Finance and accounting can feel a bit like learning a foreign language, but if you don’t know your assets from your reserves, why your working capital isn’t, or what goodwill means on a balance sheet, you’re not alone.
Don’t despair if you’ve never had the opportunity to learn the lingo, and you feel like you have been left in the dark. Finance & Accounting for Non-Financial Managers sheds light on finance and accounting for managers with very little or no prior knowledge.
Gain new skills, fast-track your career progression, make money talk, and make better business decisions.
The Cambridge experience = 3 days + 20 participants + maximum interaction time with faculty.
Become fluent in the language of finance and accounting. What are you waiting for?
Overview
As a manager, it is essential that you use the language of finance and accounting effectively.
A good grasp of key finance and accounting concepts is often seen by employers as essential for career progression.
This programme, in its new Live Online format, gives you a thorough overview of finance and financial accounting which you need to manage and discuss budgets, financial reports and key performance indicators.
This highly interactive programme uses live sessions, worked examples, breakout sessions and small group work drawn from real-life business experiences, to demystify the language of finance and accounting for managers with very little or no prior knowledge of the subjects.
The Live Online format offers the unique opportunity to network with a diverse group of peers, from different regions, industries and sectors, allowing you to get a Cambridge learning experience from anywhere in the world, without the need to travel or be wholly away from the office.
Our Live Online programmes offer the same quality and academic rigour associated with all Cambridge education:
- Delivered by Cambridge Judge Business School’s world-class faculty – Cambridge Judge is a strong research-oriented business school with 19 research centres. All programmes are designed and led by an Academic Programme Director who is a member of Cambridge Judge faculty.
- Drawing upon the strengths and resources of the wider University of Cambridge and the Cambridge ecosystem, including accessing global alumni and specialists as guest speakers
- Small class sizes (maximum 30) and high levels of interaction with world-class faculty.
- Emphasis on quality outcomes – we seek to monitor our delivery against the individual needs of participants. It is no accident that a little over half of our open programme participants come back to Cambridge Judge at least once, often multiple times.
Topics
- Interpreting company accounts and financial disclosures
- Using accounting for management decisions
- Performance measures
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Performing project and investment appraisals using discounted cash-flows, internal rate of return (IRR) and net present value (NPV) techniques
- Capital structure: understanding financial strategies to achieve the optimal financing mix
- Foundations of business valuation
- Sustainable growth versus acquisitions-based growth
- Executive compensation, corporate governance and value creation
- Value-based management.
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Benefits
- Learn to communicate more effectively with colleagues, senior management and other stakeholders using finance and accounting terms
- Understand how annual reports and financial information are used to make better business decisions
- Learn how to interpret a company’s profitability, solvency and liquidity
- Understand the economics of corporate investment decisions
- Understand the metrics used to assess performance and decision making
- Explore alternative business valuation principles and understand how you can impact the value drivers of your organisation.

This programme counts towards the Cambridge Judge Business School General Management Certificate of Achievement. On completing the GMCA you will be eligible to become an associate member of Cambridge Judge Business School’s global network of graduates and business-focused University of Cambridge alumni, faculty and staff.

Who should attend
- Professionals and emerging managers with P&L responsibilities
- Those moving into financial management roles
- Those wishing to refresh their financial acumen
- You have experienced success and promotion in your career, but need to better understand the language of finance and accounting to progress further.
The programme will be of particular appeal if you enjoy learning using practical examples that you can immediately relate to your own business experience.
Note: This course is not for you if you are an expert or seasoned practitioner in finance or accounting.
Faculty & speakers
Jenny Chu
University Senior Lecturer in Accounting
PhD (University of California, Berkeley)
Dates & fees
Dates |
Duration |
Fees * |
---|---|---|
16-18 and 21-23 June 2021 |
6 half-day sessions (mornings, UK time) |
£2,475 + VAT |
For information regarding payment terms, cancellation rights, transfer policies and fees, please see our terms & conditions documents:
Terms & Conditions for Self-funded Applicants (pdf, 277KB) (updated 4 September 2019)
Terms & Conditions for Organisation-funded Applicants (pdf, 295KB) (updated 4 September 2019)
Registration closes at midday two working days before the programme start date.
Participants are expected to attend the full programme.
Please ensure that you have read our Frequently Asked Questions, which provide important additional information about our Live Online programmes.
If you have any questions or would like to have a chat about this programme and how it could benefit you or your organisation, please get in touch with the programme advisor:
Jasmin Abdel-Moneim
Sales & Business Development Manager
Open Programmes
Tel: +44 (0)7850 949628

Version 1.6 (26 February 2021)