Financial Strategy and Cash Management Training Course

Participants can interpret financial statements to identify financial strengths, constraints and risks.

• Income statement structure, gross margin, operating profit and net profit
• Balance sheet composition, capital structure and asset financing choices
• Cash flow statement analysis under IAS 7 classification requirements
• Accounting policies affecting comparability, timing and reported performance
• Common-size statements revealing trends in cost, asset and funding structures
• Linking profit, balance sheet movements and operating cash generation

Participants can diagnose profitability, liquidity, efficiency and solvency using financial ratios.

• Profitability ratios including gross margin, EBIT margin and return measures
• Liquidity ratios using current ratio, quick ratio and operating cash flow
• Efficiency analysis through inventory days, receivable days and payable days
• Solvency measures including debt-to-equity, interest cover and debt service
• DuPont analysis separating margin, asset turnover and financial leverage
• Benchmarking financial performance against prior periods, budgets and peers

Participants can assess external conditions that affect financial strategy and planning assumptions.

• PESTLE analysis identifying macroeconomic, regulatory and market financial drivers
• Porter's Five Forces assessing margin pressure and competitive intensity
• Inflation assumptions affecting pricing, payroll, procurement and capital expenditure
• Interest-rate scenarios testing borrowing costs and investment hurdle rates
• Exchange-rate movements affecting imports, exports and foreign-currency debt
• Scenario assumptions documented through base, upside and downside cases

Participants can design a planning structure that links strategy, budgets, forecasts and accountability.

• Strategic plan translated into financial targets and resource requirements
• Balanced Scorecard measures connecting financial and operational performance indicators
• Planning calendar aligning strategic review, budget cycles and forecast updates
• Accountability matrices assigning ownership for assumptions, decisions and variances
• Top-down targets reconciled with bottom-up operating plans and capacity
• Driver-based planning models built from volume, price and productivity assumptions

Participants can construct operating budgets and forecasts from measurable business drivers.

• Revenue budgets built from sales volume, price and customer mix
• Cost budgets separating fixed, variable, discretionary and committed expenditure
• Headcount plans linking workforce assumptions to payroll and benefits
• Production budgets incorporating capacity, yield, scrap and inventory requirements
• Rolling forecasts updated using actual results and revised assumptions
• Forecast version control documenting assumptions, approvals and material changes

Participants can analyse variances, identify causes and improve forecast reliability.

• Price, volume, mix and efficiency variances explained through bridge analysis
• Flexible budgets adjusted for actual activity levels and cost drivers
• Waterfall charts communicating movements between budget, forecast and actual results
• Forecast bias measured through recurring overstatement and understatement patterns
• Root-cause analysis separating controllable, external and timing-related variances
• Corrective actions assigned with owners, dates and expected financial effects

Participants can evaluate cost structures and profitability implications of operating decisions.

• Fixed and variable cost classification for planning and decision analysis
• Contribution margin analysis supporting product, customer and channel decisions
• Break-even analysis calculating sales volumes required for target profit
• Relevant cost principles applied to outsourcing, pricing and shutdown decisions
• Activity-based costing allocating overhead through measurable cost drivers
• Customer profitability analysis incorporating service costs, discounts and returns

Participants can evaluate capital proposals using cash-flow based investment appraisal methods.

• Incremental cash flows distinguished from accounting profit and sunk costs
• Net present value calculated using forecast cash flows and discount rates
• Internal rate of return compared with hurdle rates and funding costs
• Payback period and discounted payback assessed alongside value measures
• Sensitivity analysis testing volume, price, cost and timing assumptions
• Investment appraisal papers documenting strategic rationale, risks and recommendations

Participants can assess financing options against cost, risk, flexibility and strategic objectives.

