The Finance Book: Understand the numbers even if you’re not a finance professional

Description

THE KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS EVERY PROFESSIONAL NEEDS, TO MAKE BETTER FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS DECISIONS.

Why this book is different to other finance books:
• Quick and easy to use
• Spotlights “what you need to know”
• Requires no prior finance knowledge
• Practical and real-world focus
• Written by practitioners

No knowledge requiredThe book is purposefully designed to be quick and easy to use with no previous knowledge required to comprehend the concepts. We “tell you what you need to know” to quickly “get up to speed” in core finance concepts.A key feature of this book is that you do not have read it from cover to cover to make sense of finance. Each chapter is written as a “standalone” topic. This enables you to dip in and dip out of chapters. Further, we have taken otherwise complex topics and broken them down into key concepts that are explained in concise, easy to read sections.Practitioners not academicsWhilst not an academic book, it is also not a “simplistic” book. It is a practical book because it has been written by practitioners. We include throughout this book our first-hand personal experiences gained from working in businesses across many industries and sectors, rather than replicating knowledge from academia. In addition, the authors have spent countless hours instructing, teaching and training thousands of professionals from disciplines including marketing, sales, production, administration, HR and legal.Focused on business applicationThe overwhelming majority of finance books available are better suited to trainee accountants because they take an academic approach to finance. Whilst necessary for accountants, they immerse the reader in the “detail”.The Finance Book is written for non-finance people like you. It is aimed at those who work or aspire to work in business.It will help professionals in business or thinking about a career in business including board directors, business managers, MBA students, graduates and undergraduates.Your book, your journeyTo make the book easy to read, we have used a consistent format across chapters. Within each chapter there are multiple cross references (and links) to other relevant chapters as they occur. This will enable you to review chapters and make connections relevant to you. Allow your curiosity to determine your path through the book.THE KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS EVERY PROFESSIONAL NEEDS, TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS FOR THEIR BUSINESS

Introduction

Part 1 Finance Fundamentals

1 Finance personnel and systems

2 Cash versus accruals accounting

Part 2 Primary Financial Statements

3 Profit and loss (P&L)

4 The balance sheet

5 Cash flow statement

Part 3 Key Elements of Financial Statements

6 Revenue recognition

7 Opex and capex

8 Business tax

9 Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

10 Goodwill and other intangibles

11 Stock

12 Debtors and creditors

13 Prepayments and accruals

14 Provisions and contingencies

15 Capital and reserves

16 Group accounting

17 Revaluation

18 Impairment

Part 4 Financial and Regulatory Environment

19 Accounting and financial reporting standards

20 External financial audit

21 Information in the public domain

22 Corporate governance and whistleblowing

Part 5 Assessing Financial Health

23 Profitability performance measures

24 Working capital and liquidity management

25 Insolvency and going concern risk

26 Long-term solvency performance measures

27 Investor ratios

28 Business valuation

Part 6 Sources of Business Finance

29 Equity finance

30 Debt finance

Part 7 Financial Management

31 Management accounts

32 Profitable pricing

33 Profit planning

34 Budgeting and forecasting

35 Investment appraisal

Part 8 Practical application

36 Consolidate and apply

37 The reliability, relevance & trustworthiness of financial statements

Appendix: Greggs plc 2020 Financial Statements

Stuart Warner Bsc (Hons) FCA, BFP, Cert IoD Stuart is the author of four finance books. His goal is to help businesses increase productivity and profits through innovative, engaging and experiential finance training programmes. He delivers training and consultancy internationally across multiple sectors. Over his career, Stuart has trained thousands of people. He has taught accounting trainees for professional qualifications and has delivered CPD courses for qualified accountants and interactive courses for non-finance professionals from graduate to board level. Stuart studied management sciences at UMIST and became a Chartered Accountant whilst working at PwC. Si Hussain BSc (Hons) FCA, BFP, FHEA, PgCert (HE) Saieem (Si) trained with KPMG qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1991.During his 30+ year career, Si has delivered financial training programmes to countless professionals and has held senior roles in companies, including Chief Executive of BPP Professional Education. He continues to teach finance to a full spectrum of professionals including managers and directors, non-finance professionals as well as those starting out on their careers. Si is an experienced facilitator and training consultant providing services to a wide range of organisations.

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