He believes passionately that the more your managers and teams understand the financial dynamics of your organisation, the more effective will be their decisions and interventions.
Standard “Finance for Non-Financial Managers” courses typically cover Company Accounts, key concepts, jargon, ratio analysis - along with a look at Management Accounts, forecasts, budgets and maybe a look at investment appraisal. Nothing wrong with this: it is all useful knowledge. However, it rarely translates to immediate benefit, to better performance, to better decisions – and therefore to a direct improvement in your overall performance.
To achieve this “holy grail” of training, Chris bases his courses round your accounts, round your management information, your budgets, your business model and profile. And importantly works towards the outcomes that you want for your staff from the training.
The end result is a course which is practical, directly applicable and beneficial. Theory is only covered when it has practical application; knowledge on a need to know basis. As the courses are bespoke, you and your finance team will be instrumental in their design, content and objectives.
A typical course would include all or a selection of the following components:
- Profit & Loss Account / Income & Expenditure Account
Balance Sheet
Cash Flow
(Jargon and concepts as relevant/desired) - Costs
Understanding the behaviour of costs
Contribution
Margins - Analysis
Comparisons
Variances
Variance analysis - Management Accounts
- Case study / exercises using your management accounts and information
- Influencing Results
Non-financial information - Cash Management and Credit Control
- Budgeting and forecasting
Process
Methods
Understanding your own budgets - Project Appraisal and techniques
Managing with management accounts