• Weighted average cost of capital calculated from debt and equity inputs
• Debt capacity assessed through cash generation, covenants and repayment schedules
• Term loans, revolving facilities and overdrafts compared for liquidity needs
• Equity, retained earnings and asset finance considered for growth funding
• Capital structure trade-offs between financial risk, control and financing cost
• Funding recommendations aligned with asset life, cash profile and risk appetite

Participants can explain how operating decisions affect cash flow and liquidity.

• Operating, investing and financing cash flows interpreted for management decisions
• Cash conversion cycle calculated from receivable, inventory and payable days
• Profit-to-cash reconciliation identifying non-cash items and working-capital movements
• Seasonality mapped through monthly cash receipts, payments and funding peaks
• Cash traps identified in growth, long contracts and capital-intensive operations
• Minimum liquidity thresholds set against obligations, volatility and contingency needs

Participants can prepare an accurate rolling cash forecast for liquidity management.

• 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts, payroll and supplier data
• Customer receipts scheduled using invoicing terms, collection patterns and disputes
• Supplier payments profiled by purchase orders, terms and payment runs
• Payroll, tax, debt service and capital payments incorporated by due date
• Daily liquidity positions reconciled with bank balances and committed facilities
• Forecast variance review comparing projected and actual cash movements

Participants can identify and prioritise working-capital actions that release cash responsibly.

• Accounts receivable ageing analysed by customer, dispute and payment behaviour
• Credit policies balancing sales growth, bad-debt risk and collection discipline
• Inventory optimisation using demand forecasts, reorder points and safety stock
• Supplier terms evaluated against supply continuity, discounts and cash requirements
• Working-capital dashboards tracking DSO, DIO, DPO and cash conversion cycle
• Improvement actions prioritised by cash impact, feasibility and relationship risk

Participants can establish practical controls for bank accounts, payments and cash visibility.

• Bank account structures designed for visibility, control and operational access
• Cash concentration arrangements compared with local funding and intercompany loans
• Payment approval matrices separating initiation, review, release and reconciliation
• Bank reconciliations resolving timing differences, errors and unidentified transactions
• Treasury management system requirements for balances, payments and exposure reporting
• Bank relationship reviews covering fees, facilities, service quality and covenants

Participants can identify financial exposures and select proportionate risk-management responses.

• Transaction, translation and economic foreign-exchange exposures distinguished clearly
• Foreign-currency exposure registers capturing amount, currency, date and counterparty
• Forward contracts, swaps and options compared for hedging requirements
• Natural hedging matched through currency revenues, costs and borrowing profiles
• Interest-rate risk assessed across fixed-rate and floating-rate debt portfolios
• Risk limits, counterparty limits and escalation thresholds documented formally

Participants can apply governance and control principles to financial planning and cash management.

• COSO internal control components applied to finance and treasury processes
• Segregation of duties preventing unauthorised payments and concealed errors
• Delegated authority limits governing expenditure, contracts and financing decisions
• Financial risk registers linking risks, controls, owners and monitoring indicators
• Covenant monitoring reporting compliance, headroom and remedial action requirements
• Audit trails retained for forecasts, approvals, payments and financial decisions

Participants can present financial analysis and recommendations for senior decision-makers.

• Executive financial reports focused on decisions, risks, actions and accountabilities
• KPI dashboards combining profitability, liquidity, capital and operating indicators
• Management commentary explaining drivers, uncertainty and forecast changes concisely
• Board papers structuring options, financial impacts, risks and recommendations
• Data visualisation selecting charts appropriate to financial questions and audiences
• Challenge meetings testing assumptions, evidence quality and action commitments

Participants can build, review and present a complete financial strategy and cash management plan.

• Strategic financial objectives defined from business priorities and stakeholder requirements
• Integrated budget, forecast and cash model assembled from operational assumptions
• Performance dashboard prepared with targets, thresholds and management actions
• Working-capital initiatives quantified by cash impact, owner and implementation date
• Funding and treasury recommendations assessed against liquidity, cost and risk
• Final financial strategy pack presented, reviewed and refined using peer feedback