Financial reporting and accounting and reporting standards:

• The role of accounting in financial reporting.
• Business objectives and shareholder wealth maximization.
• Users of financial information.
• Accounting terminology.
• The framework of accounting and financial reporting.
• Accounting concepts.
• Accounting standards (FRS, IAS, and IFRS).
• The nature and purpose of financial statements.
• The key financial statements.

Organization financial position reporting – the balance sheet:

• The structure of the balance sheet.
• Shareholders’ equity; liabilities; assets.
• Current assets and fixed assets.
• Current liabilities and non-current liabilities.
• Working capital.
• Balance sheet preparation.
• What does the balance sheet tell us about the organization?
• Limitations of the conventional balance sheet.

Working capital analysis:

• Working capital and working capital requirement.
• Inventory.
• Accounts receivable.
• Accounts payable.
• Cash.

Organization financial performance reporting – the income statement:

• What is profit?
• The structure of the income statement (profit and loss account).
• The categories of income and expenditure in the income statement.
• Income statement preparation.
• Valuation of assets impact on the income statement and balance sheet.
• The links between the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow.

 Break-even analysis:

• Cost/volume/profit (CVP) relationships.
• Break-even analysis.
• The impact of cost structure, volume and sales changes.
• Limitations of CVP analysis.

 Organization financial reporting – the cash flow statement:

• What is included in the cash flow statement?
• Why is cash flow so important?
• The structure of the cash flow statement.
• Sources of cash.
• Uses of cash.
• Cash flow statement preparation.
• The links between the cash flow statement, profit and loss account and balance sheet.

 Organization valuation:

• The reasons for organization valuation.
• Types of valuation methods.
• Net assets valuation.
• Capitalized earnings valuation.
• P/E ratio valuation.
• Gordon growth model valuation.
• DCF valuation.

 Analysis of financial reporting:

• Publication of financial statements.
• The annual report and accounts.
• Tools and techniques of financial reporting: ratios; trends; common size analysis.
• The use of financial ratios.
• The best performance measure – cash or profit?
• Common size (or horizontal) trend analysis of financial statements.
• Vertical trend analysis of financial statements.
• Segmental analysis of financial statements.
• Value added analysis of financial statements.
• Financial distress.
• Altman's Z-score analysis and its uses.
• Integrated financial accounting reporting case studies.