5 course pack (select 5 courses from the full catalogue)

Professionals today are called upon to demonstrate their ability to be skilful and flexible, irrespective of their position, in how they influence others. As organisations become less formal in their power structures, and flatter and more flexible in their systems of governance, there is an even greater need for finance professionals to have the ability to influence other people.

During this one hour course, you will gain valuable insights into their strengths as well as development areas to become consummate influencers. By creating a greater awareness of the assets and skills required to effectively influence, participants can develop the strength, the focus, and the interpersonal flexibility required of great influencers.

This course covers the basics of accounting, from outlining the conceptual framework right the way through to the creation of financial statements. We then take a look at how to analyse these financial, detailing specific methodology and then putting into practice what is described using worksheets and resources available to download.

This course will work through, step-by-step, each of the most significant transactions that most businesses make and explain how these are reflected through accounting in the financial statements. These transactions include fixed/non-current assets, investments, sales and trade receivables/debtors, purchases and trade payables/creditors, accruals and prepayments.

There is nothing difficult or mystical about Activity Based Costing - on the contrary, it is based on simple, common sense concepts and practical methods. It seeks to drive much greater cost understanding across all of an organisation’s operations, enabling management to take smarter decisions driving real business benefits through to the bottom line. Yet many who tried lost focus, introducing impractical complexity along with time and cost, into implementations - making them largely unworkable and unsustainable. This course gets back to the basics of ABC principles and demonstrates how it can be practically adopted with a minimum of pain and fuss

When managing a business, leaders follow varying agendas and objectives in making decisions. The finance function is often seen as the key steward and guardian of financial value for the investors and will continue to drive the delivery of that value from throughout the business.

This course will introduce you to a clear understanding of the measurement of financial value; how financial value is generated from strategic initiatives, pricing spend management; and how the finance team can contribute to building value.

This course provides an introduction to accounting under IFRS. It starts by considering the driving factors behind the development of IFRS accounting treatments and then introduces the overall structure and presentation of the accounts. It then provides an insight into the key accounting areas and how they impact the statement of financial position and the statement of financial performance.

In this course we review the basic functions of an investment bank and Mergers and Acquisitions or M&A practitioners within an Investment Banking Division (IBD).

The merger of Thomson and Reuters is used as a case study to illustrate the main points

More and more accountants are being asked to contribute within a project environment. This course provides a basic outline of the project management role, how to structure a project, the project governance structure and highlights some of the tools available to help manage the process.

In this course we describe the key functions of the different financial markets in the City of London and how various products are used in these markets to hedge risk. The goal is to demystify a lot of the jargon of the City and explain how the different parts of the City work together.

Good corporate governance is essential to the effective operation of a free market, which enables wealth creation and freedom from poverty. In this course we review the UK approach to corporate governance.

Professionals at any level of an organisation need to understand the principles of good corporate and why they are so important – particularly in the wake of some recent organisational failures such as Carillion.

There have been some recent updates to the Corporate Governance Code for listed companies and also the introduction of the Wates principles for large private organisations which are both covered in the course.

Private equity (PE) has become one of the world’s largest asset classes for investors. It is estimated that 10 percent of UK private sector workers work in companies connected in some way to PE. This course covers institutional investing into private, rather than public listed, companies, where the shareholder can then not expect an exit for at least 3 to 10 years.

The course defines the types of PE (Venture Capital (VC), growth capital, Leveraged Buy Out (LBO)) and talks about the role of PE in a diversified investment portfolio. It explains how PE funds are constructed and how they conduct deals including the decision making process before investing and areas of due diligence conducted. The goal of a PE investor is a high Internal Rate of Return (IRR) on deals and the course outlines what IRR and Multiple of Invested Capital (MoIC) is and how it is achieved.

Having developed a strategy with accounting input, implemented the strategy in an effective and motivational way it is important to assess whether the key elements of your strategy have actually been successful. This course will consider some benchmarks and definitions that should help you fashion an appropriate and cost effective set of measures to measure your success.

From SiRi to self-driving cars, AI (Artificial Intelligence) is progressing rapidly. More will change in the next two decades than in the past 200 years. A captivating conversation is taking place about the future of AI and what it could mean for humanity.

Fascinating controversies where the world’s leading experts disagree, e.g.: AI’s impact on the job market; whether it will lead to an intelligence explosion; and whether it’s something we should welcome or fear. But there are also many cases of pseudo-controversies caused by people misunderstanding and talking past each other.

To help focus on the interesting controversies and open questions, not on the misunderstandings, we attempt to clear up some of the most common myths.

This informative course will benefit anyone who is interested in an overview of the evolution and progression of AI in today’s world, and how it is poised to disrupt the way we work.

Imagine being able confidently to express your opinion, stand up for yourself, say 'no' when you need to and say what you mean and mean what you say. How much more effective and successful would you be? How much easier would your life be? Becoming more assertive can be immensely beneficial to everyone and can make you feel more confident, enhance your self-esteem, increase your ability to deal with difficult people and stressful situations, as well as making you happier, healthier and more professional.

Arguably, the problem in most companies with performance measurement isn't that we don't have enough - quite the opposite. It's that we have too much and that what we have is unfocused lacks a real connection to strategy, lacks coherence down and across the organisation and fails to drive the behaviours and results we seek. The balance scorecard is a performance management framework that seeks to address these shortcomings

The world of business is being transformed by a data revolution. We now have access to unprecedented volumes of data. Never before in history have companies collected and had access to more data. And never before have we had the ability to analyse it to gain new insights and completive advantages. What's more, we are only at the beginning of this revolution. Data volumes are growing at exponential rates – just think of all the internet transactions, searches, social media conversations, YouTube videos, etc. This offers new opportunities and challenges for every business. Would you like to understand this data revolution and the benefits it could bring you and your company? Would like to learn how leading companies – big and small, private and public – are leveraging big data to deliver business benefits?

From the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence, influencing our decisions and storing growing amounts of data on demand, Big Data is helping fuel it all.

This course will look at the impact of Big Data in the modern world and how understanding the opportunities available can assist in business.

A new world of cryptocurrency is seeing exponential growth causing a turn in the economy as well as presenting new challenges in the way we do business. While there are around 1600 types of cryptocurrencies available over the internet, it is Bitcoin that has experienced the most fierce value fluctuation of all.

Meanwhile, an accidental discovery has led to much hype around the formations of a decentralised digital ledger, a new and exciting technology that we now call Blockchain.

