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Enroll by December 1, 2024

Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager

Develop practical finance and accounting knowledge to help make better strategic decisions.

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8-Week Course
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8 Continuing Education Units
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80 Military Clock Hours

About the Course

You don’t have to be a finance manager or an accounting manager to benefit from financial and accounting training. Chances are good that financial strategies are an important part of making better business decisions that affect your bottom line.

The Finance & Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager course can help you understand accounting processes and methodologies, enhance your ability to forecast financial performance, spot trends and better study your competition. Participants who successfully complete this multimedia course learn to develop the financial skills necessary to evaluate proposed business projects, analyze company performance and apply finance and accounting principles with confidence.

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Curriculum
8 Week Course
Week 1
Business Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting
  • Develop a business plan.
  • Evaluate a business plan and its elements.
  • Discuss strategic planning.
  • Write a long-term plan.
  • Explain annual budget, cash budget, and zero-cost budget.
Week 2
Financial Statements
  • Describe financial management.
  • Identify the elements of different financial statements.
  • Identify the links between financial statements.
  • Explain how to record and report financial information.
Week 3
Accounting Concepts and Principles
  • Explain depreciation and its importance.
  • Describe inventory and the difference between retailer and manufacturer.
  • Define periodic and perpetual methods, including the benefits and drawbacks to both.
  • Discuss audits.
  • Discuss fraud and examples of business fraud.
  • Examine budgets.
Week 4
How Organizations Raise Money
  • Differentiate c-corps, s-corps, LLCs, LPs, and incorporated.
  • Discuss why owners make decisions, and the tradeoffs.
  • Discuss an organization’s capital structure.
  • Identity how to access sources of capital.
  • Discuss sources of capital from the perspective of an investor and issuer.
  • Discuss accounting for issuing equity, debt, and paying interest and dividend.
  • Examine working capital.
  • Describe financial leverage and operating leverage.
  • Explain how to perform a breakeven analysis.
Week 5
Capital Budgeting
  • Describe decision techniques, including expected value, payback method, NV, TVM, IRR, hurdle rate, and project ranking.
  • Use Excel to calculate decision techniques.
  • Discuss TVM.
Week 6
Budgeting and Cost Accounting
  • Discuss marginal cost, fixed cost, and variable cost.
  • Tie revenue recognition to period costs and product costs.
  • Explain cost allocation.
  • Examine how activity-based costing can be tied to customer profitability.
Week 7
Ratio Analysis and Judging Management
  • Define ratio analysis and describe why it is used.
  • Define common-size ratio.
  • Analyze a balance sheet and income statement using common-size techniques and ratio analysis.
  • Discuss profitability and margin ratios.
  • Define ROE and ROA, and explain why ROA can be used to evaluate an individual manager and ROE an entire firm.
Week 8
Accounting for Not-For-Profits and Taxes
  • Define key terms: statement of financial position, statement of activities, statement of cash flows.
  • Describe how donor restrictions impact the statement of financial position.
  • Define UBTI.
  • Discuss the debate to tax not-for-profits.
Learning Objectives
Skills Learned
Reporting Business Strategy Budgeting Finance Preparing Financial Statements Investment Business Operations
What You’ll Study

Understanding the Role of Finance and Accounting

  • The Role of Accounting in Credit and Investment Decisions

Taxes Individual and Corporate

  • Understanding the Impact of Taxes on Financial Decisions
  • Worksheet for Case Study – Calculating the Federal Income Tax for an Individual
  • Computing Individual Income Taxes
  • Computing Income Taxes for Business Entities

The Foundation of Accounting

  • Understanding Major Accounting Concepts
  • Defining the Elements of Financial Statements
  • Understanding the Key Financial Statements
  • Explaining the Role of Audits and Internal Control
  • Financial Reporting

Making Strategic Financial Decisions

  • Developing a Financial Strategy
  • Preparing a Business Plan
  • Determining the Optimal Capital Structure
  • Obtaining Capital Resources
  • Creating Shareholder Value

Working Capital Management

  • Managing Current Assets and Liabilities
  • Computing the Cost of Inventory
  • Estimating the Cost of Inventory

Designing Cost Systems for Strategic and Tactical Advantages

  • Cost Accounting Systems
  • Developing and Marketing New Products
  • Measuring Quality Costs to Improve Quality and Reduce Costs

Evaluating Managerial Performance

  • Evaluating Performance with Responsibility Accounting
  • DuPont Analysis: Decomposing Return On Equity (ROE)

Personal Financial Management

  • Developing Financial Goals and Controlling Debts
  • Reducing Taxes and Investing Wisely
  • Using Insurance and Estate Planning to Safeguard Assets

Applying the Course Content

  • Investment Decisions: Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
  • Credit Decision
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Who Should Register?

The course helps managers from areas such as marketing, sales, IT, project management, manufacturing or engineering, as well as general managers, discover how financial data is generated, reported and used for decision making, analysis and valuation.

Tuition & Payment

Total Course Cost

$2,095

Enroll Now Request Information

Course offerings and associated prices are subject to change without prior notice. Pricing for multi-course certificate programs varies depending on course selection. View the Professional Education Catalog for more information on the courses and programs.

 

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