Professional Skills for Finance & Accounting

Start Date End Date Venue Fees (US $)

Professional Skills for Finance & Accounting

Introduction

This course covers the essential skills needed for finance staff to excel in their companies. From macro-level management and financial overview to personal organization and time management, various skills are put into practice to help participants become more successful at the workplace.

Objectives

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

    • Identify the relationship between the various financial statements
    • Explain the characteristics of 'delegation' and apply various personal organization management techniques
    • Evaluate the skills and attitudes of finance staff and identify their communication personality styles
    • Practice some of the essential Excel skills to increase efficiency and productivity
    • Apply finance policies and procedures to add value and communicate effectively with other departments

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

Financial managers, financial controllers, finance department heads, chief financial officers, accounting managers, senior finance officers, accountants, finance staff, and analysts.

Target Competencies

  • Interpreting financial statements
  • Delegation
  • Communication
  • Organization
  • Time management

Course Outline

The Macro-Finance Picture

  • Understanding the accounting cycle
  • The income statement
  • The balance sheet
  • Changes in owners’ equity statements
  • Cash flow statements
  • The relationship between financial statements
  • Functions of management
  • Elements of a vision for the finance and accounting department
  • Effectiveness versus efficiency
  • Supporting the operating departments
  • Purpose of the finance and accounting function

Personal Organization and Time Management

  • The new skills set
  • Delegation and priorities
  • Delegation characteristics
  • Rules of delegation
  • Handling meetings effectively
  • Maintaining clean desk policy
  • Managing your in-box
  • Peak performance time

Managing the Finance Function

  • Hiring the best people
  • Identifying recruitment criteria
  • Developing interviewing skills
  • Interpersonal communication
  • Fundamentals of communication skills
  • Personality communication styles
  • The attitude and skills matrix
  • Evaluating finance staff performance
  • Employee motivation tools

Key Excel Functions and Tools to Enhance Efficiency

  • Consolidating multiple sets of data
  • Applying control at the data entry through data validation
  • Reconciling accounts by using 'VLOOKUP'

Organizing the Finance Function

  • Teamwork skills in finance and accounting
  • Assessing the need for team building program
  • Finance as a project
  • Organizing by function
  • Organizing by purpose
  • Staff duties and responsibilities
  • The need for review and authorization procedures
  • The authorization matrix and control of processes in organizations
  • Cross training and backup strategies
  • Scheduling the monthly accounting cycle

Policies and Procedures

  • Purposes of the policies and procedures manual
  • Documenting and communicating financial policies
  • Staff involvement and responsibilities

Accreditation

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