This has sparked a global debate as to whether this new way of recording transactions could be the solution we have been searching for, in bridging the gap with data protection, digital security and authentication. Many organisations and research facilities already have a taste for the types of answers to digital problems that this new technology could bring.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is nowadays recognised as being as important as IQ. Understanding what EI is and utilising Emotional Intelligence in the workplace can play a large part in career success. This course explores various aspects of emotional intelligence and explains how you can apply EI to your own particular circumstances.

Intangible assets such as brands that are organically developed are not recognised on the balance sheet or statement of financial position. However, intangible assets - including brands - that are acquired have to be valued and recognised. This course looks at the techniques involved in the valuation of intangible assets - particularly brands - and how financial reporting has been evolving to deal with such assets and the challenges arising.

Budget is typically agreed before the start of the financial period which it covers. As the period passes, the actual performance is then compared to the budget as a benchmark. To gain more detail, variance analysis is used which is covered in the course including topics such as standard cost, materials and labour cost and usage.

When you're running a business, it's easy to focus on day-to-day problems and forget the bigger picture. However, successful businesses invest time to create and manage budgets, prepare and review business plans and regularly monitor finance and performance. Structured planning can make all the difference to the growth of a business. It enables business owners to concentrate resources on improving profits, reducing costs and increasing returns on investment.

Most organisations undertake budgeting and this module will cover what a budget is and why they are used with a description of a typical budgeting process. The module also covers some forecasting techniques such as linear regression, time series and scenario planning.

In today's economic climate, more than ever, we must ensure that for any investments of significance in our businesses that we undertake produce returns that protect our cash, satisfy investors or shareholders expectations and justify the risks taken. This course looks at what constitutes a good business case, how we may effectively model it and considers the quantification of risk.

In an increasingly competitive world it is important that you communicate to your clients how you can help them to meet their needs and address the key issues that they face. The value proposition, done correctly, provides a powerful answer to the question 'Why should we choose you?'

But it should do more, demonstrating your understanding of their issues and differentiating what you do from the competition. The key is in the differentiation, demonstrating how what you offer gives the client more of the things they want – the value – than competitor solutions. Value propositions are frequently talked about and generally poorly done.

Business has been slowly pulling away from the 2008 global financial crisis. As opportunities for growth increase, leaders must decide how best to invest. Initiatives to build and sustain growth include entering new geographic markets, investment in innovation and product development, enhanced branding. The finance function has an important role to play in leading growth initiatives through to benefit delivery.

This course will introduce you to the tools and approaches to evaluate and manage a selection of growth initiatives.

Thinking more commercially in these challenging financial times whilst spotting all the opportunities available is now more vital than ever for finance professionals.

This highly practical online course has been specially designed to help finance professionals improve their commercial acumen and ensure they can deliver more value for their organisation.

This course focuses on the need for the finance function, and accountants in particular, to have a broader understanding of the needs of operational management. It concentrates on being able to communicate more effectively, recognising our personality traits and how we are perceived by others and to gain more influence through a mutual understanding the linkage between financial outcomes and value creation.

This course will help you understand the importance of good communication. Good communication allows you to present your ideas and thought in a way which is engaging and persuasive. It will help you improve your ability to question, listen, form a rapport, coach and mentor and cover what you can do to feel more confident when dealing with conflict. This course is a must have for anyone in the workplace and will provide even the best communicators with useful hints and tip to help you improve your communication skills even further.

Hasn't everything been said about SWOT? Well, actually, no. In this course we will introduce you to the Constructive SWOT which is a much more powerful and effective way to use this model. Using the Constructive SWOT analysis will help you examine, in real depth and with unprecedented rigour, how to build a solid and robust business strategy at corporate, division, SBU or even at team level. The model is in fact generic, so you can use it anywhere you need to think through the pros and cons of a proposed business decision.

This course provides an overview of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 which deal predominantly with the rules on distance selling and doorstep selling. There will also be a brief summary of enhanced rights given to consumers by the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014.

Ever since Capital Allowances were introduced, they have been an extremely valuable way for businesses to reduce their tax liabilities.

The rules are subject to regular changes by Government as they seek to provide incentives for different parts of the economy to grow. Keeping up with these changes is key to a successful tax strategy.

There are two key tasks, the first is to identify expenditure which qualifies for Capital Allowances, the second is to make the right computations and claims. This course will help guide you through this valuable but complex process.

Arriving at the accounting profit is only the start of the journey required to arrive at profits for tax purposes.

The course looks at the adjustments that are required to turn accounting profits into taxable profits.

It is quite possible that despite the attempts at alignment, these two measurements will look very different for certain companies. There have been a number of recent changes as a result of tax reform which are included in this course.

This course begins by covering the various claims a single company can make to obtain relief for trading losses. Where losses are carried forward, the restrictions resulting from a change in ownership are covered.The loss relief available where a company is a member of a group is dealt with next. The course then looks at corporation tax on chargeable gains, covering indexation allowance and roll over relief on the replacement of business assets, together with the substantial shareholding exemption. Finally, the ways in which membership of a group can impact on corporation tax on capital gains is dealt with.

This course covers the basics of corporation tax. It begins by showing which types of body are liable to corporation tax and the question of when companies are resident in the UK. After looking at an outline computation, the rules governing the beginning and end of a corporation tax accounting period are considered. Next, the rates of corporation tax are reviewed, showing how the small profits rate operates. The effect of associated companies on entitlement to the small profits rate, where the rules have recently changed, is considered next. Finally, the course shows how filing of tax returns and payment of tax is governed by the rules of self assessment.

As professional management accountants, CIMA members and registered students throughout the world have a duty to observe the highest standards of conduct and integrity, and to uphold the good standing and reputation of the profession.

Research and activity in the field of business ethics and sustainability, the growing influence of investors, consumers, employees and wider society, all point to the necessity of embedding wider ethical considerations into strategy and performance measurement. The last few years have highlighted the costs of acting unethically, with a spate of business failures, high public distrust and now, increasingly, public protest against corporate and government misdemeanours. Management accountants have a specific role in not only upholding their related institute's code of ethics, but also in acting as a role model and influencer in regard to ethical practice and promoting responsible business for the long term.

For many years the IASB and FASB have been working on joint projects which has resulted in the issue of new standards in respect of revenue recognition, financial instruments and leases. This course provides an overview of those new standards. The IASB has also been working on its own standards recently issuing a standard on insurance accounting – again an overview of the standard is provided on the course. The period of joint collaboration with the FASB has now ended and the two boards are now working on the own projects. This course provides an insight into the projects currently being worked on by the IASB.

With cybercrime making headline news, it is more important than ever to be aware of our own digital footprint and the impact that it can have on our surroundings.

