Online Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager Course

8-Week Course

8 Continuing Education Units

80 Military Clock Hours

About the Course

You don’t have to be a finance manager or an accounting manager to benefit from financial and accounting training. Chances are good that financial strategies are an important part of making better business decisions that affect your bottom line.

The Finance & Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager course can help you understand accounting processes and methodologies, enhance your ability to forecast financial performance, spot trends and better study your competition. Participants who successfully complete this multimedia course learn to develop the financial skills necessary to evaluate proposed business projects, analyze company performance and apply finance and accounting principles with confidence.

Earn a Digital Badge

Villanova students will earn a digital badge when they successfully complete an individual course or full certificate program. These badges help to emphasize their skills and commitment to professional development and enables them to easily share and display the badge on a resume and/or social media.

Curriculum

8 Week Course

Week 1

Business Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting

Develop a business plan.
Evaluate a business plan and its elements.
Discuss strategic planning.
Write a long-term plan.
Explain annual budget, cash budget, and zero-cost budget.

Week 2

Financial Statements

Describe financial management.
Identify the elements of different financial statements.
Identify the links between financial statements.
Explain how to record and report financial information.

Week 3

Accounting Concepts and Principles

Explain depreciation and its importance.
Describe inventory and the difference between retailer and manufacturer.
Define periodic and perpetual methods, including the benefits and drawbacks to both.
Discuss audits.
Discuss fraud and examples of business fraud.
Examine budgets.

Week 4

How Organizations Raise Money

Differentiate c-corps, s-corps, LLCs, LPs, and incorporated.
Discuss why owners make decisions, and the tradeoffs.
Discuss an organization’s capital structure.
Identity how to access sources of capital.
Discuss sources of capital from the perspective of an investor and issuer.
Discuss accounting for issuing equity, debt, and paying interest and dividend.
Examine working capital.
Describe financial leverage and operating leverage.
Explain how to perform a breakeven analysis.

Week 5

Capital Budgeting

Describe decision techniques, including expected value, payback method, NV, TVM, IRR, hurdle rate, and project ranking.
Use Excel to calculate decision techniques.
Discuss TVM.

Week 6

Budgeting and Cost Accounting

Discuss marginal cost, fixed cost, and variable cost.
Tie revenue recognition to period costs and product costs.
Explain cost allocation.
Examine how activity-based costing can be tied to customer profitability.

Week 7

Ratio Analysis and Judging Management

Define ratio analysis and describe why it is used.
Define common-size ratio.
Analyze a balance sheet and income statement using common-size techniques and ratio analysis.
Discuss profitability and margin ratios.
Define ROE and ROA, and explain why ROA can be used to evaluate an individual manager and ROE an entire firm.

Week 8

Accounting for Not-For-Profits and Taxes

Define key terms: statement of financial position, statement of activities, statement of cash flows.
Describe how donor restrictions impact the statement of financial position.
Define UBTI.
Discuss the debate to tax not-for-profits.

Learning Objectives

Skills Learned

Reporting Business Strategy Budgeting Finance Preparing Financial Statements Investment Business Operations

What You’ll Study

Understanding the Role of Finance and Accounting

The Role of Accounting in Credit and Investment Decisions

Taxes Individual and Corporate

Understanding the Impact of Taxes on Financial Decisions
Worksheet for Case Study – Calculating the Federal Income Tax for an Individual
Computing Individual Income Taxes
Computing Income Taxes for Business Entities

The Foundation of Accounting

Understanding Major Accounting Concepts
Defining the Elements of Financial Statements
Understanding the Key Financial Statements
Explaining the Role of Audits and Internal Control
Financial Reporting

Making Strategic Financial Decisions

Developing a Financial Strategy
Preparing a Business Plan
Determining the Optimal Capital Structure
Obtaining Capital Resources
Creating Shareholder Value

Working Capital Management

Managing Current Assets and Liabilities
Computing the Cost of Inventory
Estimating the Cost of Inventory

Designing Cost Systems for Strategic and Tactical Advantages

Cost Accounting Systems
Developing and Marketing New Products
Measuring Quality Costs to Improve Quality and Reduce Costs

Evaluating Managerial Performance

Evaluating Performance with Responsibility Accounting
DuPont Analysis: Decomposing Return On Equity (ROE)

Personal Financial Management

Developing Financial Goals and Controlling Debts
Reducing Taxes and Investing Wisely
Using Insurance and Estate Planning to Safeguard Assets

Applying the Course Content

Investment Decisions: Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
Credit Decision

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Who Should Register?

The course helps managers from areas such as marketing, sales, IT, project management, manufacturing or engineering, as well as general managers, discover how financial data is generated, reported and used for decision making, analysis and valuation.

Tuition & Payment

Total Course Cost

$2,095

Enroll Now

Course offerings and associated prices are subject to change without prior notice. Pricing for multi-course certificate programs varies depending on course selection. View the Professional Education Catalog for more information on the courses and programs.

Payment Options

There are multiple ways to pay for your certificate program. Just let your enrollment representative know the choice that works best for you.