups and downs.
• When using EBITDA as an earning measure is most relevant.
• The DuPont Formula – the questions it answers – and what it leaves out.
• 4 useful ‘earnings’ ratios – and what they tell about you and your competitors.
• The ROI pyramid – meaningful ratios building to the main profit measure.
• 2 key tests for cash flows health – don’t purchase before you look at them.
• Working capital ratios – the rules for smart short-term financial management.
• The most serious limitation of working capital – a step-by-step guide to ‘managing out’ the problem.
• Diagnosing financial ills – What’s up Doc?.
• The role of the Z score, and similar models, in predicting bankruptcy.

• The how’s and why’s of trend analysis – using time-series analysis.
• The guiding principles underlying a good capital budgeting system.
• The logic of payback analysis – important information but limited in what it tells you.
• The ‘Accountant’s Rate of Return’ on an investment - why managers like it.
• The concept of discounted techniques – Net Present Value versus Internal Rate of Return.
• A company’s cost of capital – you need to know how it’s decided.
• Capital cost model building – including the Capital Asset Pricing Model.
• A step-by-step guide to analysing your investment proposal – and how to back up it up with the right numbers to gain faster  acceptance.

• How risk is defined.
• The main financial risks – uncover, detect and prevent the risks.
• Identifying inherent and residual risk.
• Determining risk likelihood – to get a firm grip on the problems.
• Methods for analysing financial risk – analytical techniques for your management tool-bag.
• Identifying and mitigating high-risk areas in your company.
• Guidelines for an effective risk management process.