Protecting our data and taking vital precautions to maintain our digital privacy and continuity has become of paramount concern. Many users aren’t aware of the cyber threats lurking on the internet, cyber criminals and malicious hackers target regular people like you and me far more frequently than we would like to think.

The cybersecurity market has grown 35 times in the past decade, and is set for exponential growth with spending on products and services to eclipse $1 trillion worldwide.

This course provides information and advice, along with some easy steps to help minimise risk in today’s often confusing cyber landscape.

Change is inevitable. Disruptive technologies, globalisation, ever-increasing competition and uncertainties in the political and economic contexts all result in change upon change to the organisations in which we work.

It is quite natural to fear change and want to cling on to the security of the status quo - change can be difficult and stressful and it can cause us a lot of anxiety. But it doesn't need to be that way. Change can also bring opportunities of which we can take advantage: progress and growth on individual, organisational and societal levels all come from change.

This course looks at positive responses to change so that the individual and the organisation can prosper through change and use it to their advantage.

Professionals today are called upon to demonstrate their ability to be skilful and flexible, irrespective of their position, in how they influence others. As organisations become less formal in their power structures, and flatter and more flexible in their systems of governance, there is an even greater need for finance professionals to have the ability to influence other people.

During this one hour course, you will gain valuable insights into their strengths as well as development areas to become consummate influencers. By creating a greater awareness of the assets and skills required to effectively influence, participants can develop the strength, the focus, and the interpersonal flexibility required of great influencers.

Skilful delegation is one of the most important management skills and yet it is notoriously difficult for managers to crack. When done well, the benefits are huge for the manager, the employee delegated to and for the organisation as a whole. It enables staff to learn and grow, frees up the manager's time to enable them to take on new responsibilities and finds the most efficient and cost-effective use of the organisation's resources.

This course takes a detailed look at the statutory directors' duties under the Companies Act 2006 and gives practical guidance on compliance with them. This course would benefit anyone engaged with managing or advising companies.

A recent survey suggests that around 90% of all newsletters and promotional material go straight into the bin (or the delete box). This is obviously a waste of time and resources, so it makes sense to use language and presentation to grab the reader's attention and make them want to read your written work.

The same principles apply to writing punchy business reports and proposals. As well as helping you to sell your business, this course will help you to write clear advice letters and memos.

The employment status of an individual is important to identify correctly, as it is this which dictates their employment entitlements. For example, it is only employees who qualify for the right not to be unfairly dismissed, or a redundancy payment.The area is complicated as the tests are not clear cut, and the different categories of employment status can overlap. Employment tribunal decisions in this area are highly fact sensitive. This course sets out the fundamental principles from which the factual analysis can be conducted.

Risk management has been talked about for many years but it has a history of inconsistent and misunderstood definitions. This has led to the development of new frameworks to allow all types of organisation to understand and better manage their risk environments. This course will introduce one of these frameworks known as Enterprise Risk Management ERM and will outline

This course covers business planning in terms of what it comprises and how we might use tools and techniques to support strategic analysis. These tools include Porters value chain, Porter’s generic strategy classification and five force model along with the Ansoff matric and the Lynch expansion matrix. It also introduces risk management tools including the COSO framework, the TARA matrix and breakeven analysis.

The term “dashboard” is a buzzword in the world of Excel and in businesses today. A dashboard report is a management tool that measures and presents critical data on the key business performance areas in a summarised manner much like a car dashboard, so management can quickly respond with appropriate decisions.

Dashboards enable the reader to make sense of the raw numbers by presenting them in visually rich charts and tables and give valuable insights into the key performance indicators of the business.

The course covers an introduction into some of the lesser known charting techniques along with advanced tools and functions of Excel.

Giving feedback, if done well, is a very powerful tool for developing your individual staff members and improving your team's performance. However, it is not always easy to do and we have probably all had experiences where it has not gone well.

The good news is that it is a skill and, as such, can be learnt. Best practice does exist and it is possible to learn ways of giving even the most difficult of feedback. If you want to learn how to give feedback in such a way that the other person is grateful for it and it really improves their performance, then this is the course for you.

Financial modelling is becoming an increasingly important skill in an economic environment characterised by ever more uncertainty. The ability to use Excel to predict what the financial performance and position of a business or venture might look like in the future, depending on particular assumptions and estimates.

It is easy to build a poor financial model. It is difficult to build a high quality financial model which will satisfy the needs of the user. In order to build the latter rather than the former there are a number of Golden Rules (Dos and Don’ts) that must be adhered to. This course explains what those rules are.

Financial modelling is becoming an increasingly important skill in an economic environment characterised by ever more uncertainty. The ability to use Excel to predict what the financial performance and position of a business or venture might look like in the future, depending on particular assumptions and estimates.

Effective use of Fn 4 $$s for absolute cell referencing is an essential skill required to build a dynamic and flexible financial model. High quality formatting is also important, and cell styles provide an ideal way to achieve this.

This course provides an overview of the requirements of FRS 101, a summary of the disclosure exemptions, identifies the recent updates to FRS 101 and considers the practical implementation issues associated with its adoption.

This course is part of a series dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

This course is part of a series of online courses dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Many UK entities are faced with the challenge of preparing their statutory financial statements under FRS 102, then preparing corresponding US GAAP information for their US parent company. There remain substantial differences between FRS 102 and US GAAP, and these are exacerbated by the decision of the FRC not to include any changes in respect of IFRSs 9,15 & 16 into FRS 102 as part of the First Triennial Review.

This course considers the key differences between FRS 102 and US GAAP to help bridge this information gap.

This course is part of a series of courses dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The course looks at the requirements of Section 9 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements and Section 19 Business Combinations. It first considers the requirement for consolidation and the alternative consolidation methods available. It then considers key aspects of the acquisition method (notably the fair value exercise and calculation of and accounting for goodwill), and concludes by considering the treatment of overseas subsidiaries.

This course is part of a series of courses dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

This course looks at sections 11 and 12 of FRS 102 and explores the meaning of the term “financial instruments”, the accounting policy choices that FRS 102 permits, and the accounting treatments set out by FRS 102.

This course is part of a series dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It considers the requirements of section 18 intangible assets other than goodwill and part of section 19 covering goodwill.

The course considers the initial recognition and subsequent accounting for intangible assets such as software and development costs, and looks at the differences in treatment dependent on whether intangibles are internally generated, separately purchased, or acquired in a business combination.

It then looks at the accounting for goodwill, both positive and negative.

