Business Finance for Non-Finance Personnel

Position yourself to be more confident in your business and financial decisions. This course will provide you with a better understanding of financial information and basic operations so you can make better decisions that will positively impact your company's bottom line.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Canton Parks and Recreation

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Learning method

Self-Guided

$129

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$129

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Starting April 16 | May 14

Details + Objectives

Course code: bfn

Are you interested in making better business decisions to increase your company's profits, move you up the corporate ladder, and help you reach a better, personal financial position? If so, this course is for you.

Using practical explanations and real-life examples, this course will show you how money flows through a typical business. You will learn the basics of how a business operates, including how to develop successful business strategies and how to use financial statements to make better business decisions.

Whether you're an employee, sales executive, supervisor, or manager, this course will help you understand basic financial information and use that information to make decisions that will positively affect your company's financial situation.

This is a business finance course for non-financial employees and managers. By taking it, you will obtain significantly improved business acumen skills and financial understanding. Position yourself to be more confident in your business and financial decisions.

What you will learn

Learn the difference between financial knowledge and business acumen
Learn how finances flow through the business and begin to master basic financial terminology
Gain an understanding of financial forces, which provide a foundation for developing financial strategies and driving profit
Learn to make sense of three financial statements: Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows
Discover how executives bring their financial knowledge in line with business needs to make solid business decisions
Learn how to cost cut with your new knowledge of financial reporting and your business acumen skills
Discover how to develop strategies to increase supply and production efficiencies
Learn to move your business and your personal financial life in a positive direction by focusing on an analytical process called SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

How you will benefit

Gain a strong foundation in business finance
You will increase your ability to think "big picture" and see how to take advantage of opportunities in your workplace and personal life
Be able to apply what you have learned to your personal household finances

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

In this first lesson, you will learn the difference between financial knowledge and business acumen in a way that's easy to understand. You will also be introduced to a few basic financial strategies and explore what business finance can do for you, your company, and your personal finances.

To gain a strong foundation in business finance, you'll need to understand the basic business model, its components, and how they fit into the larger organization. In this lesson, you will see how finances flow through the business and begin to master basic financial terminology. Afterwards, you will be able to apply what you've learned to your personal household and finances.

Do you know what ROI refers to? What's a Sales Forecast, and why is it so important? In this lesson, you will learn these terms and many more. You will also gain an understanding of financial forces, which provide a foundation for developing financial strategies and driving profit.

Financial statements can be one of the most mysterious parts of business finance. As you will see, however, all you need is to make sense of the three basic financial statements. With this lesson under your belt, you will be ready to take on the next crucial step: recording and tracking the annual finances on these statements.

In this lesson, you will gain a broader understanding of the first of the financial statements you will be considering: the Income Statement. You will visit the hypothetical company Bouncy Balls Incorporated (BBI) and examine its annual statement to comprehend what all these numbers mean.

Still working with the fictitious company BBI, you will explore what information is included in the Balance Sheet. You will continue your work to determine BBI's financial position and see where changes in business strategy may be needed.

You will finish your introduction to the basic financial statements as you review the Statement of Cash Flows. You will see how financial personnel use this statement as you continue your tour of BBI. As you work through the Statement of Cash Flows, you will start to put all the information together to improve your understanding of BBI's financial position.

In this lesson, you will listen in at a roundtable meeting of executives at BBI as they discuss the company's financial statements. The meeting offers a great opportunity for you to get an insider's look into how executives develop the Management's Discussion & Analysis (MD&A).

Now you are going to put all of the financial knowledge you've gained during this course to work as you consider some strategies for improving BBI's financial condition. You will explore how executives bring their financial knowledge in line with business needs to make solid business decisions that will have a positive impact on the company financials.

In this lesson, you will tackle a key issue in business: cost cutting. Expenses are such a huge part of business. Here, you will see how to use your new knowledge of financial reporting and your business acumen skills to develop strategies that have a positive impact on a company's bottom line.

Continuing your exploration of financial strategy, you will use the decision-making process to examine the inventory situation at BBI and develop strategies to increase supply and production efficiencies. You will also see how to develop strategies to improve the BBI cash position so that more things can be done to increase the bottom line.

Now that you've gone through various strategies to increase sales, decrease expenses, and better manage company assets, it's time to see how to complete an overall strategic analysis of an organization. This lesson focuses on using an analytical process called SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to develop strategies to move your business and your personal financial life in a positive direction.

Instructors & Support

Matt Crabtree

Matt Crabtree, CFP ®, earned his Bachelor of Science in Business, Information Systems Management, in 1999, a mini MBA certificate from The School of Management at Yale University in 2004, a certificate in Financial Planning from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business in 2012 and has received the financial industry's most rigorous and prestigious professional designation of Certified Financial Planner ™. After many years in project management, office management, and business sales, Matt began training individuals and organizations in areas of business finance, leadership development, successful negotiations, sales management, and customer service excellence. Matt has trained individuals and various units within the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as corporate organizations including IBM (technology), Accuray (healthcare-technology), and Gen-Probe (molecular diagnostics). Matt's natural aptitude for explaining his material in an easy-to-understand and enjoyable manner allows each student to gain insights into areas that are often considered challenging.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

This subject is very important not only in business, but also in IT. As an IT professional, this class really helped me to understand about a company's business finance. I will take more classes related to the same subject.

The course was very helpful, in addition, I was inspired to use the concepts for my own personal finances.

This class was a great refresher for me, since it has been quite a few years since I had taken accounting classes in college. The information was presented well and the instructor got the information across in a way that I could relate to.

This course was wonderful! I had no background in finance but was able to follow all the lessons easily and with great interest. The instructor is as good as you can get! He has a great way of presenting the material and goes beyond expectations in giving feedback about questions and lesson assignments. My only disappointment is to see this class end. I'm very pleased with this experience and the knowledge I have gained.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say a big "thank you" for the wonderful experience I have had with this course. I initially took this course to solely to help me out with my upcoming Master's program, but I am happily surprised to see how the subject has aided me in my personal financial life as well. I feel like I have a really good base knowledge of finance that can be branched out into other areas. I never thought I'd say this before, but I actually enjoy finance and would like to learn even more.

You are an amazing instructor. The course materials were well presented and easy to follow. I would definitely recommend this course to my boss and peers. I hope I have the honor of taking another one of your classes in the coming year!

I am now able to relate much more business acumen than ever before. This course has improved my perspective immensely and I am retaining a great deal of it. I subscribed to a free podcast through iTunes and listen while I work. Repetition creates familiarity and it really overlaps with what I'm picking up in this class. I'm building a real foundation for my future and this course will undoubtedly prove invaluable.

The course was very helpful, in addition, I was inspired to use the concepts for my own personal finances.

Business Finance for Non-Finance Personnel

Canton Parks and Recreation