Understanding Finance & Accounting For Non-Financial Professionals

Learn more in this intensive, practical two-day workshop than a full semester in an MBA finance class.

Attending NCCE’s intensive, two-day workshop will provide you with a practical, common-sense understanding of critical financial principles. Through a balanced mix of in-class exercises and integrated study aids, you’ll emerge from this course able to analyze financial information like a pro! You’ll learn from one of our expert faculty members who will present clear and concise explanations of important financial concepts including:

• How to use income statements, balance sheets and annual reports to gauge any company’s fiscal health
• Basic budgeting techniques to help you responsibly plan the future course of your business
• Understanding and calculating EVA (Economic Value Added) and how you can improve your company’s shareholder value
• How to use ratio and trend analysis to read between the numbers and determine how and why certain companies’ stock may be poised to soar!
• Recent Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and related corporate governance best practices

In addition, you’ll also benefit from real-life case studies to clearly illustrate all of these concepts and bring the numbers to life. These real-life company examples will help give animation and meaning to the data contained in financial statements and further ensure that your understanding is crystal clear! Register today and find out why thousands of attendees agree that NCCE’s Understanding Finance & Accounting is the best seminar of its type in the nation! Bring your company’s financials and a hand-held calculator to work along with our examples. We guarantee your success!

• Definitions and Rules
• Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• The Conservative Nature of Accounting: A Common Sense Explanation
• Debits & Credits: Clearly Explained in Less Than Five Minutes
• Accrual Accounting: What it is and Why We Use it

• How Items are Arranged on the Balance Sheet and Why
• Using the Four Quadrants of the Balance Sheet
• How to Instantly Determine Liquidity and Too Much Debt
  • Strong balance sheets explained
  • How to evaluate risk
• How a Firm Gets Equity: Two Ways
• The Business Operating Cycle: How a Business Gets its Cash
• Tricks 'n' Traps of the Balance Sheet
  • Receivables: proper accounting vs. manipulation
  • Inventory: making sense of LIFO, FIFO and manipulating net income
  • Goodwill: how accountants determine its value

• How to Use Profit Checkpoints
• Why Gross and Net Margin are Critical Measures; How to Instantly Determine Profitability
• How to Determine Product Line Profitability
• Controlling Common Fraud
  • How to locate padded expenses
  • How overstated (understated) inventory impacts net income
• Spotting the Five Most Common Deceptive Practices

• Horizontal and Vertical Analysis for a Rapid Understanding
• Liquidity Ratios: Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, Cash Ratio
• Activity Ratios: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), Days Sales in Inventory (DSI), Asset Turnover, Return on Assets (ROA)
• Leverage Ratios: Debt to Equity, Interest Coverage
• Profitability Ratios: Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), Gross Margin, Net Margin (ROS), Book Value, Price to Earnings (P/E) Multiple
• The Problem with Using EBITDA: Earnings Before I Trick Dumb Auditors
• How to Find and Use Industry Averages
• Predicting Bankruptcy Using the Z-Score
• Trend Analysis: Five-Year and Quarterly – Understanding the Critical Importance of Earnings Velocity
• Summary: What Makes Your Company a Winner, What Makes the Stock (or Value) Soar

• How We Get our Cash and How We Use Our Cash: Operations, Investing and Financing
• How to Use Vertical Analysis for Clarity

• Common Stock and Additional Paid-In Capital
• Retained Earnings and Dividends
• How to Account for Stock Splits

• Footnotes and Audit Reports – What to Notice
• Management's Discussion and Analysis and How it Relates to Financial Analysis
• Using Interim Reports

• Calculating Breakeven
  • Manufacturing business
  • Service business (law firm)
• Capital Budgeting Techniques
  • Payback and Return on Investment (ROI)
  • Understanding present value and discount tables
  • Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
  • Net Present Value (NPV)

• A Short-cut to Calculate Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
• How to Calculate the Cost of Capital: Step-by-step; Fill-in-the-Blanks
• An Easy "Can't Miss" Approach to the EVA Calculation and What it Means

• Background and Brief Review of Sections I through XI
• Section 301: Audit Committee Requirements
• Section 302: CEO and CFO Certification of Financials
• Sections 401-403: New Required Financial Disclosures
• Section 404: Management’s Assessment of Internal Controls
  • Definition of internal control
  • Five components of internal control
• Section 406: Management Code of Ethics
• Section 806: Whistleblower Provisions
• New Corporate Governance and Attorney Responsibilities

• The Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ)
• Yahoo/Finance/Ticker Symbol/Profile/CGQ
  • Understanding the 63 governance factors that drive the score
  • Positive and negative factors that drive the corporate governance score
• Benefits of Strong Governance, Controls and Ethics (Examples and Studies)
  • Leading investor indicator of performance and value
  • Lower cost of capital — enhanced investor/lender confidence
  • Lower risk of shareholder class-action legal suits
• Review: How SOX Compliance Impacts CGQ

• Automatically Calculate Ratios, Breakeven and EVA
• Perform Capital Budgeting Applications

Check Dates and Locations of this Seminar

This seminar is a must for any fast-track business professional or attorney who needs to gain a comprehensive understanding of financial analysis and corporate finance, including:

• Presidents, CEOs and Business Owners
• Attorneys, Corporate Counsel and Business Litigators
• Department and Division Heads, including Administration, Human Resources, Manufacturing, IT Professionals, Operations/Production, Purchasing, Engineering/Research and Development and Sales/Marketing
• Professionals in Finance-related Industries, including Banking, Insurance and Real Estate
• Credit Analysts, Management Consultants, Government Regulators and Stockbrokers
• Anyone who would like to clearly understand the basic principles of financial analysis and corporate finance once and for all!

If you have a group of 15 or more employees who need to learn the basics of finance, accounting and financial analysis, NCCE’s customized training may be the cost-effective solution for your organization. Bring this course in-house and provide your staff with the critical financial know-how to immediately add value to your organization.

Courses can be tailored to a 4, 8, 12 or 16 hour presentation, with a comprehensive case study geared to a featured listed company you select. This will make this program both a training engagement and consulting study. Understand your firm’s (or your client’s) financial statements, annual report, financial ratios, industry averages, Z-score to predict bankruptcy, five-year trend analysis, Value Line report, Cost of Capital and Economic Value Added. Also, if applicable, see how your Corporate Governance Quotient (CGQ) compares to others in the industry. You may also choose from any of our other specialized courses, which can be designed to fit your company’s needs.

Some organizations who have taken advantage of NCCE’s custom training include Stanley Tools, Harley-Davidson, General Mills Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, U.S. Robotics, Aetna Inc. and Western Union. Law firms such as Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Irell & Manella LLP; and King & Spalding have participated in NCCE’s in-house training as well.

For more information or to schedule a custom in-house seminar call Angel Henningsen at 800-635-9615 or email angelh@nccetraining.com.