This course refreshes your knowledge of the key accounting requirements of FRS 102. It examines key accounting rules, practical challenges and emerging issues in relation to presentation and structure of the financial statements, a principles based approach and specific accounting rules including pensions, foreign exchange, revenue recognition, leases and financial instruments.

This course is part of a series dealing with accounting under FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard Applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It primarily considers the requirements of section 17 property, plant and equipment and section 16 investment property, but also includes elements of section 25 borrowing costs and section 27 impairment of assets.

It considers all aspects of the accounting for property, plant and equipment from initial recognition to subsequent accounting as well as the nature of and accounting for investment properties.

Although there is a simplified framework for small entities, a micro entity requires further simplification of financial reporting. FRS 105 is designed to replace the FRSSE and provide that simplification. It reduces the content of a set of accounts, simplifies the format of those accounts, and removes complexity and unnecessary choice from the accounting framework. This course provides an overview of the key requirements of FRS 105 by considering qualifying criteria, account formats and key accounting requirements of FRS 105.

This course summarises the key provisions of the General Data Protection with regards to security. It explains what the key changes are and what needs to be done in response to them.

This course summarises the key provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 with regards to direct marketing and explains how organisations can comply with their key provisions. It also includes a brief summary of the key content of the draft Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation.

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) due to come into force in May 2018 now is the time to consider what needs to be done in order to prepare for the new rules.

This course summarises the key contents of the General Data Protection Regulation and explains what the key changes are and what needs to be done in response to them.

All of us will at times feel reluctant to deliver bad news or to broach sensitive or contentious issues with others. Yet whether in our personal or professional lives we will, in our lifetimes, need to hold many such conversations. Being able to hold them with fairness and equanimity is an invaluable and much-admired skill. This course aims to provide you with the tools to approach such conversations with greater confidence and to be able to plan and conduct them in such a way that relationships are preserved and where possible a mutually acceptable way forward found.

The following course looks at IAS 1, Presentation. This is a basic standard containing important questions about the main financial statements required for reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards.

This course is designed to refresh knowledge and bring you up-to-date with the latest developments of IAS 12 and is therefore suitable for those with some existing knowledge of either IFRS or UK GAAP. IAS 12 covers the accounting treatment of current tax, under and over provisions and deferred tax. Although IAS 12 has been in issue for a number of years, this is quite often an area of significant difference for those that are new to IFRS reporting.

This course looks at all aspects of employee benefits covered within IAS 19 including post employment benefits such as pensions, looking at both the current IAS 19 and the recent amendments to IAS 19, short term benefits such as holiday accruals, termination benefits where we will look at things like redundancy payments and all of the long term benefits generally paid post employment.

The following course looks at IAS 38, Intangible Assets. It defines what intangible assets are and how to set up the accounting treatment for these intangible assets.

This course on IAS 7 - statements of cash flows, deals with the fourth primary financial statement an entity is required to present under IFRS. This is the only statement that is not covered in IAS 1. Unlike many national accounting rules IAS 7 requires all entities to present a cash flow statement as an integral part of the financial statements. This course will take you through the contents of IAS 7 to help enable you to present cash flow statements.

The following course looks at IAS 8: Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting. This standard can be seen as an extension of IAS 1 and the course will cover topic areas such as the selection of accounting policies, changes in accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and correction of error.

This course will benefit those who have some experience of international standards, either from their professional exams or in the workplace, and who are in need of a refresher on group accounting. Following the recent issues of the new group accounting standards IFRS 10 Consolidated financial statements, IFRS 11 Joint arrangements and the update to IFRS 3 Business combinations, there have been some significant changes to how we account for entities within the group. This course will bring you up-to-date with the most recent treatments.

This course will cover accounting for share-based payments under International Financial Reporting Standards.

The following course looks at IFRS 1, First-Time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards. This unique standard is generally required once in an entity's life, when it makes the transition from some national accounting system to IFRS.

Revenue recognition is something that affects us all and in 2018 it is changing. There will be far more explicit consideration of components in a bundled package together with the associated timing and amount of revenue allocated to each component. The new standard may create change for an organisation not just in turns of revenue but also in terms of legal contracts, IT systems and interaction between the sales function and accounting function. This course provides an overview of the new revenue framework of IFRS 15 and considers the practical aspects of its implementation.

The development of accounting for insurance contracts has been underway for many years. The first stage in the process was IFRS 4, designed to achieve a greater consistency in reporting for insurance. IFRS 17 takes the reporting further down that process. Using a building blocks approach to reporting, the accounting standard requires clear identification of the drivers of performance for those entities providing insurance contracts. The course also examines the challenges that will be created from IFRS 9 being effective a number of years before the effective date of the new insurance accounting standard. These challenges will be driven by the approach to measuring the financial assets and the financial liabilities associated with insurance contracts

IFRS 8 is the International Financial Reporting Standard that requires companies to give disclosures about their operating segments. The standard replaces IAS14, segmental reporting and applies to reporting periods commencing on or after the first of January 2009.

This course focuses on IFRS 9 and explores how the requirements differ from IAS 39. Specifically, the course provides an insight into the new treatments associated with the simplified approach to the classification of financial assets, the proactive approach to impairment including the assessment of deterioration of credit risk and the new requirements of hedge accounting that are designed to provide a more accurate reflection of risk management activities within the entity.

The two key players in a significant amount of financial reporting development are undoubtedly the IASB and the FASB. The course provides a comparison of the two reporting frameworks in terms of general reporting requirements and specific accounting treatments. This course will therefore provide a useful context with which to understand current development and create an awareness of the financial reporting challenges for groups with component reporting under each of the frameworks.

Empirical evidence suggests that for many organisations strategies often fail to achieve the desired outcomes that an organisation seeks. Much of this can be attributed to the implementation of strategic initiatives.

It is often with abject fear that we sit in front of our laptop knowing that we have to prepare a report for senior management or a proposal for some huge investment and we just don’t know where to start. This course is designed to help you ensure that you make your point succinctly and clearly. That you structure your report in a way that flows and engages your reader. It will also help you choose the right charts and diagrams to support your narrative. As an introductory level course it should also provide an excellent foundation for those for whom English may not be their first language.

Corporate reporting has evolved over many decades. Extra content has been added to the annual reports of companies in a piecemeal fashion and often as a response to a crisis. Annual reports now often number hundreds of pages which are probably read by few people. They also focus on financial performance whereas studies show that the balance sheet values are only around one fifth of the market value of large US companies. This has prompted an international move to integrated reporting under a framework developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) – an international coalition of companies, investors, regulators, standard setters and others. Integrated reporting offers a more succinct way of reporting that covers a much wider range of capitals than just the financial as in the past.

