Accounting Tools and Metrics for the CFO (Course Id 1459)

Accounting - Accounting for Course Id 1459

This course is a one-stop problem-solver for today’s busy accounting executive. The course is a working guide to help you quickly pinpoint in the complex world of business:

• What to look for
• What to do
• What to watch out for
• How to do it

You’ll find ratios, formulas, guidelines, and rules of thumb to help analyze and evaluate any business-related problem. Throughout, you’ll find this course practical, quick, and useful.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 take you through accounting principles and guidelines for evaluating a company’s financial health. You will have an increased understanding of various financial statements and their implications. You will be exposed to Corporate Responsibility Law, better known as the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act. You’ll learn techniques for analyzing another company’s financial position should you wish to invest, extend credit, or compare. You will also learn how to improve a company’s corporate profitability and shareholder value. We present internal managerial accounting applications to help you evaluate your own company’s performance, profitability, marketing effectiveness, and budgeting process. You’ll learn how to highlight problem areas with variance analysis. You will also learn some valuable new tools, such as activity-based costing (ABC), life-cycle costing, target costing, and corporate balanced scorecard.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 take a look at financial analysis tools, financial metrics, and financing methods for decision making. Through break-even and sensitivity analysis, you’ll be able to move your company toward greater profits. For investment purposes, this part presents guidelines for evaluating proposals, whether they are short or long term, for profit potential and risk-return comparisons. You’ll learn management and financing techniques to ensure the best possible strategies for maximizing and acquiring cash. Also covered are basic financial tenets of portfolio theory, the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), and the Arbitrage Pricing Model (APM).

Chapter 7 provides you with a deeper understanding of the financing of your company.  A comparison of public versus private placement of securities is provided. You’ll learn the characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages of long-term debt financing. In addition to the various types of debt instruments, the circumstances in which a particular type of debt is most appropriate are considered. The advantages and disadvantages of issuing preferred and common are discussed, along with the various circumstances in which either financing source is most suited. Stock rights are also described.

Chapter 8 discusses how a forecast relates to financial planning. You’ll learn the components of a forecast and what it predicts. Various forecasting techniques with examples are identified to help you select the right method.

Chapter 9 covers what every accounting professional should know about accounting information systems. The components of an accounting information system, the factors in selecting accounting software, the purpose of extensible business reporting language, and the concepts of web-based software packages are discussed. It also discusses how accounting professionals leverage technology to enable operational improvement and control costs (e.g. the Big Data, robotic process automation, and cloud computing).

This course has been designed in question-and-answer format in order to address the pertinent issues that come up during the course of business. The questions are typical of those asked by persons like you. The answers are clear, concise, and to the point. In short, this is a veritable cookbook of guidelines, illustrations, and “how-to’s” for you, the modern decision maker.

NASBA QAS - NASBA Registry - 1459

Chapter 1
Financial Statements, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Corporate Governance

• Identify the objectives of financial reporting and the key elements contained within different financial statements.
• Recognize the purpose and content of the statement of cash flows.
• Identify key sections contained with the annual report.
• Recognize issues addressed by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) act and the groups impacted by it.

Chapter 2
How to Evaluate and Improve a Company’s Financial Performance

• Recognize key financial ratios and how they can be used.
• Calculate the value for different financial ratios.
• Recognize the relationship between margin and turnover.
• Compute ROI and recognize how it can be improved.

Chapter 3
Internal Accounting Applications for Your Company

• Recognize the concept of Economic Value Added (EVA) and how it can be improved.
• Recognize major elements of budgeting process.
• Identify different attributes and uses of variance analysis as a control device.
• Recognize how accounting systems work, including activity-based costing, life-cycle costing and target costing.
• Recognize the value of a balanced scorecard approach.

Chapter 4
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, Operating Leve-rage, and Discounting Analysis

• Recognize the value of cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis in solving business problems.
• Identify some applications of present (discounting) and future (compound) values.

Chapter 5
Capital Budgeting

• Recognize the uses of capital budgeting.
• Identify the different techniques used to evaluate business investments and their applications.

Chapter 6
Assets Management, Financing Techniques, and Portfolio Theory

• Recognize key elements that affect working capital and cash management.
• Identify how different investment criteria affect managing assets, such as expected returns, risk and diversification.
• Recognize the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the Arbitrage Pricing Model (APM).

Chapter 7
Long-Term Debt and Equity Financing

• Identify the process of investment banking.
• Recognize issues for venture capital financing.
• Recognize examples of types of long-term debt and their usefulness.
• Identify examples of equity securities.

Chapter 8
Decision Making with Forecasting

• Recognize the components of a forecast and what it predicts.
• Identify various forecasting methods.

Chapter 9
The New World of Accounting

• Identify components of an accounting information system.
• Recognize the purpose of extensible business reporting language (XBRL).
• Identify the impact of the emerging technologies on the accounting processes.

