Business Finance and Accounting Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Budget Holders, Finance Officers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-A-092

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable working with percentages, basic spreadsheets and routine business calculations.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Business decisions depend on numbers that are timely, correctly classified and clearly explained. Yet many budget holders and operational managers receive financial reports without being able to trace how transactions affect profit, cash, assets, liabilities or planned spending. This course addresses the gap between routine financial reports and sound management action. Participants learn to read the accounting story behind performance, identify the causes of variances and prepare budgets and forecasts that can withstand management review.

The course covers double-entry principles, financial statements, month-end adjustments, cost behaviour, contribution analysis, budgeting, rolling cash forecasts, working capital, variance analysis and financial controls. Participants learn to construct operating budgets, assess break-even points, distinguish profit from cash flow, analyse financial ratios and communicate financial results to non-finance decision makers. IFRS Accounting Standards and IAS 7 cash flow classifications are used where relevant to reporting and cash analysis.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with worked financial cases, group analysis, budget-building tasks, cash forecasting simulations and management-reporting discussions. Cases reflect decisions commonly faced by corporate departments, public bodies, banks, NGOs and project-based businesses. Participants leave with a practical set of reusable finance templates, including a budget model, cash forecast, variance report and financial review checklist, ready to adapt to their own reporting cycles.

This five-day course is suited to professionals who work with budgets, expenditure, project finances, business performance or financial reports and need greater confidence applying accounting information to management decisions.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements using accounting relationships
  • Prepare journal entries, adjusting entries and a structured month-end close checklist
  • Analyse profitability, liquidity, working capital and return ratios from financial statements
  • Calculate contribution margins, break-even points and margin of safety for planning decisions
  • Build an operating budget covering sales, costs, staffing, capital expenditure and cash
  • Construct a 13-week rolling cash forecast from receipts, payroll and supplier schedules
  • Investigate budget variances using flexible budgets, standard cost variances and root-cause analysis
  • Present management financial reports with clear actions, owners and reporting deadlines

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Read financial statements with greater confidence during management reviews
  • Prepare defensible budgets using documented assumptions and cost drivers
  • Identify cash pressures before payroll, supplier or funding deadlines
  • Explain adverse variances with evidence rather than general commentary
  • Contribute more effectively to investment, pricing and resource allocation decisions

For your organisation

  • Improved budget accuracy through clearer assumptions, ownership and review cycles
  • Earlier identification of cash shortfalls, overdue receivables and spending pressures
  • More consistent financial reporting across departments, projects and cost centres
  • Better control of expenditure through reconciliations, approvals and audit trails
  • Faster management action on material variances and declining financial performance

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain how core accounting principles connect transactions to financial statements.

  • Purpose, users and decision limits of management and financial accounting
  • Double-entry bookkeeping: debits, credits and the expanded accounting equation
  • Accrual accounting distinguishes earned revenue from cash collection timing
  • Matching principle links period costs with related recognised revenue
  • Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement relationships
  • Materiality and consistency support useful period-to-period financial comparisons

Participants can record common transactions and support an orderly month-end close process.

  • Chart of accounts design separates revenue, cost, asset and liability drivers
  • Journal entries record credit sales, purchases, payroll and depreciation
  • General ledger posting maintains audit trails from source documents
  • Trial balance procedures identify posting and arithmetic errors before close
  • Adjusting entries recognise prepayments, accruals, deferrals and estimated expenses
  • Month-end close checklist sequences reconciliations, review, approval and reporting

Participants can assess business performance and financial position using structured ratio analysis.

  • Vertical analysis expresses statement items as percentages of relevant totals
  • Horizontal analysis explains trends through period-on-period percentage movements
  • Liquidity ratios assess short-term obligations using current and quick ratios
  • Profitability ratios separate margin performance from asset and equity returns
  • Working capital cycle links inventory, receivables, payables and operating cash
  • DuPont analysis decomposes return on equity into operational drivers

Participants can analyse cost structures and use contribution methods for planning decisions.

  • Cost objects, cost pools and cost drivers support managerial decisions
  • Classify costs as fixed, variable, direct, indirect, product or period
  • Contribution margin format separates variable costs from fixed cost commitment
  • Break-even analysis calculates volume using contribution margin and fixed costs
  • Margin of safety quantifies downside protection against sales shortfalls
  • Activity-based costing assigns overhead through measurable activity cost drivers

Participants can prepare an integrated operating budget with clear planning assumptions.

  • Master budget integrates sales, production, staffing, capital and cash plans
  • Sales budget assumptions translate unit volumes, prices and timing
  • Production budget schedules output from sales forecasts and inventory policy
  • Direct materials, labour and overhead budgets establish operating resource requirements
  • Capital expenditure budget evaluates timing, funding and depreciation consequences
  • Budget holder accountability assigns ownership, approval limits and reporting cadence

Participants can forecast near-term cash needs and identify working capital actions.

