Financial Essentials

Course Specifications

Course Description

Companies are composed of a number of job roles and varying degrees of responsibility. Some roles are so different that two people within the same company may never come in contact with each other over the entire length of their employment. All employees, though, are working towards the same goal—the financial success of the company. However, individuals cannot be expected to contribute to the financial success of the company unless they understand the principles upon which finance is based. In this course, you will explore the fundamentals of finance and discover how all areas of the company contribute to its financial well-being.

Hardware Requirements

For this course, you will need one computer for each student and one for the instructor. Each computer will need the following minimum hardware components:

• A 1 GHz Pentium-class processor or faster.
• A minimum of 256 MB of RAM. 512 MB of RAM is recommended.
• A 10 GB hard disk or larger. You should have at least 1 GB of free hard disk space available for the Office installation.
• A CD-ROM drive.
• A mouse or other pointing device.
• A 1024 x 768 resolution monitor is recommended.
• Network cards and cabling for local network access.
• Internet access (contact your local network administrator).
• A printer or an installed printer driver.
• A projection system to display the instructor’s computer screen.

Platform Requirements

• Microsoft® Windows XP

Software Requirements

• Microsoft® Office Professional Edition 2007
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2

Performance-Based Objectives

• describe critical aspects of the budgeting process, including budgeting matters and methods of budgeting.
• investigate the three major components of a budget. You will also examine the process of managing a budget.
• determine the internal and external parties affected by a company's operations. You will also examine the cash-based and accrual-based methods of accounting.
• thoroughly examine the makeup of an income statement, a balance sheet, and a cash flow statement.
• use common-size financial statements to conduct both a trend evaluation and a competitive evaluation. You will also look at the many financial ratios that offer valuable information about a company's ability to generate revenue, meet financial obligations, and manage debt.
• examine the decision-making process when considering potential investments. You will also explore a number of financial formulas that will help you assess the value of such investments.

Course Content

Lesson 1: Budgeting Fundamentals

Topic 1A: Budgeting Benefits

Topic 1B: Budgeting Methods

Lesson 2: Managing a Budget

Topic 2A: Prepare a Budget

Topic 2B: Control a Budget

Lesson 3: Exploring the Ground Rules of Finance

Topic 3A: Who Needs Finance?

Topic 3B: Track Revenue and Expenses

Lesson 4: Using Financial Statements

Topic 4A: The Income Statement

Topic 4B: The Balance Sheet

Topic 4C: The Cash Flow Statement

Lesson 5: Evaluating Performance

Topic 5A: Make Comparisons

Topic 5B: Determine Liquidity

Topic 5C: Determine Activity

Topic 5D: Determine Profitability

Topic 5E: Determine Solvency

Lesson 6: Making Investment Decisions

Topic 6A: The Investment Decision-Making Process

Topic 6B: Conduct a CVP Analysis

Topic 6C: Project Appraisal Techniques

Appendix A: Market Demand Calculation Details

Appendix B: Table of Discount Factors

Appendix C: Activity Worksheets