• Evaluate the financial impact of your management decisions — before you make them.
• Gain support for your ideas and projects by presenting them in bottom-line terms.
• Head off costly mistakes by spotting questionable numbers and inaccuracies on financial documents.
• Read, analyze and understand financial statements and reports – without having to depend on someone else’s interpretation.
• Spot areas where financial performance can be improved immediately.
• Get a crystal-clear picture of where your department, division or organization stands financially.
• Use ratio analysis formulas to determine whether a financial report is good news or bad news — without having to take the bean-counter’s word for it.
• Make informed decisions by determining the relative degree of risk you’re taking.
• Never again be blindsided at a meeting by a report or presentation full of numbers you don’t understand.
• Recognize the opportunities — and problems — embedded within any financial report.
• Decode financial jargon to “talk numbers” confidently with financial professionals.
• Make recommendations with conviction in meetings using solid numbers to back up your statements.
• Boost your credibility as you become recognized as a person who understands “the numbers.”

• Strategic decision-makers
• Non-financial managers
• Business owners
• Senior executives
• Key business unit managers
• Other professionals who need to understand how to interpret the numbers that drive business

This intensive workshop was designed specifically for nonfinancial professionals who want to learn to use the financial analysis tools and techniques that ensure on-target business decisions.

How to Read and Analyze Financial Statements

• Examine the 4 major financial statements businesses use, and learn easy ways to remember what transactions are recorded on each one
• Identify the purposes of income statements and balance sheets, and what information they will and will not tell you
• How to scan a financial statement and zero in on the most valuable information
• Make better decisions when you understand how day-to-day activities translate into revenues and costs
• Determining the real value of your product or service ... adding direct and indirect costs to come up with the full cost
• Operating profit ... net income ... what management really means when they refer to the “bottom line”
• Find out why profits are not the same as cash, and why adequate cash reserves are crucial to any business
• Basic steps in preparing a financial statement

Demystifying Critical Financial Concepts

• Common finance terminology explained, from variable costs to grow margins
• The difference between current liabilities, current assets and equities
• Types of long-term assets and the role depreciation plays in determining their worth
• 5 components of working capital and how critical it is to the day-to-day operation of your organization
• A simple approach to calculating return on investment (ROI) and determining the true bottom line
• Key financial indicators that will tell if a business situation is on the right track or headed for trouble
• Tangible and other assets – what the numbers on the balance sheet may be hiding
• What every manager must understand about Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)

Making Better Business Decisions Using Financial Information

• Understand the difference between finance and accounting information, and which gives you the facts you need to make effective decisions
• Cash: Find out how your company manages it and plans for enough reserves so you can seize new business opportunities
• Using the cash flow statement to predict problems before they occur, and head them off before they become crises
• Recognize the red-flag areas where cash can disappear if it’s not properly managed
• Leverage your knowledge to figure out how much and when different types of businesses need cash to maintain an even cash flow
• Critical financial areas that may be out of your control but that you absolutely must understand
• How to account for the often- maligned expense of overhead, and why overhead is a necessary cost of doing business
• Understand how modifying or timing the decisions you make will contribute to your firm’s financial health

Using Powerful Financial Tools to Analyze Your Organization’s Numbers

• 5 valuable questions to ask when dealing with a financial problem
• Using break-even analysis and other powerful analysis tools to make more informed decisions
• How to use ratios to evaluate an organization’s profitability, liquidity and leverage – and 5 ratios that can predict danger ahead
• How to evaluate the relative degree of risk for a project
• Which specific numbers to rely on when developing a budget
• Calculating ROI for the true “bottom line”
• Revenue forecasting techniques that are accurate and take into account your company’s financial objectives
• Get new project ideas approved using proven payback calculations

“Short and to the point, covering all bases, knowledgeable to all questions.”
L. Ledesma
Payroll & Compensation Coordinator
West Coast Arborists

“Enlightening. The instructor was great, made learning fun. I didn’t know I had learned so much because he made it easy to understand.”
M. Ptacek
Campbell County Government

“Easy to understand and not presented in a boring tone ... a lot of valuable information I will put into practice daily.”
D. Goff
Dept. of Natural Resources

“Instructor was very knowledgeable, very motivational. Lots of excellent cost-saving points and suggestions.”
E. Lowry
Dept. of Mental Health

“The day went by quickly and was packed with valuable information. Presented with clear ‘how-to’s,’ ‘whys,’ etc., without a lot of wasted words.”
P. Lympany
Fiscal Services Supervisor

“Everything was presented in a clear manner and easily understood.”
Josh England
Utility Trailer Sales
Cole County Commission