Course Description & Learning Objectives

The primary objective of the course is to provide participants with the financial insights needed to be an effective manager. The role of financial management in creating value will be the framework for the course.

Participants will first embrace that businesses attempt to maximize value. The impact of risk and time will be discussed, and how return rewards investors for risk and time. Second, participants will then be presented the basic foundations of accounting, such as revenue and cost recognition, cash versus accrual accounting, and internal control. Participants will then be taught how to understand financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows. Third, participants will appreciate how a business is financed. Debt and equity are explored, recognizing the cost of each and the appropriate time to use each. Fourth, participants will appreciate how decisions are made to hire people and invest in assets, specifically looking at the benefits from investing versus the cost of financial capital. Fifth, participants will appreciate revenue, costs, and earning net income. A business’s operating and cash flow cycles will be examined, noting the challenging of managing liquidity. Cost-volume-profit relationships will be explored in getting participants to embrace cost-benefit analysis and break-even analysis. Last, participants will explore assessing performance through financial statement analysis. Participants will learn to assess risk, return, efficiency, and competitiveness with numbers ratios, trends, and benchmarking.

Course Outline

1. INTRODUCTION: RISK, RETURN, AND CREATING VALUE
2. UNDERSTADNING FINANCIAL REPORTS – ACCOUNTING STATEMENTS
3. FINANCING THE BUSINESS: THE NATURE AND COST OF DEBT AND EQUITY
4. INVESTING IN ASSETS AND HIRING PEOPLE
5. UNDERSTADNING REVENUE, COSTS, AND CASH FLOW/LIQUIDITY
6. FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS

Course Assessments

This course is graded using a “Pass/Fail” format.

Summaries will be given at the completion of each session. The purpose of the summaries is to insure the participant has sufficient command of the materials and meets the learning objectives.

Week 4 is designed to provide a review of all the materials from the previous 3 weeks. The review session will utilize an audio-video presentation connecting the theory, instruction and the learning objectives to the questions posed by participants. Upon completion of the review session, a final assessment will be provided.

Course Schedule

Week #	Session	Time (hrs.)	Topic
Week 1	1	1.0	Introduction to course and finance
	2	1.0	The fundamentals of accounting
	3	1.0	Understanding financial statements
Week 2	4	1.0	Managing the business’ money to create value (risk and return)
	5	1.0	Managing the assets of the business
	6	1.0	Managing the financing of the business
Week 3	7	1.0	Operating the business: managing revenue, costs, and cash flow(liquidity)
	8	1.0	Financial statement analysis
	9	1.0	Financial statement analysis continued
Week 4	10	1.0	Review and wrap-up
	11	1.0	Final Assessment
Total		11.0