This course covers the general principles associated with internal audit. We take a look at the modern view of what internal audit is and the scope of its work linking into how internal audit ties into corporate governance and risk management within an entity. We then take a look at risk based auditing and put this into practice using case studies and worksheets.

Have you ever looked at a set of accounts and not known where to start? Accounts can seem daunting and almost appear in a foreign language! This module looks at accounts in their simplest form and aims to demystify the language of accounts. You will learn about the basics of the accounts and the elements that make up the accounts, along with the basic principles that underpin every set of accounts.

Have you ever been asked to present a business plan and not known where to start? Irrespective of your job role, business cases are a common feature of every day working life.

This course is for those who want to understand what a business plan is, and what it is used for. During this course you will look at the essential components of a credible business plan.

Often in our roles as accountants we can be experts in a tiny part of the overall process. We might be brilliant at credit control or payroll or producing the monthly pie charts. But where does all the information go and why does it look the way it does when the public eventually see it? This course is a gentle introduction into the world of financial accounts. In it we’ll look at how a set of accounts is constructed, who might read it and what they might get out of it. You will see that it is so much more than a P&L and Balance Sheet.

This course will provide an introduction to the key duties and responsibilities of a company secretary of a private limited company, including initial considerations on incorporation together with the daily and annual requirements a company secretary is required to address. This course will be useful to company secretaries of private companies, trainee/junior solicitors and accountants involved in corporate or company secretarial work. It will also benefit anyone who requires a practical awareness of current company legislation and how it impacts on the day to day running of a private limited company.

This course reviews the basic structure of an investment bank. It focuses on the basic activities of the different functional areas including sales and trading, corporate finance, compliance etc.

The course will cover some of the key ratios that are used to assess and interpret as set of accounts. The ratios will be demonstrated using accounts of a number of companies.

The ratios include:

• Profitability – gross profit margin, operating profit margin
• Liquidity and solvency – current ratio, quick (or acid text) ratio, gearing, interest cover, trade receivable days, trade payable days and inventory days
• Efficiency ratios – return on capital employed, return on shareholders’ funds, net asset turnover
• Investor ratios – earnings per share, dividend yield, dividend cover, price earnings ratio
• Cash flow ratios – cash return on capital employed, operating cash to operating profit

This online course is for delegates who want to improve their social media skills. It is designed for anyone in business who wants to sharpen their online presence and build relationships with a view to winning new business. It is primarily aimed at those with a basic knowledge of social media or those who wish to build upon their existing knowledge and develop more focus.

 The course provides an overview of business development and how to build a practical and realistic social media action plan. It will cover best practice on all of the main social media platforms and provide guidance of how they can be utilised on an individual and business level. It is suitable for anyone in business keen to build their client and third party referrer bases, improve internal and external corporate communications, enhance their brand and enter into strategic alliances.

With treasury management becoming a key strategic function within an organisation following the financial crisis, this course provides a basic grounding in the concepts and products used in treasury management within banks, companies and financial institutions. Besides explaining market terminology and treasury jargon, the course explores the liquidity and risk characteristics of the different instruments involved in managing funding risk, interest rate risk and foreign exchange risk. It also provides insight into current market dynamics, the role of the market participants involved and the overall relationship to the economy and interest rates.

When thinking about risk and return and how the two interact with each other. NPV (net present value) by itself simply focuses on return and a lot of organisations make the mistake of simply using return as a basis on which to make their decisions. Now if you ask any investor how they make their decisions, they will tell you that risk is just as important to consider alongside return. And therefore we need to balance risk and return in making investment decisions and this is where sensitivity analysis assists with those decisions.

In this course, we aim to give you an understanding of a variety of investment appraisal techniques. In particular, we are going to focus on discounted cash flow techniques, namely NPV or net present value. At the end of the course, you should have an idea how companies or even individuals decide whether or not to proceed with a capital purchase or investment project.

During this course we’ll have a brief look at theory of Leadership. There are many books that are being written and we’ve distilled some of those key theory papers while bringing it up to date and talk about some of the current trends to look at a team. We’ll look at How to lead a team successfully? How to put a team together successfully? How to make sure your team works and consider the individuals within that team or entity that you are managing on an individual basis? Also to have a look at you as an individual and what you bring to the role of leadership?.

There is a growing trend in firms to adopt the use of lean tools to streamline and enhance productivity and effectiveness of organisations. Whilst their initial application was focused on manufacturing and production operations there is increasing use and application of the tools in other functional areas such as finance.

This course will explain how Lean developed as a result of the Toyota Production System. It will also introduce the core concepts of Lean and explain how they are used alongside Six-Sigma and The Theory of Constraints to improve manufacturing processes.

Lean Six Sigma is a world-class best practice method of continuously improving through processes. It integrates the twin approaches of Lean deriving from the automotive industry and culminating in the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Six Sigma with origins in Motorola, General Electric and Allied Signal. Deployed well it can dramatically improve the bottom-line performance of organisations. In this programme we cover the Seven Key Principles behind Lean Six Sigma, and look at reducing Waste and reducing Defects and Variation. We also look at how to secure Stakeholders' acceptance of the changes required, as well as the detailed steps of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control) methodology.

There is currently a heightened sense of uncertainty and change for business and for finance functions. CIMA, other professional institutes, businesses, professional firms, consultancies and academics are responding with new thinking and this short module will provide a bite sized take away from their latest guidance and research.

Businesses may feel that they want or need to streamline their staff numbers for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is a downturn in the fortunes of a business or its complete closure, but redundancies can also result from changes in working practices such as the introduction of new technology or a new shift pattern. A business is not required to demonstrate that it has financial problems in order legally to make redundancies, the law in this area permits employers to organise their staff in ways best suited to their business, subject to the legal safeguards provided by the redundancy legislation.

It is fair to say that not all companies have a blessed life from their inception to their stock market floatation. The road to success is paved with a wide range of corporate pot holes. The small company growing too fast. The unsuccessful acquisition. Public sector privatisation. Technological obsolescence. So many reasons for firms to become sub-optimal. In the current economic climate where the rate of technological change is so fast it is easy to get lost on day to day production and find yourself exposed to strategic risk. This course is intended to provide thinking space for those that want to make sure their company does not get into difficulty. And for those who find themselves in charge of one that is!

Aimed at line managers, this course focuses on the practicalities of dealing with difficult members of staff. The courses discusses different types of difficulty a manager may encounter, the motivation of the member of staff concerned and how a team may react to the member of staff. It also covers practical steps needed to deal with both the short and longer term implications.

