Financial Awareness for Non-Finance
Finance for Non-Finance Courses in ‘Financial Fluency’
Our Finance for Non-Finance Courses in ‘Financial Fluency’ (or Financial Awareness) are the perfect for non-finance professionals and managers.
If you are looking for an introduction to finance & accounting, general financial awareness or to enhance your existing financial understanding then we have the right course for you.
In-house courses in Financial Awareness
We specialise in delivering tailored in-house financial awareness training courses.
We deliver financial training courses to office juniors, trainees, managers, senior managers, directors and even chief executive. We can pitch our courses at the right level for you.
Our Financial Awareness Courses Include
Our 
financial fluency courses dispel the myths of finance and are a great introduction into the financial accounting world.
Our seven step path to financial awareness and understanding gives an illustration of the type of financial awareness training courses we deliver. We select the most relevant content and tailor it to your business.
1. Understand the financial consequences of running a business
Business owners, managers and employees need to have a basic level of financial awareness to help their business succeed.
• Discover where a business gets its money from
• Find out what a business does with its money
• Appreciate the need to record, analyse and summarise business transactions
• Figure out what the finance department does
• Identify essential business financial systems
• Check financial controls are in place
• Know the difference between financial and management accounting
• Produce quality management information
2. Get to grips with accounting fundamentals
It’s important to know basic financial terminology and concepts and to be familiar with the main financial statements produced by a business.
• Make sense of accounting jargon
• Discover why not to use ‘cash accounting’ and why timing is essential
• Watch out for hidden accounting costs
• The basics of debits and credits
• Discover what all the accounting books are used for
• Understand balance sheets
• Understand profit and loss accounts
• Understand cash flow statements
• Know who uses the financial statements and why
• Be aware of accounting regulation and law
3. Know what makes a profit
Profit is the raison d’être for most businesses. Knowing how to make and increase profit is one of the key ingredients for business success.
• Know the importance of price and its relationship to volume & revenue
• Realise that not all costs are the same
• Understand how gross margins work
• Appreciate the difference between gross and net margins
• Work out the breakeven point and margin of safety
• Be aware of tax consequences
4. Manage the cash
“Profit is sanity but cash is reality”. Without cash a business cannot survive for long. Effective cash management will help a business to endure.
• Understand why cash is king
• Find out where all the cash has gone
• Know how to generate cash from stock management
• Know how to generate cash from customers
• Know how to generate cash from suppliers
• Be able to prepare and use a cash flow forecast
5. Prepare and use a financial budget as part of your planning
Many business’s invest considerable time in budgeting but few do it successfully. Some simple and practical tips can improve the process.
• Know the basics of budgeting
• Find the principle budget factor
• Chose the best way to budget
• Use forecasting techniques to form the budget
• Watch out for issues when setting budgets
• Watch out for issues when monitoring budgets
• Calculate variances from budget
• Explore alternatives to budgeting
6. Evaluate opportunities financially
Business’s should use established techniques to help decide whether or not to commit time, resource and money on investment opportunities.
• Only consider the relevant costs for decision making
• Work out if a business opportunity pays back
• Calculate return on the investment
• Understand the time value of money
• Use established ‘Investment Appraisal’ techniques
• Build a financially sound business plan
7. Measure the performance of the business
A successful businesses can be judged by the size of its market value. Its performance can be measured by using financial ratios.
• Understand what constitutes success
• Analyse return on investment
• Analyse short term solvency
• Analyse gearing ratios
• Analyse measures investor ratios
• Be aware of the drawbacks of performance measures
Financial Awareness Course Delivery
• We take an open friendly and enthusiastic approach to learning finance.
• Our aim is to make finance interesting for you as people learn more effectively when they are enjoying themselves.
• We always use lots of exercises, case studies and real life examples in our training as we believe this really helps our clients to understand concepts.
• We find that people only really learn when they test their understanding through practice.
• We encourage as many questions as possible and create an open atmosphere to personalise the experience.
• We want you to ask the questions about finance that you’ve always wanted to ask.
• We’re not constrained by the course outline and welcome all questions.
We offer traditional training, facilitation, interactive simulations, coaching and online training.
Tailored Financial Awareness Courses
All our courses are tailored to meet our client’s specific needs. We like to spend time getting to know our clients as we strongly believe that training is most effective and valuable when tailored and focused.
In-house Financial Awareness Training
Our training can be held within your office or an external venue of your choice.
We can also secure venues on your behalf through our venue sourcing agency.