Chapter 1 - Financial Statements, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Corporate Governance

Learning Objectives:

1.1 What and Why of Financial Statements

1.2 Classified Financial Statements

1.3 Statement of Cash Flows

Chapter 1 Review Questions - Section 1

1.4 Cash Flow Analysis

1.5 Other Sections of the Annual Report

1.6 Interim Financial Reports

1.7 SEC Reporting Requirements: Integrated Disclosure System

1.8 The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act

Chapter 1 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 2 - How to Evaluate and Improve a Company’s  Financial Performance

Learning Objectives:

2.1 How to Evaluate a Company’s Financial  Performance

2.1.1 Horizontal and Vertical Analysis

2.1.2 Working with Financial Ratios

Chapter 2 Review Questions - Section 1

2.2 How to Analyze and Improve Corporate Profitability and Shareholder Value

2.2.1 Return on Investment (ROI) and the Du Pont Formula

2.2.2 Return on Equity (ROE) and the Modified Du Pont Formula

Chapter 2 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 3 - Internal Accounting Applications for Your Company

Learning Objectives:

3.1 How to Analyze Divisional and Departmental Performance

3.2 Contribution Margin Analyses

3.3 Pricing Tools

3.4 Evaluating the Product Line

3.5 How to Measure Marketing Effectiveness

Chapter 3 Review Questions - Section 1

3.6 Budgeting Techniques

3.7 Highlighting Problem Areas with Variance Analysis

3.8 Activity-Based Costing (ABC)

3.9 Life-Cycle Costs and Target Costing

3.10 Balanced Scorecard

Chapter 3 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 4 - Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, Operating Leverage, and Discounting Analysis

Learning Objectives:

4.1 Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) Analysis

4.2 Contribution Margin

4.3 From Break-Even to Target Profits

4.4 “What-if” Analysis

4.5 Sales Mix Analysis

4.6 Operating Leverage

Chapter 4 Review Questions - Section 1

4.7 Time Value of Money—Future and Present Values

Chapter 4 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 5 - Capital Budgeting

Learning Objectives:

5.1 Capital Budgeting

5.2 Techniques for Evaluating Investment Proposals

Chapter 5 Review Questions - Section 1

5.3 Effect of Income Taxes on Capital Budgeting Decisions

5.4 The Lease - Purchase Decision

5.5 Capital Budgeting and Inflation

Chapter 5 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 6 - Assets Management, Financing Techniques, and Portfolio Theory

Learning Objectives:

6.1 Managing Working Capital

6.2 Maximizing Your Return on Cash

6.3 Managing Accounts Receivable

6.4 Formulating the Best Investment Strategy

Chapter 6 Review Questions - Section 1

6.5 How to Best Finance Your Business

6.6 Working with a Bank

6.7 Short- and Intermediate-Term Financing

6.7.1 Issuing Commercial Paper

6.7.2 Using Receivables for Financing

6.7.3 Using Inventories for Financing

6.8 How to Reduce Risk: Diversify

6.9 Beta - The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

6.10 The Arbitrage Pricing Model (APM)

Chapter 6 Review Questions - Section 2

Chapter 7 - Long-Term Debt and Equity Financing

Learning Objectives:

7.1 Investment Banking

7.2 Publicly and Privately Placed Securities

7.3 Going Public – Initial Public Offerings (IPO)

7.4 Alternatives to Going Public

7.5 Venture Capital Financing

7.6 Investments in Bonds

7.6.1 Computing Interest

7.6.2 Types of Bonds

7.6.3 Bond Refunding

7.6.4 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Debt Financing

7.7 Equity Securities

7.7.1 Preferred Stock

7.7.2 Common Stock Features

7.8 Financing Strategy

Chapter 7 Review Questions

Chapter 8 - Decision Making with Forecasting

Learning Objectives:

8.1 The Concept of Forecasting

8.2 Types of Forecasts

8.3 Selection of Forecasting Method

8.4 The Qualitative Approach

8.5 The Quantitative Approach

8.5.1 Naive Models

8.5.2 Moving Averages

8.5.3 Exponential Smoothing

8.5.4 Regression Analysis for Sales and Earnings Projections

8.6 How to Use a Computer Statistical Package for Multiple Regressions

8.7 Measuring the Accuracy of Your Forecasts

Chapter 8 Review Questions

Chapter 9 - The New World of Accounting

Learning Objectives:

9.1 Accounting Information Systems and Package

9.1.1 The Fundamentals of Accounting Information Systems

9.1.2 Web-Based Accounting Systems

9.1.3 Economic Feasibility Study for a New Information System

9.1.4 Extensible Business Reporting Language

9.2 Modern Accounting Organization

9.2.1 The Role of Emerging Technology

9.2.2 The Big Data Opportunity

9.2.3 Blockchain Technology

9.2.4 Robotic Process Automation

9.2.5 Cloud Computing

Chapter 9 Review Questions

Glossary