A new kind of global debt crisis is brewing - this time, due to decades of over-borrowing from our planet's 'natural capital' asset base. Natural capital, the resources and critical support services nature provides, underpins our entire global economy. However, over 60 percent of this capital is in decline from overexploitation. The World Economic Forum and McKinsey identify water crises, climate change, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as urgent global natural capital risk factors for business and investors. As a result, there is a growing business case to account for natural capital in management accounting and financial accounting/reporting to inform assessment of risk and opportunities. This course provides a practical introduction to this emerging topic.

Business creates value by building strategic competitive advantage. In the modern knowledge based economy, investment in intangibles such as brands and innovation, builds and protects competitive advantage.

Reporting practice tends to better recognise tangible capital expenditure and is best suited to a manufacturing economy. Financial statements are ill suited to judge the health and value of a company in a more knowledge based economy.

This course will show how the finance function can change the fixation with financial statements and introduce robust financial management tools to help businesses to nurture intangible investments: building value and combatting risk.

With record fines for benchmark manipulation and criminal prosecutions for insider dealing and market manipulation, this course aims to provide an overview of the UK Market Abuse regime. It covers the FCA’s rules on market abuse and gives practical examples of the different behaviours covered by the regulations. It also looks at UK criminal Insider Dealing legislation and penalties. The course provides examples of best practice and recent examples of enforcements and upcoming changes to the regulations.

Finance professionals providing their services perform a key role, acting as gatekeepers to the financial sector. These services can be exploited by criminals to launder the proceeds of their unlawful activity. As professionals working in a regulated sector, staff need to be able to recognise high risk business activities and be aware of the anti-money laundering regime, as failure to comply with legal and regulatory obligations can result in serious consequences for an organisation or an individual.

This course delivers an understanding of responsibilities under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, with guidance on promoting an effective risk-based approach, ensuring compliance with staff obligations.

This course is aimed at finance professionals providing services as an auditor, external accountant, insolvency practitioner, tax adviser, and trust or company service provider.

This course uses the latest thinking from Harvard Business School to achieve sustainable negotiated agreements that satisfy all parties at the table, using powerful tools to deal with the most complex of multi-party negotiations.

Few would argue that traditional budgetary processes are time consuming, creaking at the seams, lacking transparency and add little value and insights to managers throughout the business. Yet the majority of organisations still pursue budgetary processes that were developed well over 90 years ago during an age of much greater stability and certainty. This course explores today’s shortcomings, the real needs for the 21st Century and alternate, more advanced approaches.

This course looks at recent developments in this area with particular emphasis on recent case law examining the meaning of the ‘serious harm’ test set out in s1 of the Defamation Act 2013. It then goes on to review the single publication rule and the website operators’ defence as well as consideration of a recent case concerning defamatory online reviews.

This course will provide users with an overview of the many different points to consider when undertaking an operational excellence programme. Focusing on areas such as procurement, supply chain excellence, functional alignment and how to measure and forecast the benefits of an operational excellence programme.

Most organisations accept without question the principle that costs should be kept as low as possible provided they don't put key corporate objectives at risk. In practice, organisations often face strong pressure to increase resources to meet objectives such as better customer service and product quality. Reducing costs is often problematic because it not clear exactly what is being done, and the value of this work to the organisation, in the areas you seek savings. This course examines six ways of overcoming these problems: improving the ability of spending areas to contribute to key corporate objectives and customer needs, while reducing their costs significantly.

In a world that has been described as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous)…a world where it’s impossible to tell news from fake…where countries are becoming insular and globalisation seems to be a thing of the past. The only thing that is certain is that nothing is certain. It means that understanding the risks that a business is exposed to is crucial and having a formal way of identifying and managing risk essential.

This course looks at the tools and techniques for identifying and managing risks; the impact of risk appetite on the organisation and its staff and the importance of considering opportunities in conjunction with risks.

Businesses face constant pressure to achieve improved performance and are facing increasing scrutiny on how that performance is being delivered. Finance are traditionally seen as the masters of rigorous measurement to enable financial performance and we have the capability to apply that across the whole organisation.

We can lose sight of measuring what really matters: restricted in our thinking by financial reporting measures and not really identifying the drivers of past or future performance.

This course will highlight which financial measures really matter and then show how to identify business driver measures including those in a balanced scorecard style approach and those from a sustainability and integrated thinking approach. You will pick up many tips on choosing and designing the right business metrics.

Do you feel daunted at the thought of giving a presentation? Are you confused about how to begin to put a presentation together, let alone deliver it? Do you wish that you could create and present an elegant, compelling and influential message easily and seemingly effortlessly? If the answer to one or more of these questions is yes, then this highly practical and results-focused course is for you and will increase your confidence and ability.

This course shows you how to present financial information with credibility and flair. For those who find it difficult presenting financial information, this is the course for you. The course will also help you make sure that your point is made clearly to enable informed decisions to be made based on the figures presented.

Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions that a manager can make. Many see it as complicated, risky and even terrifying. The reality is rather different. As long as you understand a few of the ground rules, you will not go too far wrong in your pricing efforts. One of the rather daunting issues is that there are as many opinions about how to set price as there are managers offering them. Some of the advice is sound, solid and pragmatic. Other suggestions are wrongly founded, based on half understood premises or just plain stupid. We review no fewer than 18 such myths, offer rational responses to them and explain the theory behind the answers. This will enable you to recognise an 'urban legend' when you hear one, and how to deal with it confidently and unambiguously.

A key driver of the success of any business is the appropriate setting of the price of its products and services. Finance has an important role to play in driving revenue through pricing management but has a tendency to focus time on costing.

Pricing for finance managers often concentrates on product pricing and costs. This course will move through and beyond the expected approach to emphasise service provision pricing and alternative ways to price services.

This course will provide you with an introduction to traditional and alternative determinants of price; and help you to consider their applicability to your own business and the role finance function can play in supporting pricing decision making.

This course will give you an overview of private company acquisitions (carried out by way of share and business sale), including an understanding of the key elements of a transaction. It will be useful for anyone new to advising on corporate transactions who is keen to understand the key areas involved, including the reasons as to why a particular structure is chosen as well as understanding various issues and processes during the transaction from initial stages up to and including completion.

Leading business 'guru' Deming stated that "85% of the reasons for failure to meet customer expectations are related to deficiencies in systems and processes…rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better". In this course we look at how to better manage, improve and design processes to address Deming's concern. We cover what processes are and how they operate in a business, how to recognise the state of maturity of process management in your business, and to measure and report the performance and state of each key process. We then go on to consider the methods for improving and designing processes for optimum performance, before finally looking at the drivers of successfully deploying Process Excellence.

