Finance for Non-Finance Managers
A one-day programme for managers who own a budget, sign off spending, or have to justify a project, and who have never been taught to read the numbers they are being held to. Most operational managers learn finance by absorbing fragments in meetings, which produces confident use of terms nobody in the room defines the same way. Profit gets confused with cash, a cost centre gets managed as though every cost were controllable, and business cases get built on a payback figure that would not survive a question.
The session is built entirely around worked examples using a Malaysian company's figures rather than textbook abstractions. Participants read a real set of statements, trace a transaction through all three, build and flex a departmental budget, calculate the ratios their own management reports quote at them, and construct a business case with a discounted cash flow. No accounting background is assumed and no journal entries are involved. The intent is that a participant can hold their own in a budget conversation the following Monday.
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Programme Agenda
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Welcome and Programme Overview
Introduction, objectives, and what participants want to be able to do differently.
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
The Three Statements and How They Connect
The statement of profit or loss, the statement of financial position, and the statement of cash flows: what each one answers and what none of them tells you. How the three link, traced through a single transaction so the connection is visible rather than asserted. Accruals versus cash, and why a profitable company can run out of money, which is the single most useful idea in the day. Reading a real Malaysian set of accounts together.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Break
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Reading a Profit and Loss Properly
Revenue recognition in plain terms. Cost of sales versus operating expenses and why the split matters to your department. Gross margin, operating profit, EBITDA, profit before and after tax, and which of these your performance is actually judged on. Depreciation and amortisation as non-cash charges. Exceptional and one-off items, and the polite scepticism they deserve. Common ways a P&L flatters a period.
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
The Balance Sheet and Working Capital
Assets, liabilities and equity, and reading a balance sheet as a snapshot of funding rather than a list. Current versus non-current. Working capital: receivables, inventory and payables, and the cash conversion cycle. Why chasing a debtor is a finance decision your operation controls. Gearing and what a lender or a group treasury looks at. Capital expenditure versus operating expenditure and the practical consequence for how your request gets approved.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Costs, Budgets and Variance
Fixed, variable, semi-variable and stepped costs, and identifying which of your costs are genuinely controllable. Direct and indirect costs, and how overhead allocation shapes a cost centre report you did not design. Contribution and break-even analysis. Building a departmental budget bottom up, and flexing it when volume moves. Variance analysis: price, volume and efficiency, and writing a variance explanation that says something. Workshop: participants build and flex a departmental budget.
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Ratios and Reading Management Reports
Profitability, liquidity, efficiency and gearing ratios, calculated on the same real accounts used earlier. Return on investment and return on capital employed. Benchmarking against prior period and against sector. What a ratio cannot tell you. Reading the management report your own organisation issues, and identifying the three numbers on it that actually drive a decision.
3:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Break
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Building a Business Case That Survives Finance
Structuring an investment proposal. Relevant costs, sunk costs and opportunity cost. Payback period, and why it is popular and insufficient. The time value of money, discounted cash flow, net present value and internal rate of return, worked through on a calculator rather than described. Sensitivity analysis and stating your assumptions before someone else does. Workshop: participants build a business case for a real proposal from their own department and present it for challenge.
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Wrap-Up and Q&A
Key takeaways, a glossary to take away, next steps, and close.
Key Outcomes
- Read a profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow statement, and explain how the three connect
- Explain why a profitable business can run out of cash, and what working capital does about it
- Distinguish controllable from non-controllable costs and interpret an overhead allocation
- Build a departmental budget, flex it for volume, and explain a variance meaningfully
- Calculate and interpret the profitability, liquidity, efficiency and gearing ratios used in your reports
- Build an investment business case using payback, net present value and sensitivity analysis
Training Mode Physical / Online / Hybrid / e-learning
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Level Basic. Suitable for managers, supervisors, engineers, technical specialists and business owners with budget or spending responsibility. No accounting background required.
Duration 1 Day (8 Hours) | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue In-house at the client's premises, or delivered via the client's preferred platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or equivalent)
Assessment A flexed departmental budget and a presented business case from the participant's own department, plus a 10 to 15 question knowledge assessment
Certificate Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance