Finance refresher 1 – introduction to company accounts

Live training overview

Financial training for lawyers – to help you improve your commercial awareness and stand out from the crowd.

The full course is delivered over three 90-minute modules. You will learn to deal with financial information with more confidence.

Addressing unfamiliar information in simple terms is the key to the success of this course.

This module complements the content covered in Finance Refresher 2 – Introduction to Analysis and KPIs and Finance Refresher 3 – Introduction to Accounts Interpretation

FR1 covers the basic components of a set of company accounts.

FR2 introduces analysis and the key accounting performance indicators.

FR3 includes a case study that gives you the chance to put new skills into practice.

Content

Introduction to Company Accounts FR1 – 90mins

• Quiz – what do you already know?
  • The key components
• Finding your way around
  • The format and key elements of the primary statements
  • profit and loss account (operating profit, PBITDA and earnings)
  • balance sheets (capital employed, debt and equity funds) plus cash flows and the statement of other gains and losses
• Key issues with reporting profits
  • Revenue recognition – when should a sale be reported?
  • Unusual, exceptional and extraordinary items – what can and should be excluded from operating profit?
• Key issues with balance sheet items
  • Reporting goodwill and other intangible assets
  • Differentiating debt from equity funding
  • Providing for uncertain liabilities such as legal claim

Outcomes

As a result of attending the sessions you will:

• Improve your ability to read and understand published accounting information
• Recognise the key elements of a set of accounts
• Appreciate how the information in a set of accounts can be manipulated
• Appreciate the importance of developing your commercial awareness
• Be encouraged to improve your knowledge of the economy, your clients’ businesses and financial reporting in a legal context

Format

Live online – an interactive session using quizzes, polls and breakout rooms

This session is not a pre-recorded webinar.

Duration

90 minutes

Delegates

Fee earners who want to improve their financial awareness. Trainees and fee earners who ‘know they should know this stuff’ but find it hard to get to grips with the numbers.  This course is the ideal starting point if they want to improve their commercial awareness.

Maximum 16

Face-to-face overview

Covering the same content as the ‘live online’ course this session can be delivered as 90-minute modules or as a half-day course.