The seminar covers 6 important areas of working capital management:

1. The nature, elements and importance of working capital.
2. Credit management.
3. Management of inventories.
4. Management of payables.
5. Cash management.
6. Determining working capital needs and funding strategies.

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!

These intensive and fast-paced three days of training present the best information available on how to manage working capital - so critical to your organisation’s bottom-line success. Learn the latest and best strategies for turning inventory, speeding up collections, stretching payments and generally improving cash flow, and much more. In this seminar you’ll learn:

How to work with management to eliminate excess inventory problems.
How to spot not-so-obvious opportunities to reduce inventory costs.
Strategies for speeding up your receivables and inventory turnaround.
How to accelerate the collection of remittances and improve control of your payments.
Ways to forecast cash flows and present cash budgets.
How to analyse the cash budget to improve your cash position.
How to successfully invest your “idle” funds in short-term money-market instruments.
How to overcome a deficiency of cash – and avoiding “cash out” .
And much, much more.

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Accountants, cost professionals and financial planners who have specialist interests in treasury management.

Executives or other personnel with responsibility for aspects of working capital management and control.

Any manager or executive in whatever functional area, project team-leader, facilitator or member of the finance team who wants an incisive understanding of working capital investment: how it can be planned, controlled and funded.

For those managers, executives or personnel with little or no background in finance wanting to gain understanding in working capital investment and associated management problems.

For those managers, executives or personnel promoted or recruited to an area which includes responsibility for working capital elements and who need to gain knowledge in the management work involved.

Topic 1: The nature, elements and importance of working capital

Understanding working capital: What is it?
The three vital roles of working capital management.
How can we monitor it?
Conflicting objectives – liquidity versus profitability.
Why too much working capital is bad and too little may be disastrous?
Dealing with the conflicting motives of executives within your organisation.
Cash conversion cycle – how long do you wait to get your operating expenses back.
Reverse the conversion cycle – and boost your bottom line.

Topic 2: Credit management

2 main types of credit - revolving and promissory note.
Credit risk – and setting your credit strategies.
Optimism bias – know the adverse affects of this systematic tendency.
Covenants – affirmative and negative.
Default:
debt service default - common
technical default - rare
The role of credit management.
Vetting credit application:
credit analysis – the main techniques
credit bureau versus credit rating agency
- 5 factors that a credit bureau considers when fixing a credit rating
- 5 serious criticisms of credit rating agencies
credit rating – What does it tell you?
short-term rating and when to use it
the use of credit scorecards – a numerical expression of the creditworthiness of your customer
score facts using the FICO model – 5 vital weighted components making up the score
the use of credit references – what they tell you, and what they don’t
the use of ratios including DSCR.
Getting your money in - 10 actions you can take to deal with slow-paying customers.
Control of “open accounts” – keeping track of invoices and the granting of revolving credit.
10 types of discounts – including ROG, EOM and X-dating.
Evaluating an early settlement discount proposal – should you give the discount?
the simple case.
the complex case - where your market is elastic and you have multi-period collection patterns. Day
Factoring – the main services available.
Credit control service – how it works – the benefits to you and your organisation.
Factoring your debts – why is factoring better than an overdraft?
Confidential invoice discounting.
Recourse factoring versus non-recourse factoring.
8 strong benefits of factoring your invoices – but also take account of the 7 disadvantages.
Is you business suitable for factoring?
Invoice discounting – an alternative way of drawing money against your invoices.
Costs of factoring and invoice discounting.
Overseas credit management:
Export factoring:
- Account receivable factoring – provides immediate cash against an export invoice.
- Purchase order financing (POF) – a short-term solution to finance your pre-export working capital.
- Forfait financing.
- Obtaining term finance for your overseas buyers.
Letters of credit financing - and documentary credits.
Bills of Exchange.
The services of confirming houses.

Topic 3: Management of inventories

Carrying costs and acquisition costs – the tension between them.
The EOQ model – and evaluating a bulk-discount offer.
Materials resource planning (MRP) and Manufacturing resources planning (MRP 11) – still widely used.
Vendor-managed inventory – and virtual supply-chain systems.
Scan-based trading – and its implication on your inventory levels.
Consignment stock – what is it?
Kanban – and its influence in JIT inventory systems – and the rise of e-kanban.
TOC and the use of OPT – as a way of increasing throughput but reducing your inventory levels.
But, JIT goes beyond inventory management – it can give your company 2 other vital benefits.
CONWIP – a single-stage Kanban.
A focus on reducing your new old stock.
The danger from having ‘phantom inventory’.
Measuring the efficiency of your inventory – the use of common ratios including GMRO11.

Topic 4: Management of payables

The three main types of trade credit available to your organisation.
8 probable adverse effects of delaying your payments to suppliers beyond agreed times.
Control the duplicate invoice – the second one may not be caught!
Taking discount for early payment – is it worth it? We’ll look at the calculations.
E-procurement – what is it?
7 strong benefits of using e-procurement.
risks and impacts of your e-procurement system.
6 common types of e-procurement information system.
the growth in web-enabled e-procurement.
the use of reverse-auctions.
Incoterms: The language and terms PO, CI, PFI, FOB, CIF, MOO, MAP, Force majeure, and more.
Import factoring – financing your import trade:
accounts receivable factoring
asset-based line of credit financing
inventory financing
purchase order financing (POF)
equipment leasing
letters of credit financing.

Topic 5: Cash management

Cash is a vital asset with no earning power – it’s part of the net working capital equation.
Overview of a company’s liquidity flow - ins and outs.
The 4 vital parts of cash management.
Cash conversion cycle – how long to get your operating expenses back.
6 vital steps when forecasting cash – this is bedrock knowledge!
Uncertainty as it exists in the business world – identify and manage.
Flexed cash models - use different interest rates and risk measures.
Cash estimate/budget in presented form:
- receipts and payments model
- cash-flow statement.
Diagnosis of top line, middle lines and bottom line – it’s surprising what you find!
Liquidity versus profitability – find the optimum cash level.
Pooling cash.
6 ways of dealing with excess “idle cash”.
9 things to know before you invest “surplus cash” in the money market – think before you jump!.
Overcoming cash shortages – internal and external, short and long run.
Spreadsheets – and their use in cash budgeting.

Topic 6: Determining working capital needs and funding strategies

The distinction between permanent and fluctuating working capital – what it means for your organisation.
The relative cost and risk of short-term and long-term finance – what is the right balance for you?
The relative costs and benefits to your organisation of adopting: conservative, moderate or aggressive working capital funding policies.

Note: There is duplication in this seminar and the Tony Surridge Seminar: Cash Management. Both seminars deal with the aspect of cash management in similar ways.