This course is an informative look at how non-financial managers can present financial information with credibility and flair. For those people who find figures difficult presenting financial information can be daunting. This will also help you make sure that your point is made clearly to enable informed decisions to be made based on the figures presented.

The objectives of this particular course are to, with the print out of the slides, be able to construct an engaging financial presentation. In a wide range of scenarios, there are lots of different scenarios, in which non financial managers will have to present financial information. For instance, if they are looking to try to get a sale with a client, to show them what sort of discounts they can offer, the prices they can offer, and budgets. They may have to go in and seek a budget from internal managers; they may have to present a business case for a significant investment in the organisation. There's an awful lot of situations in which a non financial manager may have to present financial information. It is advised to download or print out the slide handouts as you can take notes and learn how best to structure the way you go about presenting financial information.

Did you know that essentially the key reason for business failure is running out of cash; if a business no longer has cash, it doesn't matter what else is going on, the business can't and won't survive. Having adequate cash flow is essential to keep a business running. When cash runs out, the company runs the risk of not being able to meet current obligations such as payroll, suppliers and loan repayments. Yet despite this the majority of failed businesses mislead themselves that profitability is the key indicator of success and take their eye off cash flow. This course will introduce you to the significance, meaning and differences between profit and cash flow and provide you with an insight into how to understand both when looking at a set of accounts.

During this course you’ll look at techniques to make sure that you identify the right project for your organisation. Secondly looking at understanding some of the project dynamics making sure the governor's structure is right and the project structure's right ensuring that you've got the right skills in place to be able to complete the project successfully.In addition we’ll cover the key elements of stakeholder engagement, who to talk to, when to talk to, and the sorts of people you may need to engage with, and how to engage with them, as well. We'll have a look at a couple of the methodologies that are currently out there, those that are very structured and quite bureaucratic, to those that are much more free flowing. Finally the importance of going back and reviewing the project and making sure you learn the lessons from whatever project you've undertaken.

For many businesses, the issue about where to get funds from for starting up, development and expansion can be crucial for the success of the business. In tough economic times it has become even more critical as finance is not as readily available. It is essential for businesses to understand the various sources of finance available so that they can assess how appropriate these sources are in relation to the needs of the business and whether they will help the business achieve its goals. This course will help you understand what sources of finance are available to businesses small and large and will give you an appreciation of which types of finance may suit a business in different circumstances at different times.

In driving towards greater levels of cost efficiency and improved service provision, many organisations have turned to establishing shared service centres. But are shared service centres always a guaranteed solution to achieving a satisfactory price/service balance and what conditions are likely to ensure successful shared service implementations?

Over the past 40 years there has been a progressive and huge divergence between company balance sheet value and value expressed by shareholders represented by share price and market capitalisation. Furthermore, the statistical correlation between accounting based measures of performance over a one to three year time horizon and corporate share value is poor. This course looks at the real driving forces behind share values in today's world.

For professionals wanting to know how to use both halves of their brain to get more from it, think both logically and strategically, and keep one step ahead of colleagues.

This course will help your organisation to understand the benefits and risks of social networking and will identify the best ways to use and manage social networks creating new opportunities for the business in a safer environment.

This course provides you with 10 simple steps/techniques which can be used in isolation or in combination with one another to help you improve the speed at which you read. Before these though, you are given a bit of information about the physiology and process of how we read.

In the current economic climate the reliance on the markets to determine the true worth of an organisation, through the metric of Market Value Added (MVA) has been challenged. More organisations have argued that the true worth of an organisation is its ability to generate cash for investors. As such it is argued an organisation that wishes to maximise investor wealth should adopt the principles of Shareholder Value Analysis (SVA) and make managers accountable for the decisions that they make and the impact that this has on the value of the company. These are taken one step further when consideration is given to whether traditional management accounting concepts of cost encourage managers to make short term decisions. Economic Value Added (EVA) theory argues that certain costs should be viewed as investments and performance measured appropriately.

It is often cited by business commentators and academic gurus that management, is steadily losing the ability to think and act truly strategically. Operational effectiveness (the pursuit of greater and greater economies and cost reductions) is being confused with strategic thought and action. This course takes an overview of what strategy and strategic planning should fundamentally consist of and how key strategic elements drive competitive success and a focused workforce.

This course will help you identify the most common signs and symptoms of stress, and then go through steps and techniques to help manage your stress levels. As an introduction to stress management the course will act as a foundation on which to build on, and it will take time and effort to put these measures in place, but it will help you manage your stress from the outset.

This course provides an overview of sustainability and how it is measured. It includes key sustainability standards and the UK legislation regarding sustainability reporting. There are practical examples of sustainability measures and how they are being used in organisations.

This course will refresh your knowledge and bring you up-to-date with current treatment of tangible assets and leases under IFRS. It will cover a number of standards that relate to the accounting for tangible assets including property plant and equipment, leasing, investment property and borrowing costs. It includes details of those standards that apply for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2014. It does not include details of new and revised standards applicable thereafter. The course is suitable for people with some existing knowledge of either IFRS or UK GAAP.

We are witnessing an acceleration in the pace of technological changes. The revolution driven by new tools such as robotic process automation, intelligent search, visualisation, big data and business analytics has the potential to impact the scope and skillsets of the finance managers role.

This online course will provide a bite sized explanation of the concepts and will reflect on the shape of a future finance function role.

The social networking revolution. Indications are that the fastest growing membership to social networking sites is amongst the workforce population. With the ease of accessibility to the internet in the workplace, this growth has had a considerable impact on behaviour of employees. The opportunities to now be online and socialising, rather than online and working, are at their highest, and the phenomenon does not look set to slow. This course considers not only the negative, but also the positive impacts of social networking technology for employers, the rights of employees, and how these 21st century workplace issues can be managed.

In Part 1 we considered the changing role of the finance professional and looked at some of the ways they can bring greater efficiency and productivity through building closer links to the business, developing the role of business partner. This second courselooks to highlight some of the inter personal skills required to be an excellent Business Partner.

There is no doubt that some people were born with a high level of Emotional Intelligence while others need to work hard to develop it. The good news is that while IQ tends to level out the older you get, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) can be developed. This course looks to provide some tools and skills to employ and develop to help the finance professional build rapport with their counter parts with in the business - and in doing so fulfil the ever challenging role of Finance Business Partner.

