Program Description:

This course teaches how to accurately record accounting and financial transactions and how to analyse their effects; it explains how to manage and prepare accurate, professional final accounts, and how to interpret accounting data to control the enterprise and to manage costs, working capital and profits.  It covers how to manage finances and raise new finance.  It deals with bookkeeping, cost accounting and budgeting, investment and risk, and teaches how to make effective use of accounting data to make good financial decisions.  This Diploma is a “must have” qualification for people looking to advance in this field, and to rise to middle and higher level accounting and finance posts in business, commercial or public service.

• Understand the Finance and Accounting jargon
• Learn Costing and Budgeting Terminologies used in business
• Determine full costs of outputs for the goods and services provided
• Master traditional techniques and recent best practices
• Link Finance and Operation for Budgeting Purposes and Strategy Execution
• Learn How to Build a Comprehensive Performance Measurement System

The Need for Complete and Accurate Accounting Information  

• The need for full and accurate accounting information
• Functions of accounting: recording and analysing transactions; reports and statements
• Limitations of financial statements
• Accounting terms and meanings

Capital and Business Finance

• Initial capital and financing businesses; sole proprietors, partnerships, companies
• Working capital, income & expenditure, cash flow and liquidity
• Financial decisions and investments
• Financial assets, gearing and risk; investment appraisal

Principles of Bookkeeping and Books of Account

• Principles of bookkeeping, the ledge, double-entry bookkeeping
• Books of account: cash book, sales book, purchases book, returns books, journals
• The trial balance, manual and computerised accounts
• Bank accounts: current, deposits, savings, interest

Final Accounts (1)     

• Financial accounting concepts
• Goodwill, prepayments and accruals
• Trading and manufacturing accounts
• Statistics, percentages and ratios

Final Accounts (2) 

• Profit & loss accounts; information, layout, interpretation
• Balance sheets; information, layout, interpretation, equity
• Analysis, ratios, calculations
• Gross profit, net profit, wealth; stock turnover

Principles of Costing

• Purposes, benefits and limitations of cost accounting; key terminology
• Different costing systems explained
• Overheads and allocation
• Standards, variances, activity based costing

Planning and Forecasting, Budgets and Budgeting

• Business objectives, policy formulation; interpretation and implementation
• Financial planning and forecasting
• Budgets and budget preparation; sub-budgets and the master budget
• Budgetary control, variances; inflation  

Stock and Inventory Control

• Stock management and control; inventory costs
• Factors affecting the management of stocks and inventory
• Stock levels; factors affecting levels set; types of levels
• Stocktaking and valuation of stocks and work in progress

Credit, Credit Control, Discounts

• Types and common forms of credit
• The role and importance of credit
• Credit control, credit limits and creditworthiness, dangers and bad debts
• Discounts: types, purposes, accounting treatment

Partnership Accounts, Departmental and Branch Accounts, Hire Purchase

• Special features of business partnership accounts, goodwill
• Departmental accounts; purposes, analysis, apportioning expenses
• Branch accounts; centralised, decentralised, consolidated trading, p&l and balance sheets
• Hire purchase, accounting treatment, agreements

Interpretation of Final Accounts, Pricing Policy, Auditors and Auditing

• Working capital management, cash and funds flows, liquidity, borrowing
• Accounting ratios, interpretation & analysis, break-even analysis
• Pricing policy, factors influencing selling prices
• Auditing and auditors; duties, activities

Computerised Accounting Systems and ‘Packages’  

• Computers in accounting, characteristics of computers and systems
• Components of accounting systems; hardware, software, databases
• Applications and advantages of computerised accounting
• Organisation and security of data; management information