Accounting and Finance Fundamentals - Virtual

Personal Benefits

• The opportunity to learn practical skills with unnecessary complexity stripped away
• A toolkit of techniques to use in financial value measurement and creation
• Increased confidence in dealing with accounting and finance specialists
• A foundation for future skills and knowledge acquisition

Organizational Benefits

• A short, focused program delivering essential accounting skills and knowledge to non-accounting team members
• The facilitation of better financial decision making
• Improved interaction between non-accounting team members and members of the accounting or finance function
• The development of foundational competence for continued development of talent

Module 1

Measuring performance

• Derivation of the basic accounting equation
• Simple transaction accounting
• Measurement basis of assets and liabilities
• Accruals basis of accounting
• Introduction of the balance sheet, income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow statement examining how they fit together
• Consideration of the key financial statements for a selected public company

Deciphering performance

• Ratio analysis and same-sizing for comparative purposes
• Ratio analysis applied to selected public company financial statements to support a discussion of strengths and weaknesses and steps to improve
• Discussion of some key non-GAAP measures used in Management Discussion & Analysis reports and in media releases
• Discussion of limitations inherent in the measurement of value in financial statements

Module 2

Measuring value

• Overview of different approaches to determining value
• Introduction to the time value of money (compounding and discounting)
• Use of project evaluation tools (such as payback, NPV, and IRR)
• Estimating corporate valuation using observable multiples for selected public companies
• Use of discounted Cash Flow techniques to arrive at a valuation (illustrated for a private company), including approaches to establishing Free Cash Flow and determining an appropriate discount rate

Enhancing value

• Introduction to cost behaviour and the contribution statement
• Application of Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, breakeven and target profit determination
• Illustration of Economies of scale and operating leverage
• Overview of approaches to costing and their use in decision making – job cost and process cost systems; absorption and variable costing; standard costing; activity based costing

Dynamic Virtual Classroom

Participate in the program from anywhere. Our online learning platform combines live, interactive video instruction with breakout sessions, panel discussions, and expert Q&A.

Our learning platform is fully encrypted, allowing you to connect securely from home, office or anywhere in between.

Virtual programs are designed to fit within your schedule, allowing you to learn new skills and immediately put them to work.

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Erica Pimentel

Accounting
Smith School of Business

Erica Pimentel PhD, CPA, CA is an Assistant Professor at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. Her teaching focuses on financial reporting.

Erica’s research examines how technological change impacts professionals at work. She is particularly interested in exploring the impact of remote work and blockchain on auditors at work. Her research is funded by l’Autorité des normes comptables de France, the Canadian Academic Accounting Association, CPA Ontario and others. A CPA of over a decade, Erica is interested in making research accessible to the public. She has been featured in numerous media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, the National Post, the Globe and Mail, CTV News and others.

Prior to completing her PhD, Erica worked at EY and Baker Tilly. She has MBA and PhD degrees from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University and a Master’s in Tax Law from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University.