Fundamentals of Finance

What you'll learn:

No matter where you work in your organization, you’ll do your job better if you understand basic fi nancial concepts. You’ll be a more effective contributor to your company’s efforts to make money and grow. This short course explains the basics of finance. Though taking it won’t make you a finance expert, it will help you:

• Make sense of the three key financial statements.
• Gauge your company’s financial health.
• Weigh costs and benefits before committing resources.
• Consider financial risks when making decisions.
• Estimate future performance of your business.
• Track investments against what you’ve budgeted.

Welcome to the course!

• Why Understand Finance?

Navigating the Three Major Financial Statements

• Accounting methods
• The income statement
• The balance sheet
• The cash fl ow statement
• Test your learning

Using the Statements to Measure Financial Health

• Profitability ratios
• Efficiency ratios
• Liquidity ratios
• Leverage ratios
• Other ways to measure financial health

Preparing a Budget

• Top-down versus bottom-up budgeting
• Getting started
• Articulating your assumptions
• Quantifying your assumptions
• Test your learning

Calculating Return on Investment

• Costs and benefi ts
• Payback period
• Net present value and internal rate of return
• Break-even analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Evaluating unquantifiable costs and benefits

Tracking Performance

• Performance of an investment
• Performance of an existing unit
• Forecasts

Test Yourself

• Knowledge check

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Graduate with a better understanding on Financial Management and ready for your next gig.