Preparing relevant and effective financial reporting
Context and rationale
When monitoring a company's financial activity, managers must prepare monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annual statements. As time goes by, the volume of data to process and analyse increases, and the time taken to process it becomes the main issue.
Financial reporting is ideal for obtaining a detailed and reliable report on the company's financial situation. This information is valuable for internal activities, but also for external communication, particularly with investors. With a financial analysis in hand, preparing a budget and drawing up reports becomes simpler.
This course will enable you to design relevant reporting for analysing financial performance using a predefined method.
Training objectives
- Mastering the challenges of financial reporting
- Designing relevant reporting for analysing financial performance using a predefined method
- Identifying or designing relevant reporting indicators
- Implementing a structured reporting approach
- Analysing and explaining the variances between budget and reporting
Training content
The main challenges of reporting
- Setting out the challenges of reporting.
- Identifying its objectives: monitoring financial performance, decision-making tool, instrument for dialogue.
- Listing the different recipients and selecting the information to communicate.
- Those involved in reporting and their place in the finance function.
Conditions for effectiveness: the rules for preparing and formalising financial reporting
- Objectives, scope and arrangements (frequency, distribution, etc.) of reporting.
- Choosing the content and prioritising the indicators to be used.
- Defining the sources that guarantee data reliability and support reporting.
- Identifying the tools used and adapting them to companies' current needs.
- Determining what is needed to meet tight deadlines for producing and providing relevant information.
- Qualitative elements of reporting: analyses, explanations, comments.
- Principles and levels of formalisation of reporting.
- Layout.
Structuring and preparing financial reporting: items from the balance sheet and income statement
- The components and calculation of working capital requirements.
- Net cash.
- Off-balance sheet commitments.
- Intermediate management balances.
- Analysis of equity and quasi-equity.
- Debt capacity and debt level.
Structuring and preparing financial reporting: the main management ratios
- Activity ratios.
- Profitability ratios.
- Solvency ratios.
- Liquidity ratios.
Structuring and preparing financial reporting: budget analysis items
- The scope and applications of budget monitoring in financial reporting.
- Budget updates.
- Determining and analysing costs (standard, full, variable).
- Variance analysis (price, volume).
Practical work
- The training takes the form of a documented presentation, delivered by the trainer for each module.
- Case studies.
- Discussions (interactive work between participants).
- Reactions, observations, suggestions.
- Illustration of strengths and weaknesses.
- Theoretical and practical input.
- Practical exercises.
- Project management course materials.
- Self-assessment before the training.
- Assessment of learning at the end of the training.
Let's discuss your training needs
Free, no-obligation offer. An adviser will call you back within 48 hours.