About

As an executive assistant or personal assistant, you may be expected to take on a stronger management and leadership role within your organisation. And that could sometimes mean you need to have the confidence to deal with financial concepts and jargons.

The course is designed to help executive assistants and personal assistants who don’t have a financial background. This practical one-day seminar ensures you’re not only up to speed with financial data and interpretation but also learn about cash management, budgeting and costing.

By the conclusion of the course you will have more clarity, be able to connect the facts with figures and communicate with your manager and colleagues easily in financial terms.

Outline

UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL INFORMATION

The Accounting Process in Overview

1. Develop an understanding of the sources of financial information
2. Gain an insight into accounting systems, terminology and concepts
3. Examine why the timing of a transaction is so important to the finance function

• The accounting records: general or nominal ledger & trial balance
• Debits and credits demystified
• Income vs. expenditure, assets vs. liabilities, capital vs. revenue expenditure
• P&L account vs. balance sheet: categorisations and their inter-relationships
• Accounting concepts and the accounting rule book: accruals, prudence, substance over form, true & fair, materiality

The Driving Forces Behind Financial Information

1. Overview of the accountant’s role and the content of the annual report
2. Understand the role of the finance function and how the information you provide is used
3. Know where to find useful information
4. An introduction to the Balanced Scorecard

• The users of financial information and meeting their different needs: the finance function, types of accountants, financial vs. management accounting and the treasury function
• Annual financial statements: why they are produced, contents, what you should look for and what is not revealed
• Exercise: Applying the accounting concepts

Cash Flow and Cash Management

1. Understand why and how cash is king
2. Focus on ways a business manages this most important resource
3. Highlight the importance of cash flows in analysis and forecasting

• Cash vs. profit: why profit does not tell the full story and the importance of cash
• Examining how cash flow statements indicate the stability, adaptability and long term potential of a company
• Cash flow forecasts as a planning tool
• How the treasury manages cash
• Exercise: Identifying cash movements to predict future cash flows

Planning and Budgetary Control

1. Breaking down barriers between the management accounting and operations departments
2. Determining why budgets play a key role and are not simply an annual chore
3. Integrating budgets with strategy - the Balanced Scorecard in practice

• Purposes of budgets: the link between the strategic plan and the company culture
• Budgets as motivators
• Tailoring your priorities to match your company’s wider strategic objectives
• Setting realistic goals you can apply to your areas of responsibility
• How your role relates to the budget cycle
• Key budgeting techniques
• When, why and how you should use zero/priority based budgets
• Post-budgeting review: variance analysis - how and why it is performed
• Understanding the difference between budgets and cash flows and how they relate to one another
• Exercise: “Budgeting - The Big Picture”: How you can make budgeting more efficient and improve on existing practices

Costing - Essential Tools for Effective Management

1. Demystifying management accounting
2. Introduction to key costing techniques
3. Evaluate the real usefulness of costing techniques for accurately calculating and ensuring profitability

• Overview of costing principles
• Understanding the differences between direct and indirect costs
• Overheads: allocation, apportionment and absorption
• Activity Based Costing
• Break-even analysis: ensuring fixed costs are covered
• Costing for control: standard costing
• Exercise: Determining accurate cost per unit for effective decision making

Facilitator

Susan Hansen

Susan has worked in Financial Services since 1980.  She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and South Africa and has an MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business.

She worked for a ‘Big Four’ firm from 1980 to 1985 in Cape Town and London.  She then spent five years with Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street Investment Bank.

Since 1990 she has facilitated seminars on Financial Management and Accounting to Executives and University Students in New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia and South Africa.

In 1995 Susan moved to Auckland and as Strategy Consultant to the Auckland Regional Services Trust was the Project Manager on the feasibility study of the America’s Cup Infrastructure.  Following this she was Chief Executive of Viaduct Harbour Holdings Limited. 

Susan is currently Principal of a Financial Training Organisation.  She facilitates both public courses and in-house courses in New Zealand, Australia, China, South East Asia and Dubai.

Susan is currently a non-executive Director of Utilico Limited, listed in Bermuda. 

Susan is consistently rated as excellent in her delivery and content for presentations.

Susan Hansen is also facilitating:

• Finance for the Non Financial Manager
• Finance for the Non Financial Manager in the Public Sector
• How to Think Like a CFO

In-house Training