As the world changes and finance becomes an ever increasing priority for most organsations, there is a recognised need for the role of the finance professional to change. No longer can the finance professional sit behind a spreadsheet or spend hours simply playing with a chart of accounts. There is now a need, and in a lot of cases a pull from the business, for a finance professional to play a greater part in the strategic decision making and planning within a business. This has created the developing role of the Finance Business Partner.

This module explains what that role looks like and briefly considers how the finance professional might get more involved in ensuring the strategy of an organisation gets implemented.

As accountants increasingly break away from the stereotypical view of them as ‘grey people in grey suits’ it is ever more important to ensure that today’s accountant integrates into the business making them an invaluable part of the strategy development process.

If ever there was a course title that was a hostage to fortune… This course has developed from 10 years interaction with accountants from a wide range of companies and industries each with an incredible range of size and complexity. The six “mistakes” reviewed on the course reflect those gripes and issues that came up repeatedly regardless of the organisation. This course will offer challenges and a range of solutions if you find that these mistakes relate to you or your finance function.

The Bribery Act 2010 is far reaching in its scope and is intended to provide a more intensive mechanism to prosecute and control corruption and bribery in all its various forms. No firm or individual can afford to be without a working knowledge of the Act and an understanding of their obligations and the implications for themselves and their businesses. This course is intended to be a guide to the essential elements of the Act which will be of assistance to firms and individuals and their legal and compliance advisors. This course will help you understand the essentials of the Bribery Act 2010 and will give you a working knowledge of the structure of the Act and the offences it creates

The body of law directly relevant to equal opportunities in the workplace is often referred to as anti-discrimination law. This protects people from discrimination relating to their certain personal characteristics. These are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

As far as the law is concerned, there are certain restrictions and requirements that apply before an employment relationship is formed. And even if an employment relationship is never formed, employers owe certain duties to candidates during the recruitment process, even though they may not ultimately employ them. The purpose of this course is to enable you to gain an understanding of the impact of employment law on both the recruitment process and the formation of the contract of employment.

This course will enable you to gain an understanding of the key statutory entitlements enjoyed by employees.

Professionals today are called upon to demonstrate their ability to be skilful and flexible, irrespective of their position, in how they influence others. As organisations become less formal in their power structures, and flatter and more flexible in their systems of governance, there is an even greater need for finance professionals to have the ability to influence other people.

During this one hour course, you will gain valuable insights into their strengths as well as development areas to become consummate influencers. By creating a greater awareness of the assets and skills required to effectively influence, participants can develop the strength, the focus, and the interpersonal flexibility required of great influencers.

Starting to manage or lead a team from scratch can be very daunting. This course provides the vital practical tools and techniques for delegates to manage and develop themselves and their teams to ensure that their departmental and organisational goals are achieved.

Do you hear the word ‘budget’ and groan in dismay????? Do you dread the budget cycle? If the answer is yes to either of these questions then this is a module for you. Wherever you work and whatever your role, you have an impact on and are impacted by budgets. In this module you will learn about the different types of budget and the different ways to budget for example the fixed and flexible approach to budgeting.

We seem to be getting busier and busier with us being asked to do more and more, in less and less time. This practical course will demonstrate how to work more effectively and efficiently so that we can get more work done in less time. Not only will it improve your productivity but will also help you to achieve a less stressful and more enjoyable way of operating, both within the organisation and outside it.

This course provides an introduction to some of the key issues concerning contract formation, including discussion of the use of Heads of Terms etc, together with an overview of how contracts are structured and a summary of the types of contract terms.

Building on the knowledge acquired in the first webinar in this series, this course provides an introduction to some of the key terms that will be found in most commercial contracts and sets out some of the key issues to be borne in mind when reviewing such clauses.

Do you struggle to understand the different type of costs for example the difference between fixed and variable costs, semi variable and variable costs? This module looks at costs in their simplest form and aims to demystify the language of costs and costing. You will learn about the different types of costs and cost behaviour, the uses and principles of standard costing and the principles of break-even analysis.

The course goes back to the fundamentals of what profit is and introduces some other measures including EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). It goes through a practical application of ratio analysis using real life examples to interpret the financial position and performance of a company. Ratios used include profit margins, dividend yield, dividend cover, earnings per share. The module ends with an acknowledgement of some of the limitations of ratio analysis such as sector dynamics, size of entity and different accounting polices.

This course covers the deduction of input tax by businesses. It begins by dealing with the basic requirements for a business to obtain a deduction of input tax. It then looks at the key question of whether the business seeking to deduct input tax shown on an invoice did receive the supply, and considers a number of important recent cases on this point. The special rules which apply to deduction of input tax on cars and fuel used for business purposes are covered next, leading on to a review of the impact of VAT on employee expense claims. Finally, the issues which arise when input tax deductions are claimed by businesses which make exempt as well as taxable supplies are dealt with.

This module covers the basics of value added tax. It begins by showing how VAT applies to a single transaction and then looks at VAT for a period of trading. The importance of the time of supply (tax point) is covered. The module covers the structure of the VAT return in detail and shows which invoices and records must be maintained in connection with the return. The procedure for registration for VAT is covered. Next the effect of VAT on individual supplies of goods and services is dealt with, and in particular the difference between a single supply and a multiple supply. The module concludes with a review of which supplies are standard rated, reduced rated, zero rate and exempt, and explains the impact of this on a business and its customers.

The public interest disclosure (‘whistleblowing’) legislation was implemented in the wake of several high profile disasters (including the Zeebrugge ferry disaster and the Piper Alpha oil platform explosion) which it was perceived at the time may have been averted had someone in the relevant organisations spoken out about the state of affairs which led to the disaster.

This course examines the fundamental legal concepts relevant to this area of law and focuses on several key cases in the area. It also considers the variety of claims available to an individual who ‘blows the whistle’ in the workplace and the potential awards which may be made.

In today’s economic climate it is ever more important that organisations are effective in allocating resources. Therefore there is an increasing tendency for organisations to require well thought through business cases for projects. These business cases need to be approached in a disciplined manner and address all the questions that those being asked for approval need answering. This course takes a generic approach to business case formulation that can be applied in any organisation.

Finance functions face many pressures and challenges to enable continued improvement in business performance. We are continually hunting for more sources of profitability, cash and intangible financial value.

In the march for growth and profitability we can sometimes overlook working capital management despite the risk of failure when a business no longer has the cash or financing to pay its bills.

Cash is king and working capital management can unlock cash from day to day operations. Good working capital management can yield a range of great benefits and help minimize risks and lost opportunities.

This course will clarify the role of working capital and signpost you to techniques to help you and your business colleagues optimize it for the benefit of your organisation’s performance.