COURSE OBJECTIVES

At the end of this IRES training seminar, you will learn to:

• Appreciate the importance of the accounting and finance function
• Understand accounting for routine business transactions
• Be able to prepare simple financial statements
• Be able to analyse company performance using basic ratios
• Be aware of costing and budgeting techniques to maintain efficiency and profitability

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

Module 1: Introduction to Finance and Accounting 

• The Three Meanings of Finance
• How Finance supports the Roles of Office Administrators and Secretaries?
• The Two Types of Accounting – financial (external) and management (internal)
• The Basic Principles of the Double-entry Financial Accounting System
• How to Record Transactions in the Financial Accounting System?
• The Contribution made by Office Administrators and Secretaries                                                                        

Module 2: the Financial Statements

• Understanding the Income Statement
• The Four Levels of Profit, and What they Signify
• Understanding the Balance Sheet
• Measuring the Consumption of non-current assets by Depreciation, Amortization, and Impairment
• What is Inventory, and How is it Valued?
• The Cash Flow Statement – Why We Need it, and How it is Prepared 

Module 3: Evaluation of Financial Statements

• The Annual Reports of Public Companies – format and content                                      
• Who are the Company Stakeholders and What are their Information Needs?                
• Why we need to Analyse these Reports in order to understand them?          
• How to Calculate Accounting Ratios?                                                 
• How to Use Ratio Analysis to Assess Performance?                       

Module 4: Introduction to Management Accounting

• Collecting and Analysing Costs for the Management Accounting Database                                                                
• Understanding Direct Costs and Indirect Costs                         
• Preparing Cost Structures for our Products and Services               
• Using Cost Structures to determine our Break-Even Point
• Making Cost-Effective Decisions using Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis 

Module 5: Budgets

• Why do we need budgets? – The Link between Corporate Strategy and Operations at All levels of the Organisation
• The Budget Preparation Process – Timetables, Documentation and Procedures
• Preparing a Departmental Budget 
• Preparing the Cash Budget  
• Comparing Actual Performance with the Budget using Variance Analysis    
• The Essential Role of Office Administrators and Secretaries in Budget Preparation