Understanding finance in organisations

Aims of the course

This course is for you if your answer to one of these questions is yes:

• do you interact with financial specialists at work, and want to communicate better with them?
• are you self-employed, or considering self-employment?
• are you considering a career or secondment in finance?

Learning outcomes

As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to:

• enjoy collaborating with finance colleagues and specialist financial advisors
• appreciate and improve the financial dimensions of any self-employed work they do
• learn whether a secondment or a career in finance is likely to be enjoyable for them

Course content overview

As a result of the course, participants should be able to understand and work with the financial aspirations and concerns of their employers, investors, customers and suppliers, including both internal and external financial considerations and trade-offs.

Topics will include:

• financial reporting and accounts
• financial planning and forecasting
• making friends with spreadsheets
• financial decision making
• getting your proposals considered
• next steps, including personal actions arising and accountability for doing them

Target audience

No prior knowledge or experience of finance is assumed or required.

This course is at an intermediate level between our introductory finance course 'Essential finance', and our most advanced course 'Financial decision-making in practice'. However, you are warmly welcome to follow these courses in any order that suits your personal schedule. Many participants have followed two or all three of these courses in different order.

Welcome week (Week 0)

Purpose:

• personal introductions
• introducing the course
• useful reading
• personal objectives

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• become familiar with navigating around the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and from VLE to links and back
• tested their ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sorted out any problems with the help of the eLearning Helpdesk
• learnt how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
• used forums to introduce themselves to other students
• contributed to a discussion forum to introduce themselves to other students and discuss why they are interested in the course, what they hope to get out of their studies, and also to respond to any News items sent out on behalf of the tutor

Week 1: Financial reporting and accounts

Purpose:

Participants will gain a sound appreciation of the meaning and practicalities of financial reporting and accounts, together with its key terminology and conventions.

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• understood the key conventions of the five primary financial statements in the financial reports of a large organisation, and the links between them
• appreciated and applied the important accounting concepts of recognition, disclosure, depreciation, and amortisation
• understood and worked with accruals, provisions, debtors, creditors, and other receivables and payables
• attempted the related self-assessment quiz questions on the VLE
• contributed constructively to the related discussions on the VLE

Week 2: Financial planning and forecasting

Purpose:

Participants will grasp the fundamental importance of financial planning and forecasting, via mini-case studies.

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• understood the key conventions of budgets, forecasts and variance analysis, including examples of favourable and adverse variances
• understood and applied the concepts of gross and net profit, EBITDA, direct and indirect costs, and contribution
• attempted the related self-assessment quiz questions on the VLE
• contributed constructively to the related discussions on the VLE

Week 3: Making friends with spreadsheets

Purpose:

This week we'll aim to improve the reliability and speed of your financial modelling work to support and deepen understanding of financial reporting, forecasting and decision making.

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• appreciated the enormous potential of Excel to increase the speed, reliability and presentation of financial analysis
• understood the fundamental importance of structuring Excel workbooks
• learned the most important of Excel’s native functionality
• understood the important differences between navigation, selection and editing
• used the keyboard when appropriate, in place of the mouse
• attempted the related self-assessment quiz questions on the VLE
• contributed constructively to the related discussions on the VLE

Week 4: Financial decision making

Purpose:

Participants will gain comfort and confidence with the practice and theory of financial decision making.

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• appreciated the meaning and importance of production and pricing decisions, and scarce resource analysis
• understood and applied payback and discounted cash flow analysis
• integrated this understanding with their work in Weeks 1, 2 and 3
• attempted the related self-assessment quiz questions on the VLE
• contributed constructively to the related discussions on the VLE

Week 5: Getting your proposals considered

Purpose:

This week, we'll appreciate why and how financial decision makers require proposals to be presented for consideration, and will apply this understanding in a self-chosen case study.

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

• understood the reasons why financial decision makers need particular information about operational proposals, presented in conventional ways
• connected this understanding with their learning from Weeks 1 to 4 of the course
• deepened and broadened their practical appreciation of these concepts by applying them to a self-chosen case study
• attempted the related self-assessment quiz questions on the VLE
• contributed constructively to the related discussions on the VLE

Week 6: what next?

• assessment of student learning, including optional personal action plans and accountability process
• assessment of student satisfaction
• encouragement of further study

This course is open to everyone, and you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience of the subject to attend.  

Our short courses are designed especially for adult learners who want to advance their personal or professional development. They are taught by tutors who are expert in both their subjects and in teaching students of all ages and experiences. 

Please note that all teaching is in English. You should have near-native command of the English language to get the maximum benefit from the course.

Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours of self-study time, for example, reading materials, although this will vary from person to person. 

While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material). 

Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the VLE so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (using discussion boards etc).

Fees 

The course fee includes access to the course on our VLE, personal feedback on your work from an expert tutor, a certificate of participation (if you complete work and take part in discussions), and access to the class resources for two years after your course finishes. 

Concessions 

For more information, please see our concessions information page. 

Alison Fordham Bursary

University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education is proud to offer the Alison Fordham bursary, which is awarded to students who wish to study on one of our short online courses via our VLE, reducing the fee paid by 50%. The bursary is limited to a single award for each set of online courses. 

Application criteria:  

• applicants should set out their personal learning motivations since priority will be given to those who are returning to learning after an extended break, or have not previously engaged with fully online learning, or are seeking to use the online short course as a bridge towards undergraduate award-bearing study
• applicants who can demonstrate financial need 

For more information, please see our bursaries information page.

A certificate of participation and a digital credential will be awarded to those who contribute constructively to weekly discussions, exercises and assignments for the duration of the course.