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