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The Financial Competence® Course
Course Description
Financial Competence is designed to give anyone the basic ability to read,
understand and analyze financial statements. The need to understand financial
statements including annual reports is vital to anyone engaged in business. Financial statement
literacy is, unfortunately, rare in the business world. This skill may soon
become mandatory in the wake of the confidence crisis we face today in the wake
of Enron, MCI, etc. - at least at the managerial level of corporate America. It
is certainly a vital ability for anyone who participates in a self-directed
retirement plan. That encompasses just about everyone in business
today.
But, more important than reacting to a problem, understanding the language of
finance is a vital and needed skill throughout any organization. For example:
- Sales personnel better understand the value proposition their products and
services bring to their clients and prospects.
- Purchasing department personnel better evaluate the credit strength of
suppliers.
- Non-financial managers have more empathy for the entire budget process
once they fully understand finance basics and how the company's financial
statements reflect the on-the-job performance of their employees.
- Educational professionals use the course as a supplement to their faculty
led courses and thus ensure that all students have a good grasp of the
basics on which to build the specific skills imparted by the faculty.
Financial Competence is a fun, interactive self-paced e-learning course that
simplifies business finance. Easy to use and understand and assuming no prior
knowledge of finance, the course provides thorough training in the subject of
financial statements and how these statements reflect the actual operation of a
business. Financial Competence can help anyone learn how to control costs,
improve company profitability and increase shareholder value. This course is
valuable for anyone with little or no understanding of business finance or as a
brush up for those with some training. Drills and exercises allow practice of
key concepts. The course provides tests at the end of each lesson and a
certificate suitable for framing is issued upon successful completion.
Several hundred thousand copies of the course have been used in corporations
large and small and in several leading universities. This includes major
international financial institutions and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
which uses Financial Competence to train administrative staff on the basics of
business finance. As can be expected, the course is top rated in its class by
independent review organizations like lguide.com.
Duration
5 - 8 hours
Objectives
- The student will learn the definition of Income Statement, Balance Sheet
and Cash Flow Statement.
- The student will understand what financial statements are and what they
measure about a business.
- The student will be able to read and understand each item on an Income
Statement and what that item shows about a business.
- The student will construct an Income Statement step-by-step.
- The student will understand the difference between Gross Sales and
Revenue.
- The student will understand Cost of Sales, Gross Margin, Selling Expense,
General and Administrative Expenses, Operating Margin, Depreciation and
Amortization, Other Expenses, Taxes and Net Profit items on an Income
Statement.
- The student will be able to read and understand each Asset, Liability and
Equity item on a Balance Sheet and what these items tell about a business.
- The student will construct a Balance Sheet step-by-step.
- The student will understand key items from the Balance Sheet such as Cash,
Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Prepaid Expenses, Property Plant and
Equipment, Intangibles, Accounts Payable, Notes Payable, Accrued Expenses,
Taxes Payable, Deferred Taxes, Long-Term Debt, Preferred Stock, Common
Stock, Paid-in-Capital and Retained Earnings.
- The student will be able to read and understand a Cash Flow Statement.
- The student will understand Cash from Operating Activities such as Sales,
Payments for Products, Payments for Operating Expenses and Interest
Payments.
- The student will understand Cash from Investing Activities like Purchase
or Sale of Assets.
- The student will understand Cash from Financing Activities such as Short
and Long-Term Borrowing, Capital Stock Issue and Dividends to Shareholders.
- The student will learn how to read all three financial statements together
and how various items on one statement relate to the other two statements.
- The student will understand the concept of "accrual" accounting
and how this can be used to reconcile cash with earnings..
- The student will understand various key financial ratios used by
investors, bankers, etc. in evaluating the relative strengths of a company.
- The student will learn the basics of inventory costing and how the
selection of different costing methods effects reported profits and assets.
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