Financial Management for Non-Finance Managers

Doug Mawson, New Horizons Computer Learning Centre

New Horizons’ Financial Management for Non-Finance Managers course is aimed at “managers who do not have specific training in the financial field but who require additional skills in dealing with issues of a financial nature”. No pre-requisite experience or training is required.

The instructor, Doug Mawson, principal of Sydney-based Computer Accounting & Training Services and an MYOB certified consultant, has a wide range both of financial and teaching experience. He was well-placed to lead our group – professionals from different sectors within the publishing industry – into the thick of discounted cash flow budgeting or the significance of stock turnover.

Doug was quick to put us at our ease by confirming what many suspected – that financial management is peppered with accountants’ jargon that has served only to make the understanding of fairly simple concepts much more difficult. The instructor is on our side, we realised with relief!

Course content

The course aims to allow participants: to better understand the role of finance and accounting within an organisation, including the major terms, principles and concepts; to understand financial statements; to identify factors that create the difference between profit and cash flow; and to better analyse the financial performance of the participant’s own organisation, including how the organisation is affected by costs, volume and prices.

The course also aims to provide participants with tools to help them in the planning, budgeting and working capital management processes, including techniques for evaluating alternative capital expenditure proposals, and for more fully understanding the importance of budgeting.

Quite a lot to get through in two days, but we were in good hands.

Delivery

We got stuck into defining the functions of accounting straight away and an important characteristic of the course quickly emerged. Namely, while it assumes very little prior knowledge, it moves quickly and logically but without the danger of losing participants along the way.

Doug laid out the material in a no nonsense fashion, with more than a passing nod to the verbose way in which accounts have traditionally dealt with it. Another big plus is that the 80-page workbook tracks the spoken instruction very closely, allowing us to concentrate without having to take copious notes. The workbook is also ideal for reviewing the materials, both immediately after the course and in the longer term.

Exercises – such as constructing a profit and loss statement – were brief and not overly complex, but they provided enough of a challenge to allow us to gauge fairly accurately whether we had understood a concept correctly or whether we needed to review it.

Broadly speaking, the first day of the course introduces participants to the key terms, concepts and principles of accounting, as well as the fundamentals of financial statements, while the second day session looks at analysis and how statements can be used to measure and influence financial performance.

The bottom line

For HR and other professionals who need either to refresh their knowledge of financial management or to learn about it from the ground up, this course must be one of the very best. Covering the most basic principles without being overly simplistic, and with a broad but concise approach, both the instructor and the accompanying course notes offer a superb primer for financial management without any waffle or dead wood. Those who take it will likely find themselves imbued with confidence in an area that may be unfamiliar or even entirely new to them.

Presented by Doug Mawson;

Cost: $950 for two days, per participant (10–12 per course)

Contact: Catherine Karena, New Horizons Computer Learning Centre

Phone: (02) 8263 5900; Email: [email protected]

www.nhaustralia.com.au