Financial Management

Financial Management: Financial Statement Analysis

Informed financial statement analysis is an important management tool. Management can apply it to their own organization to identify significant trends, highlight changes in key ratios, and initiate timely actions in response to unexpected results. Equally, management can apply it to other organizations for many different reasons, such as setting customers’ credit limits or assessing vendors’ ability to meet their commitments.

This seminar focuses on the analysis of financial statements. In particular, it identifies key financial ratios and demonstrates how to calculate and use them. It explains how to recognize significant trends in financial data and how to use them. It illustrates how budgeted and actual results, management discussion and analysis, and other management accounting information can contribute to effective financial statement analysis.

Financial Management: Manage Your Balance Sheet & Budget to Constraints

It is important for managers to know how to achieve and maintain a strong balance sheet for their organizations. An appropriate mix of assets, liabilities and equity facilitates an organization’s day-to-day operations. It also allows an organization to pursue strategies and opportunities that it could not otherwise pursue. Accordingly, budgets equally play an important role in helping organizations reach their goals. They communicate what individual organizational units are expected to achieve and enable managers to assess whether units are meeting those expectations. For budgets to fulfill their roles, however, they must be properly prepared, communicated, used and monitored.

This seminar discusses the concepts that make for a strong balance sheet. It shows the link between having a strong balance sheet and having good budgeting and forecasting processes. It explains how those processes can be strengthened through open collaboration, good communications, constructive negotiations, and appropriate internal controls. It offers techniques for monitoring and responding to variances between budgeted and actual outcomes. This seminar sets out the key steps in effective budgetary processes: recognizing the type of budget that is appropriate for the circumstances; identifying the inputs that are required; involving the right people; communicating and negotiating effectively; establishing controls in the budgetary process; and revising budgets in the face of changing circumstances.

Financial Management: Forecasting & Managing Your Cash Position

A well-managed cash position lets an organization meet its cash needs as they arise without holding undue amounts of unneeded cash. To achieve this balance between holding too much and too little cash, management needs to forecast the organization’s cash flows. It may need to influence the volume and timing of those flows. Sometimes, it may have to obtain extra cash; at other times, it may have excess cash. At all times, it must be able to adapt to the changing circumstances facing the organization.

This seminar outlines best practices for developing, maintaining and updating cash forecasts. It examines ways of speeding up cash inflows and slowing down outflows. It examines financing alternatives to improve cash positions. It presents ways for exploring grants and forgivable loans from governmental authorities.

Financial Management: Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers, acquisitions and divestitures are often major events that have significant financial and non-financial consequences for an organization, as well as for its shareholders, directors, management, employees, and other stakeholders. The decision whether or not to merge, acquire or divest needs to be based on sound analyses of many inter-related factors. Implementation of the decision requires careful planning and astute execution.

This seminar explores major activities in the merger, acquisition and divestiture process: identifying organizations for potential acquisition, merger or divestiture; conducting due diligence on those organizations; projecting post-transaction financial results; determining offer prices; arriving at contracts; and closing the deal.

Financial Management: Due Diligence Process

A major part of almost every merger or acquisition is the due diligence review undertaken by one party in relation to the other. The review often involves much effort, significant cost and tight timelines. It sometimes entails multiple locations and unfamiliar languages, cultures, and business practices. In-house personnel with due diligence expertise and experience may be scarce or non-existent. These and other challenges notwithstanding, the review must be effective, since its results will influence important decisions about the contemplated transaction.

This seminar examines the goals and procedures associated with the major steps in a due diligence review: defining the goals of the review; planning the review; forming a “review” team; carrying out the review; reporting and using the results of the review.