Accounting and Finance for Non-Finance Managers: Executive and Senior Management Level

This executive version focuses on decision-useful finance: value drivers, cash discipline, performance dashboards, investment cases, risk and governance, and how to interrogate financial narratives. It emphasizes steering the business through KPIs, trade-offs, and scenario thinking—not bookkeeping.

Who Should Attend

Directors and senior managers with budget responsibility

Business unit and departmental heads

PMO/portfolio leaders accountable for investment decisions

Commercial and operations leaders who steer performance KPIs

Senior HR or transformation leaders managing cost and benefits

Objectives

Read financial statements and connect them to strategic performance drivers

Interpret margin, working capital, and cash conversion and their impact on value

Use budgeting and forecasting to steer performance with leading indicators

Evaluate investment proposals using NPV/IRR, sensitivity, and downside scenarios

Challenge management reports with smart questions and control awareness

Course Outline

Finance as a Leadership Language

How finance supports strategy, governance, and decision rights
What “good performance” looks like: value drivers and KPI trees
The story behind numbers: assumptions, estimates, and management judgment
What executives should ask finance and what finance should ask executives
Board-ready financial narratives and decision briefs

Performance Statements for Executives

Income statement drivers: price/volume/mix, margin bridge, cost behavior
Balance sheet essentials: working capital, capital employed, liquidity signals
Cash flow reality: operating cash vs. profit; conversion and seasonality
Red flags: quality of earnings, aggressive assumptions, and one-offs
Executive dashboards: selecting KPIs and setting thresholds

Planning, Budgeting & Forecast Governance

Budget as a management tool: targets, constraints, and ownership
Rolling forecasts and scenario planning under uncertainty
Variance analysis that leads to actions, not explanations
Forecast accuracy, bias, and governance checkpoints
Linking plans to incentives and accountability

Investment, Projects & Capital Decisions

Capex vs. opex decisions and their financial implications
Business case discipline: benefits, risks, dependencies, and timing
NPV/IRR/payback and when each misleads
Sensitivity and stress tests: downside resilience and triggers
Post-investment reviews and benefits realization

Risk, Controls & Stakeholder Communication

Financial risk basics: liquidity, credit, FX, cost inflation, concentration
Control essentials: approvals, segregation, audit trails, fraud awareness
Contract terms that impact finance: payment, penalties, liabilities, claims
Communicating financial decisions to stakeholders with clarity
90-day executive finance action plan for your unit

Competencies

Executive financial interpretation and performance steering

Cash and working capital leadership

Budget/forecast governance and variance-to-action management

Investment appraisal and scenario decision-making

Risk, controls, and stakeholder financial communication

Amsterdam

Explore professional training in Amsterdam across Elite Academy’s full range of disciplines. The city’s position as an international business hub known for openness, efficient working practices and a strong multinational outlook makes it an attractive international setting for scheduled courses and programs arranged to your preferred topic and dates. Elite Academy can deliver its full range of professional training programs in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Because the city is an international business hub known for openness, efficient working practices and a strong multinational outlook, it provides a strong international environment for participants from organizations as well as individual professionals. The courses shown on this page represent the programs currently scheduled in Amsterdam; they do not limit what can be delivered there. If your preferred course or date is not listed, you can request any program from our portfolio to be arranged in Amsterdam, subject to scheduling and delivery requirements.