This session is delivered via live webinar (zoom platform).

Programme Objective

This is a fun and engaging workshop on financial and business analysis, investment decision making, cash management and planning for value growth. 

Financial reports speak their own language, one that many ordinary people have trouble translating. This interactive workshop clears the confusion, helping you to understand the information contained in essential financial reports and then shows you how to use that understanding to make informed, intelligent decisions. 

This workshop will give you an immediate, working knowledge of the three primary financial statements – the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement and the Statement of Cash Flows. It will help you master the tools of finance where they can be useful to you, without wasting time explaining the deep details that will likely never benefit you.

This is a highly interactive workshop which will include plenty of story-telling, short case examples, practical case studies, real life illustrations, ‘think tank time’ and end-of-day quiz questions (Who Wants to be a Finance Genius) which will help reinforce the learning concepts and outcomes. 

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Make sense of important financial documents, from income statements, balance sheets, to cash flow statements.
• Locate the key areas to focus on when reviewing reports.
• Be aware of how management decisions and business transactions impact the financials and how they get recorded.
• Understand why management of working capital is important and ways to improve the management of receivables, payables and inventories.
• Understand the capitalisation decision for a company.
• Understand how deferred tax assets and liabilities are created.
• Practical applications and case studies – Using the ‘21-Step Approach’ to analyse financial statements.
• Have had an opportunity to network and contact build with friends on this program.

In addition to lecture notes and case studies, all participants attending this workshop will be given a specially-designed checklist prepared by the trainer called the ’21-Step Approach to Analysing Financial Statements’ and ‘Illustrative Set of Financial Statements” which will be a helpful tool for use at your workplace. These items are not available for sale in the market.

Programme Outline

Module 1 – The Interrelationship of Financial Statements: Making the Connections

1. Dissecting the Annual Report – Breaking Down the Parts
2. The Meat of the Matter – Looking at the 3 Most Important Documents
3. Understanding the Audit Process – The Role of the Auditor
4. IFRS vs US GAAP – Similarities and Differences
5. Movie Time – Accounting Standards: Is Convergence a Reality or Just a Dream?

Module 2 – The Balance Sheet: Value and Ownership

1. Understanding the Balance Equation
2. Introducing the Balance Sheet – Digging into Dates, Nailing Down the Numbers
3. Assets – Current Assets vs Long Term Assets
4. Liabilities – Current Liabilities vs Long Term Liabilities
5. Equity – Contributions from Shareholders vs Retained Earnings

Module 3 – The Income Statement: The Flow of Progress

1. Introducing the Income Statement – Digging into Dates, Figuring out the Format
2. Delving into the Tricky Business of Revenues
3. Acknowledging Expenses
4. Sorting out the Profit and Loss Types – EBIT vs EBITDA vs Net Income
5. Calculating Earnings Per Share (EPS)

Module 4 – The Statement of Cash Flows: Tracking the King

1. Profit is Not Equal to Cash: What's the Difference and Why You Need Both?
2. Digging into the Statement of Cash Flows – Indirect vs Direct Formats
3. Classification of Transactions to Operating, Investing and Financing Activities
4. Understanding the Alternative Definitions of Free Cash Flow
5. IFRS vs US GAAP – Classification of Interest and Dividends

Module 5 – The Capitalisation Decision

1. Implications of Capitalizing vs Expensing on Financial Statements and Ratios
2. Capitalization of Long-Term Tangible and Intangible Assets (including Goodwill)
3. Basic Methods of Depreciation and Amortisation, and Implications
4. Understanding the Asset Revaluation Model and Accounting for Investment Property
5. Calculating the Impairment of Long-Term Assets

Module 6 – Accounting for Deferred Taxes

1. Introducing Statutory Tax Rate, Effective Tax Rate and Adjusted (Cash) Tax Rate
2. Computing Taxable Income, Accounting Profit, and Income Taxes Payable
3. Describing how Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities are created
4. Temporary Differences vs Permanent Differences
5. Key Income Tax Differences – IFRS vs US GAAP

Module 7 – Concepts Integration and Review

1. Talking Point – Do Financial Statements Report the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth?
2. Practical Applications and Case Studies – Using the “21-Step Approach” to Review Selected Companies Financial Statements
3. Recap with a Fun Quiz and Game Show – “Who Wants to be a Finance Genius?”

Why Attend this Workshop? Why this One?
The answer is communication. This workshop will help you better understand the language of finance.

The trainer is a highly experienced practitioner and instructor and is well-regarded for his ability to translate complex financial concepts into plain language, and the use of illustrations, examples and real life experiences to help develop/enhance your understanding of finance and accounting.

The trainer is able to draw on his full depth of knowledge about accounting, creativity and experience to develop compelling and enjoyable programs.

BONUS CONTENT

Wondering about the massive crypto debacle of FTX and its wunderkind former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried? 

In November 2022, FTX and FTX.US crashed due to a lack of liquidity and mismanagement of funds, followed by a large volume of withdrawals from rattled investors. The value of FTX's native token, FTT, plummeted, taking other coins down with it including Ethereum and Bitcoin, which reached a two-year low as of 9 November 2022.

As this recent crash is in the minds of many professional accountants, the trainer will discuss the fall of the crypto giant FTX and do a deep dive to examine the business model, management and financial red flags that investors, traders, regulators and other stakeholders missed.
 

Pre-requisites

Please take note of the following admission requirements:

• Trainings will be conducted on Zoom platform, thus video camera and microphone are compulsory
• Mandatory for video camera to be turned on throughout the course
• Display your official name (as per NRIC) in Zoom, to facilitate attendance taking
   

Training Methodology

Workshop style - Story-telling, Fun Facts, Short Case Examples, Real Life Illustrations, ‘Think Tank Time’, ‘Talk to Your Neighbour’, “It’s Movie Time” with pre- and post-screening activities, and plenty of team activities such as end-of-day quiz questions (Who Wants to be a Finance Genius) which will help reinforce the learning concepts and outcomes.

Closing Date for Registration: 

1 week before program or until full enrolment

Intended For

An Intermediate Level programme intended for professionals who wish to expand and enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities to effectively and efficiently analyse and interpret a company’s financial statements. This programme is also suitable for those who wish to achieve a deeper qualitative understanding on how the Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs) interplay in the key financial statements.

Programme Facilitator(s)