Financial Management for Non-Financial Professionals Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Department Managers, Project Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FM-070

Before you join: Participants should have workplace experience involving budgets, costs, projects, contracts, operational plans or performance reporting.

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

Non-financial leaders routinely approve prices, contracts, staffing, asset purchases and service changes that affect profit, cash and risk. Yet a favourable income statement can coincide with a cash shortfall, while a low-cost proposal can destroy value after financing, tax or capacity effects are considered. Managers need to question reported numbers, identify the operational drivers behind them and frame decisions in financial terms that finance teams, executives and boards can assess.

This five-day instructor-led course develops the financial judgement required to participate confidently in planning, investment and performance discussions. Participants learn to interpret income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements; use ratios to diagnose performance; build budgets and rolling forecasts; analyse costs and break-even points; manage working capital; and assess investment proposals using discounted cash flow, net present value and sensitivity analysis. The course also addresses financing choices, financial risk, management reporting, internal controls and business-case preparation.

Teaching combines concise tutor briefings with financial statement reviews, budgeting cases, cash forecasting work, investment appraisal calculations, group decision scenarios and facilitated discussion. Cases reflect decisions common in public agencies, banks, NGOs, manufacturers, service businesses and multinational operations. Participants leave with a practical financial management toolkit: reusable templates, calculation models, reporting checklists and an application plan for a current workplace decision.

The course suits managers and specialists who use financial information without working as accountants. It is particularly useful for professionals responsible for budgets, projects, procurement, operations, commercial decisions, programme delivery or departmental performance.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements for management decisions
  • Analyse financial performance using liquidity, profitability, efficiency and solvency ratios
  • Build driver-based budgets and rolling forecasts using operational assumptions
  • Prepare a 13-week cash forecast from receipts, payroll and supplier-payment schedules
  • Calculate contribution, break-even volume and margin of safety for commercial decisions
  • Evaluate capital investments using discounted cash flow, net present value and sensitivity analysis
  • Assess financing, working-capital and financial-risk implications of proposed actions
  • Present financially justified recommendations through concise business cases and decision papers

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging financial assumptions in meetings and proposals
  • Stronger ability to explain operational decisions through profit, cash and risk effects
  • Practical methods for controlling departmental budgets and forecast variances
  • Credible investment-case skills for capital, technology and service-improvement proposals
  • Clearer communication with finance teams, executives and budget holders

For your organisation

  • Better budget ownership and earlier corrective action on adverse variances
  • More reliable cash forecasts and tighter control of receivables, inventory and payables
  • Higher-quality investment proposals with stated assumptions and financial returns
  • Improved commercial decisions on pricing, contracts, outsourcing and capacity
  • More consistent financial reporting from operational and programme teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can interpret the core financial statements and identify their implications for management decisions.

  • Management accounts distinguish profit, cash, capital and working capital
  • Income statement structure: revenue, gross margin, operating profit and net profit
  • Balance sheet equation links assets, liabilities and owners' equity
  • Cash flow statement reconciles operating, investing and financing movements
  • Accrual accounting matches revenue and expense to reporting periods
  • Materiality and accounting policies affect comparability between reported results

Participants can trace common business transactions through accounting records and reported results.

  • Double-entry bookkeeping records debits and credits in general ledger accounts
  • Journal entries trace transactions through ledgers to trial balance
  • Revenue recognition separates earned income from customer cash receipts
  • Depreciation methods allocate asset cost over useful economic life
  • Inventory valuation compares FIFO, weighted average and specific identification
  • Provisions and contingencies distinguish probable obligations from uncertain exposures

Participants can diagnose financial performance using ratio analysis, trends and benchmarks.

  • Common-size statements convert results into percentage-based trend comparisons
  • Liquidity ratios test short-term payment capacity using current assets
  • Profitability ratios explain margin, return on assets and return on equity
  • Efficiency ratios assess inventory turnover, receivables days and asset utilisation
  • Solvency measures examine debt-to-equity, interest coverage and covenant headroom
  • DuPont analysis decomposes return on equity into operational drivers
  • Benchmarking separates structural differences from deteriorating financial performance

Participants can prepare operational budgets, update forecasts and investigate material variances.

  • Driver-based budgets link volume, price, headcount and cost assumptions
  • Operating budgets coordinate revenue, staffing, procurement and overhead plans
  • Zero-based budgeting challenges spending from a defined decision package
  • Flexible budgets restate expected costs at actual activity levels
  • Variance analysis isolates price, volume, mix and efficiency effects
  • Rolling forecasts refresh assumptions and extend planning horizons monthly
  • Budget narratives document assumptions, owners, risks and approval decisions

Participants can analyse cost behaviour and assess profitability implications of operational choices.

  • Cost behaviour separates fixed, variable, step and mixed costs
  • Contribution margin identifies sales available for fixed costs and profit
  • Break-even analysis calculates required volume, revenue and margin of safety
  • Cost-volume-profit models test pricing, volume and cost-change scenarios
  • Activity-based costing assigns overhead through activities, drivers and cost objects
  • Relevant-cost analysis excludes sunk costs from short-term decisions
  • Make-or-buy decisions compare avoidable costs, capacity and supplier terms

Participants can forecast cash needs and identify actions that improve working-capital performance.

