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Financial Intelligence for IT Professionals

Developing Managers' Business Acumen with a Finance for Non-Financial Manager Course

Ensure Everyone in IT is Financially Intelligent

Your IT managers are experts in their field. But with today's business reality, they also need to be financially savvy. IT professionals often have responsibility for recommending capital expenditures, which means they must have a strong understanding of finance to ensure that they make sound recommendations and decisions. However, they may never have had a formal opportunity to learn the key financial knowledge to assess ROI results, what the key ratios can tell them, or the difference between profit and cash.

Your managers need a strong foundation in finance to ensure that they make sound decisions that support the company's strategy and financial goals.

This class will not only illuminate key financial concepts for your IT professionals, but also demonstrate how to use and apply them as part of their IT responsibilities.

Vital Skills Your Information Technology Professionals Will Take Away From This Class

• Make effective decisions. A thorough understanding of the key financial concepts needed to make effective IT-related decisions.
• Use financial terminology. An understanding of the terminology used by finance and accounting.
• Communicate effectively. The ability to communicate effectively and dynamically with bosses and subordinates and the financial and accounting staff (including the CFO) about the financial side of the business.
• Understand financial reports. Knowing the right questions to ask to understand the assumptions and data in the company's financial reports, particularly as it related to IT.
• Tell company's stories. Understanding how reading and analyzing financial statements and financial ratios can tell any company's story (your own, a competitor's, or a client's).
• Assess ROI Confidently. The ability to confidently assess return on investment for potential capital expenditures.

Topics to Consider for "Financial Intelligence for Managers" Courses

• Key financial terms
• Reading the income statement, understanding where IT fits, and analyzing your company's income statement
• Key income statement terms and concepts such as revenue recognition, matching, expensing vs. capitalizing
• Reading the balance sheet, understanding how IT makes an impact, and analyzing your company's balance sheet
• Key balance sheet terms and concepts, such as accruals, accounts receivable, and depreciation
• Reading the cash flow statement and analyzing your company's cash flow statement
• Cash vs. cash flow, and cash vs. profit
• Financial ratio analysis of your company and a competitor
• Time value of money, future value, present value
• Return on investment/capital budgeting methodologies
• Working capital management, DSO, DPO, and DII
• The marketplace, including obligations of a public company, Sarbanes-Oxley, financial expectations and measures used on Wall Street, and shareholder value
• IT’s role in the financial success of the company

Recommended Customization

• Presentation of and discussion about your financial goals
• Teaching and calculating your key measures
• Reading and analyzing your income statement
• Discussing how you recognize revenue
• Reviewing your capitalization policy
• Reading and analyzing your balance sheet
• Reading and analyzing your cash flow statement
• Calculating your profitability, leverage, liquidity and efficiency ratios
• Calculating your competitor's profitability, leverage, liquidity, and efficiency ratios
• Discussing the meaning of the analysis results for the company as a whole and for IT specifically
• Your return on investment approach for IT projects
• The measures the marketplace uses to assess your company

Where to Start

Call us and we can help you think through the appropriate content for your needs and target audience. Think about the following questions:

• What results do you want to achieve with the course?
• What is the current level of understanding and use of the concepts of your IT professionals?
• What measures does the leadership team study?
• What financial terms and concepts are used by leadership?

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