Why these workshops?

People at all levels in business need a basic understanding of how economic indicators such as the exchange rate, inflation rate, repo rate, balance of payments, stock market indices, and commodity prices impact on business in the South African economy. These elementary workshops will focus on giving learners a working knowledge of basic finance and financial markets. Fundamental understanding of economic indicators, instruments traded in the financial markets as well as the accounting functions within a business is dealt with effectively. These workshops will be practical in addressing these topics for people who operate in business units outside of the financial and accounting area of their business.

Course Outline

Getting to grips with the key economic indicators

  • The Money Market and interest rates
  • The inflation rate – Prices only ever go up, or do they?
  • The Reserve Bank Repo rate – how is it different from the prime overdraft rate?
  • The R153 Government bond rate – What is a government bond?
  • The Foreign Exchange Market – how the exchange rates are determined.
  • Foreign exchange reserves – What do these reserves mean to the man on the street?
  • The exchange rate – Why is it so volatile and how come it is so important?
  • South Africa as part of the Global Economy – competing globally for South African business.
  • The balance of payments – Why do we import more than we export at times?
  • Commodity prices – Commodity prices are quoted in US dollar terms even though we produce them here.
  • Stock market Indices – how are these compiled and what do they tell us about the economy?

Demystifying the Accounting Process and Financial Statements

  • Building a set of financial statements – the books of account and how they tie into each other
  • The balance sheet – a snap shot of the business financial health
  • The income statement – a record of the businesses trading for a period
  • The cash flow statement – cash is the lifeblood of any business
  • Financial analysis – analyze the performance of a business through its financial statements

Establishing the importance of Budgeting

 

  • Why is budgeting important – getting the buy-in to the process is vital
  • The types of budgets in production based business – Departmental and master budgets
  • The budgeting techniques – Rolling or Annual budgets
  • Budget variances – Dealing with actual versus budgeted figures

 

Calculating the cost of production

  • Direct and indirect costs – how do we differentiate?
  • Cost control – cost control is vital to any business

Outcomes

On completion of the program the delegate will be able to:

  • The learner will understand the jargon used by accountants
  • The learner will be able to identify and understand the detail contained in an actual set of financial statements
  • The learner will be able to distinguish between a Balance Sheet, Income statement and a Cash flow Statement
  • The learner will recognise and be able to apply certain forecasting and budgeting techniques
  • The learner will be able to apply certain simple tools of measurement to assess a company’s performance
  • The learner will be able to apply principals learned to his or her own personal financial position