  • Cash conversion cycle connects inventory days, receivables days and payables days
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast uses receipts, payroll and supplier-payment schedules
  • Direct-method forecasts map weekly inflows and committed outflows
  • Credit-control actions reduce overdue receivables through ageing and collection priorities
  • Inventory policies balance service levels, holding costs and stockout risk
  • Supplier-payment terms protect liquidity without damaging critical relationships
  • Working-capital dashboards monitor forecast accuracy, cash gaps and corrective actions

Participants can evaluate investment proposals using cash-flow-based appraisal methods and risk tests.

  • Capital-expenditure proposals define scope, timing, benefits, costs and ownership
  • Discounted cash flow estimates project incremental after-tax cash flows
  • Net present value compares discounted benefits with initial investment
  • Internal rate of return tests returns against hurdle rates
  • Payback period highlights liquidity exposure but ignores later cash flows
  • Sensitivity analysis tests volume, price, cost and discount-rate assumptions
  • Post-investment reviews compare approved cases with realised financial outcomes

Participants can assess how financing structures and financial risks affect proposed decisions.

  • Debt and equity financing differ in claims, cost and control
  • Weighted average cost of capital informs investment hurdle rates
  • Interest-rate risk affects borrowing costs, covenants and refinancing decisions
  • Foreign-exchange exposures arise from transactions, translation and economic positions
  • Hedging principles match exposure, instrument, tenor and risk appetite
  • Loan covenants require timely monitoring of ratios and reporting obligations
  • Scenario planning quantifies downside liquidity and funding requirements

Participants can select financial measures and communicate performance information to decision-makers.

  • Balanced scorecards connect financial results with customer, process and capability measures
  • Key performance indicators define formulas, owners, thresholds and reporting frequency
  • Management dashboards distinguish leading indicators from lagging financial measures
  • Responsibility centres assign controllable revenues, costs, assets and decision rights
  • Transfer pricing aligns divisional incentives with group economic performance
  • Performance reviews challenge variances, assumptions, actions and accountability
  • Board packs present material messages, risks, decisions and financial implications

Participants can apply governance principles and present financially sound recommendations for approval.

  • IFRS-based reporting principles support consistent interpretation of published financial statements
  • IAS 7 classifications distinguish operating, investing and financing cash flows
  • Internal controls separate authorisation, custody, recording and reconciliation duties
  • Segregation-of-duties reviews identify fraud opportunities and control gaps
  • Business cases combine strategic rationale, financial analysis, risks and recommendations
  • Decision papers state options, financial consequences, assumptions and required approvals
  • Application plans assign a workplace decision, stakeholders and first actions

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

What you take back to work

  1. Financial statement interpretation checklist
  2. Ratio analysis and trend review template
  3. Driver-based budget and variance analysis model
  4. 13-week rolling cash forecast template
  5. Investment appraisal and sensitivity analysis worksheet
  6. Financial business-case decision paper template

Who should attend

  • Department Managers — need to control budgets and explain financial performance
  • Project Managers — need to assess project costs, cash needs and investment cases
  • Operations Managers — need to improve margins, productivity and working-capital outcomes
  • Commercial Managers — need to evaluate pricing, contracts and customer profitability
  • Procurement Managers — need to compare supplier terms, total costs and cash effects
  • Programme and NGO Managers — need to manage funding, budgets and financial accountability

Skills and tools covered

Financial statement interpretationBudget variance analysisCash flow forecastingCost-volume-profit analysisInvestment appraisalFinancial decision communication

Tools and standards

IFRS, IAS 7 Statement of Cash Flows, DuPont analysis, Net present value

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short tutor briefings to establish financial concepts, followed by guided analysis of statements, budget data and investment proposals. Participants work through realistic cases involving margin pressure, cash constraints, capital spending and performance reporting. Small-group discussions compare decision options and expose assumptions, while calculation sessions build confidence with core formulas and models. Financial simulations show how operational choices affect profit, cash and funding. Each participant develops an application plan linked to a current budget, project, contract or business case.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have workplace experience involving budgets, costs, projects, contracts, operational plans or performance reporting. They should be comfortable working with percentages, basic arithmetic and spreadsheet tables. Familiarity with their organisation's budget cycle or management reports is helpful but not essential. No accounting qualification, prior finance course, advanced mathematics or financial modelling experience is required. Participants will work with financial statements and calculation models during the course, with tutor guidance on the underlying concepts and formulas.

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 need experience of workplace budgets, costs, projects, contracts or performance reports, plus comfort with basic percentages and arithmetic. An accounting qualification or previous finance training is not required.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with a current workplace budget, business case or management report that you can use for application planning. Sensitive information can be anonymised, and course materials provide all required examples and templates.

The course is designed for managers and specialists who make or influence financial decisions but are not finance professionals. It suits people responsible for teams, projects, operations, procurement, commercial activity or funded programmes.

Accounting courses focus more deeply on preparing accounts, bookkeeping rules and technical reporting requirements. This course focuses on using financial information to make better operational, commercial and investment decisions.

Participants use the methods to review budgets, explain variances, forecast cash, evaluate proposals and prepare decision papers. The final application plan identifies a live workplace decision and the financial analysis needed to progress it.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 32.5 contact hours across five days. The programme covers ten modules, with tutor input, calculation work, case analysis, discussion and application planning throughout.

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 Financial Management