  • Cash budget reconciles opening balances, receipts, disbursements and financing
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast uses invoice dates, payroll and supplier terms
  • Receivables ageing identifies collection priorities and expected cash timing
  • Payables scheduling balances supplier terms, discounts and liquidity requirements
  • Operating cash flow distinguishes profit movements from working capital movements
  • IAS 7 classifications separate operating, investing and financing cash flows

Participants can investigate financial variances and recommend corrective management actions.

  • Flexible budgets restate planned costs at actual activity levels
  • Sales volume and price variances isolate commercial performance drivers
  • Material price and usage variances identify procurement and consumption causes
  • Labour rate and efficiency variances separate pay from productivity
  • Spending and volume variances explain fixed overhead performance
  • Root-cause analysis converts adverse variances into corrective management actions

Participants can apply relevant financial analysis to short-term and investment decisions.

  • Relevant-cost analysis excludes sunk costs from short-term decisions
  • Make-or-buy decisions compare avoidable costs, capacity and supplier risk
  • Special-order pricing tests incremental revenue against incremental cost and capacity
  • Product mix optimisation applies contribution per constrained resource
  • Cost-volume-profit scenarios test profit sensitivity to price, volume and cost
  • Discounted cash flow estimates investment value using forecast cash flows
  • Net present value ranks projects against required returns

Participants can apply key financial controls that support accurate and reliable reporting.

  • COSO control activities address authorisation, custody, recording and review
  • Segregation of duties reduces error and fraud opportunities
  • Bank reconciliations investigate timing differences, errors and unauthorised transactions
  • Revenue recognition controls verify cut-off, evidence and approval
  • Budgetary control reports compare authorised spending with commitments and actuals
  • Audit trails retain evidence from transaction initiation through financial reporting

Participants can present financial results clearly and plan improvements for their workplace.

  • Management dashboards combine financial KPIs, operational measures and narrative commentary
  • Variance report structure states result, driver, owner, action and deadline
  • Forecast updates distinguish committed actions from scenario assumptions
  • Board-ready commentary explains material movements without excessive accounting jargon
  • Finance business partnering challenges assumptions while maintaining decision focus
  • Personal application plan identifies three workplace reporting or budgeting improvements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Integrated operating budget template
  2. 13-week rolling cash forecast model
  3. Financial statement ratio analysis worksheet
  4. Budget variance investigation report template
  5. Month-end close and reconciliation checklist
  6. Management financial reporting action plan

Who should attend

  • Budget Holders — need to plan spending and explain financial results
  • Finance Officers — need stronger accounting, budgeting and reporting capability
  • Project Managers — need to control project costs, forecasts and cash requirements
  • Operations Managers — need to connect operational activity with financial performance
  • Programme Managers — need to monitor funding, commitments and delivery costs
  • New Finance Managers — need a practical bridge from accounting records to management decisions

Skills and tools covered

Financial statement analysisBudget preparationCash flow forecastingCost-volume-profit analysisVariance investigationManagement reporting

Tools and standards

IFRS Accounting Standards, IAS 7 Statement of Cash Flows, COSO Internal Control Framework, DuPont analysis

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings followed by worked examples, case analysis, group tasks, spreadsheet-based calculations and structured reporting discussions. Participants apply accounting entries, cost analysis, budgeting and cash forecasting methods to realistic business situations. Simulations examine budget trade-offs, working capital pressures and variance investigations. Facilitated review sessions focus on how financial findings should be presented to managers. Each participant develops an application plan for improving a current budget, forecast or reporting process.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with percentages, basic spreadsheets and routine business calculations. They should have some exposure to budgets, invoices, expenditure reports, project costs or financial statements through their current role. Prior accounting study is not required, and participants do not need to be qualified accountants. The course begins with accounting fundamentals before moving into budgeting, forecasting and analysis. Participants will benefit most if they can bring examples of the reports, budgets or financial questions they encounter at work.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should be comfortable with basic percentages, spreadsheets and routine business calculations. No accounting qualification is required, but some experience with budgets, invoices, reports or project costs is helpful.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with a calculator and examples of reports or budgets you use at work. Sensitive information should be removed or anonymised before being shared.

It is designed for budget holders, finance officers, project managers, operations managers and new finance managers. It is particularly useful for professionals who must explain financial results or make spending decisions without being specialist accountants.

The course includes essential accounting records and financial statement principles, but its main focus is management use of financial information. Participants spend substantial time on budgeting, cash forecasting, cost analysis, variance investigation and reporting actions.

Participants can use the budget, cash forecast, ratio analysis and variance report formats in their regular reporting cycle. The final application plan identifies specific improvements to a current budget, forecast or financial report.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours excluding breaks. The five days progress from accounting records and financial statements through budgeting, cash forecasting, variance analysis, controls and management reporting.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

Related courses in Accounting