This course has been written for junior, middle and senior
managers who do not work in accounting or finance but who need to know what
happens in accounting and finance! By the end of the course, you will be able
to

1)  distinguish between and use the three major
financial statements

a.  Income Statement

b.  Balance Sheet

c.  Cash Flow Statement

2)  Carry out an analysis of financial data using
a variety of techniques, including ratio analysis

3)  Carry out a qualitative analysis of financial
and non-financial data

4)  Review the annual report and accounts of
organisations, including the notes of explanation found in those reports

5)  Identify trends and strategies contained in
financial and non-financial data and reports

Learning Methodology

We all learn in different ways: some of us need to read
things to appreciate them; some of us can learn just by hearing about them;
Some of us have to watch and listen and then write things down, and yet others
must do something for it to stick. How you approach this course is up to you
but you will find all four of those approaches to learning built into our work
or you can easily adapt its style to suit your own learning style.

Questions and quizzes: there are over 90 questions/exercises
in this course and you are encouraged to work through all of them, in full. At
every step of the way there will be a task for you to do to help you either to
demonstrate your knowledge, understanding, application and analysis or for you
to go and find something, solve something … always answer the questions
honestly and diligently and you will succeed.

The Practical Materials

There are many practical examples in use throughout this course
and what I have done is to use data from companies that I think most if not all
of you will be familiar with: amazon.com and Apple Inc. I do add some more
companies’ data at times, however. I do say, though, that if you think you are
bored with amazon.com and Apple Inc, please go and find your own data since you
can arrange them in the same way as I have and you will lose nothing by doing
that.