[Free] Finance For Non-Financial Managers: Financial Management
Learn financial statements, budgeting, cash flow, margins, KPIs and financial analysis for better business decisions.
What you’ll learn
- Read an income statement and identify the business drivers behind revenue, gross margin and operating profit.
- Explain the difference between profit and cash and recognize how receivables, inventory and payables affect working capital.
- Build and manage a practical department budget, interpret variances and update forecasts when conditions change.
- Use contribution margin, break-even and total-cost thinking to evaluate pricing and operating decisions.
- Assess common business decisions such as hiring, equipment purchases and projects using practical financial measures.
- Select useful financial and operational KPIs and avoid common measurement traps.
- Communicate more confidently with finance teams and ask better questions about budgets, forecasts and business cases.
- Apply the course concepts to a realistic management case and identify the financial issues that need action.
Requirements
- No accounting or finance qualification is required. This course is designed for managers, supervisors, business owners and professionals who work with financial information but do not work in finance.
Description
This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.
Finance for Non-Financial Managers is a practical introduction to financial management and business finance for managers, supervisors, business owners and professionals who need to understand financial information and make better business decisions.
You don’t need an accounting or finance background. This course explains financial concepts in practical business language so you can confidently understand financial statements, budgets, cash flow, margins and key performance indicators.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• Read and interpret an income statement and understand revenue, gross margin and operating profit.
• Understand balance sheets, working capital, accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable.
• Distinguish profit from cash and understand how cash flow affects business performance.
• Build and manage a practical department budget and understand budget variances.
• Understand forecasting and how to update financial expectations when business conditions change.
• Use contribution margin and break-even analysis to evaluate pricing and operating decisions.
• Understand how pricing, discounting and costs can affect profitability.
• Evaluate business decisions such as hiring, equipment purchases and projects using practical financial measures.
• Understand ROI, payback and NPV at a level appropriate for managers.
• Select useful financial and operational KPIs and understand how they can influence business performance.
• Communicate more confidently with finance teams and ask better questions about budgets, forecasts and business
cases.
The course focuses on financial management and decision-making rather than complicated accounting mechanics. You
will not be expected to become an accountant or memorize journal entries.
Instead, you will learn how to answer three practical questions:
1. What does this financial number mean?
2. Why should a manager care?
3. What decision can I make with it?
You will work through realistic business examples and a management case to connect financial concepts with everyday decisions involving budgets, costs, pricing, cash flow, profitability and business performance. By the end of the course, you should have a stronger understanding of business finance and financial management and be able to use financial information more confidently in your role.
Who this course is for:
• New and experienced managers responsible for budgets, costs, staffing or business performance.
• Department heads, operations managers and team leaders who need practical financial management skills.
• Business owners and entrepreneurs who want to understand the financial side of their business.
• Professionals moving into management who want to develop practical finance fundamentals.
• Non-finance professionals who need to understand financial statements, budgets, cash flow and business performance.
No formal accounting or finance qualification is required.
Author(s): Kevin Fichtner
