Course Overview

What is Financial Statement Analysis? Financial Statements are an important means of providing information for organizations performance to various stakeholders. Financial Statement Analysis is the method of inspecting an organization’s performance in the framework of its industry and economic environment in order to arrive at a decision or recommendation.

Why you should attend the Advanced Financial Statement Analysis Course? A good corporate financial decision starts with numbers. Most of the numbers come from financial statements prepared by accountants. However, the financial statements do not disclose all of the necessary and relevant information for decision making. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the data depicted in the financial statements.

This Zoe training course will empower you in taking the sound corporate financial decision based on the analysis of the information presented in the financial statements.

Course Objectives

The objective of this training is to help you in analyzing the financial statements of an organization for decision making about how the management has discharged their responsibilities in achieving the goals of the organisation.

By the end of this training you will learn to:

• Analyse and identify the financial strengths and weaknesses of an organisation
• Assess the liquidity and solvency of an organisation
• Analyse the needs for the financing of an organisation
• Assess management’s stewardship of the organisation’s economic resources
• Predict the future of an organisation from the analysis of the financial statement

Training Methodology

Zoe Talent Solutions assesses the needs and expectations of the training audience before approaching any training assignment. We customise our training course to suit the professional backgrounds and experience of our participants. Our classroom sessions are facilitated with audio and visual presentations delivered by our highly experienced trainers.

However, trainee participation is encouraged through exercises, group discussions, mock financial statement analysis, group activities, projects, etc. Participants are also encouraged to share their understandings, problems, interests and best practices from their respective organisations, which are discussed in detail by the course facilitator.

We follow Do–Review–Learn–Apply Model in our Training Methodology.

Organisational Benefits

Organisations who send their professionals to attend this course will gain the following benefits:

• Decipher financial statements for their effectiveness, applicability, and vulnerabilities
• Analyze the impact of certain financial statement selections on key financial ratios
• Anticipate and discover deteriorating cash flow quality
• Recognize some of the more delicate areas of reporting (in particular, revenue recognition)

Personal Benefits

Professionals who attend this course will gain the following Personal Benefits:

• Learn different types of creative accounting techniques used by companies
• Become an expert in understanding financial statements
• Improvise on your management skills and increase your value in your organisation
• Use different techniques in financial analysis and capital appraisal

Who should attend?

• Professionals working in the field of accounting and finance
• Financial controllers, finance managers, financial systems analysts, senior accountants, financial accountants, management accountants
• Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), finance directors and strategic planners

Course Outline

Module 1 – Introduction to Financial Statements

• Balance Sheet
• Profit and Loss
• Cash Flow Statement
• Changes in Equity
• Accounting Policies and Notes
• The relationship among the Financial Statements
• Annual Report

Module 2 – Introduction to Financial Statement Analysis

• Horizontal Analysis
• Vertical Analysis
• Liquidity Analysis
• Solvency Analysis
• Profitability Analysis
• Asset Management

Module 3 – Analysis of Balance Sheet

• Fixed Assets Analysis
• Inventory Analysis
• Receivable Analysis
• Payable Analysis
• Debt Structure Analysis
• Equity Analysis

Module 4 – Analysis of Profit and Loss

• Analysis of Revenue
• Analysis of Cost of Goods sold
• Profitability measures
• Dupont Analysis
• Expenses Analysis

Module 5 – Analysis of Cash Flow

• Analysis of Cash Flows from Operating Activities
• Analysis of Cash Flow from Investing Activities
• Analysis of Cash Flow from Financing Activities

Module 6 – Analysis of the Annual Report

• Analysis of the Notes to Financial Statement
• Analysis of Accounting Policies
• Compliance with the Accounting Standards
• Compliance with the Regulations
• Analysis of Management Commentary

Module 7 – Predicting the Future

• Revenue Forecasting
• Forecasting cost of goods sold
• Forecasting fixed and variable costs
• Forecasting balance sheet accounts
• Forecasting cash flows

Module 8 – Analysis of the Financial Statements using Spread Sheets

• Financial Statement Proportional Analysis
• Automated Ratio Result Analysis
• Trend Analysis
• Leverage Analysis
• Cash Flow Analysis
• Investment Analysis