Financial Analysis 101: Planning and Control

The crux of financial analysis lies with its purpose. It may be the company's focus on short-term liquidity or its long-term planning. Financial statements provide a picture of the company's financial condition. Forecasting involves analyzing these statements to project calculated scenarios and probabilities.

Definitively, financial planning and control (aka financial management) analyzes the firm's financial mission and goals, to achieve various milestones and planned goals.

The field of finance is intertwined with economics, accounting, and the human element responsible for accurate analysis, forecasting, and practical quantitative applications.

·    Economics provides structural data for decision-making;

·    Accounting provides financial / cash flow data;

·    The financial manager collects, interprets, processes, and allocates the firm's resources.

This course addresses principles and the process of strategic financial planning for any organization, large or small. You will learn that financial planning must include not only financial management methods (basic accounting) but also strategy(ies) necessary to decide how to accomplish corporate financial goals. We will provide useful information regarding the interpretation and application of:

·    qualitative (economic activity) information, data, and statistics,

·    quantitative data, analysis, and formulas (accounting), and

·    forecasting methods to meet short-term and long-term corporate goals. 

Financial planning is managing your finances over time in such a way that you can meet your business needs. Strategic planning is the process of determining the direction your company will take, the goals you have for the business and how to achieve what you want. Both types of planning involve defining objectives, gathering and analyzing data, implementing the plan and monitoring the results.

The goal of this course is to provide comprehensive information on financial analysis in areas of planning and control suited to anyone on any level desiring this information for either professional or personal use.

Objectively this course qualitatively and quantitatively defines, reviews, and illustrates the principles of corporate finance, including: profit/loss, asset and cash management, operational budgets, cost analysis, profitability, leverage, and decision and risk. Various industry approaches, cases, means and methods will be presented. The 12 Lessons will generally be organized into major areas of:  

·    Principles of Corporate Planning and Control

·    Financial Statements and Reports

·    Ratio Analysis

·    Cost of Capital

·    Cash Management and Cash Analysis

·    Operations Budgeting

·    Working Capital Management

·    Capital Budgeting

This course will not require you to have previous experience in any particular area but you should have a high school reading level. No books will be required.

Lesson 1: Principles of Corporate Finance

Lesson 2: Financial Statements and Reports

Lesson 3: Ratio Analysis

Lesson 4: Cost of Capital

Lesson 5: Cash Management

Lesson 6: Cost Analysis

Lesson 7: Operational Budgeting

Lesson 8: Operating and Financial Leverage

Lesson 9: Working Capital Management

Lesson 10: Current Asset and Debt Management

Lesson 11: Capital Budgeting

Lesson 12: Decisions and Risk

All course materials is provided in this class. There is no need to buy additional resources.

Several lessons will be accompanied by a written assignment and a brief quiz  . Students will successfully complete this course by mastering all learning outcomes with 70% or higher overall grade.

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to: