Accounting and Finance Fundamentals

Personal Benefits

• The opportunity to learn practical skills with unnecessary complexity stripped away
• A toolkit of techniques to use in financial value measurement and creation
• Increased confidence in dealing with accounting and finance specialists
• A foundation for future skills and knowledge acquisition

Organizational Benefits

• A short, focused program delivering essential accounting skills and knowledge to non-accounting team members
• The facilitation of better financial decision making
• Improved interaction between non-accounting team members and members of the accounting or finance function
• The development of foundational competence for continued development of talent

Module 1

Measuring performance

• Derivation of the basic accounting equation
• Simple transaction accounting
• Measurement basis of assets and liabilities
• Accruals basis of accounting
• Introduction of the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow statement examining how they fit together
• Consideration of the key financial statements for a selected public company

Deciphering performance

• Ratio analysis and same-sizing for comparative purposes
• Ratio analysis applied to selected public company financial statements to support a discussion of strengths and weaknesses and steps to improve
• Discussion of some key non-GAAP measures used in Management Discussion & Analysis reports and in media releases
• Discussion of limitations inherent in the measurement of value in financial statements

Module 2

Measuring value

• Overview of different approaches to determining value
• Introduction to the time value of money (compounding and discounting)
• Use of project evaluation tools (such as payback, NPV, and IRR)
• Estimating corporate valuation using observable multiples for selected public companies
• Use of discounted Cash Flow techniques to arrive at a valuation (illustrated for a private company), including approaches to establishing Free Cash Flow and determining an appropriate discount rate

Enhancing value

• Introduction to cost behaviour and the contribution statement
• Application of Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, breakeven and target profit determination
• Illustration of Economies of scale and operating leverage
• Overview of approaches to costing and their use in decision making – job cost and process cost systems; absorption and variable costing; standard costing; activity based costing

In-Person Learning

Learn alongside fellow participants from across the country, discovering best practices that span industries and sectors.

Our in-person programs include classroom learning sessions led by award-winning Smith School of Business professors and industry experts. Practice new skills in breakout sessions, projects and simulations, and apply your learning toward real-world case studies.

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Erica Pimentel

Accounting
Smith School of Business

Erica's research draws on sociological theories to explore how technological disruption impacts the ways in which professionals engage with their work. She conducts this research using a variety of qualitative approaches, namely interviews, ethnographies and netnographies. She is currently working on projects that explores how remote working arrangements and blockchain are impacting audit practices. Her broader interest is in thinking about how professions are changing in light of new technologies and the on-going crisis of expertise.