Overview

Finance is at the heart of every successful business decision—but you don’t need to be a finance specialist to use it with confidence. Finance for Non-finance Professionals equips learners from any background with the essential skills to understand, apply, and discuss financial concepts in the workplace. You’ll gain practical knowledge of accounting fundamentals, budgets, and expenditure proposals, as well as how to ensure your projects get approved and delivered on track. The course also introduces you to Excel-based financial modelling, teaching clear principles of structure, workflow, visualization, and commentary that apply to any platform. You will develop the confidence to interpret and report against budgets, master the core responsibilities of budget owners, and apply essential quantitative skills such as solving financial equations, working with compound growth, and avoiding common errors. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to engage effectively with finance specialists and decision-makers, bringing financial insight to your role and supporting stronger, evidence-based business outcomes. This unique combination of practical finance, modelling, and quantitative tools makes the course invaluable for professionals seeking to strengthen their financial leadership.

Syllabus

Finance and accounting

Every business activity depends on finance and impacts it in return. This module introduces the essentials of financial control and reporting, explaining how organisations secure and use funds from investors, manage solvency and liquidity, and forecast cash flows to stay sustainable. You’ll also explore the role of accounting in recording, reporting, and communicating financial information, equipping you to support finance colleagues and contribute to informed decision-making across sectors.

Budgets and proposals

Budgets and investment proposals are financial plans that must demonstrate value for money. In this module, you’ll learn how to estimate costs and benefits, account for timing and risk, and present clear, evidence-based proposals that finance colleagues can evaluate with confidence. You’ll also explore key tools such as payback periods, discounted cash flow techniques, and sensitivity analysis to align proposals with organisational goals and build credibility in financial decision-making.

Reporting against budgets

Budget holders are responsible for meeting operational goals while managing financial performance. In this module, you’ll learn how to analyse and explain budget variances, distinguishing between favourable and adverse outcomes, one-off items, and recurring trends. You’ll also practise reforecasting techniques to update financial expectations and support timely decision-making. By applying structured analysis, commentary, and Excel-based tools, you’ll build credibility as a budget owner and demonstrate how variances impact wider organisational performance.

Modelling essentials

Financial models simplify complex financial situations into structured, transparent calculations that support forecasting, reporting, and decision-making. In this module, you’ll learn core modelling principles such as defining purpose, structuring workbooks, and using effective workflows, visualisation, and commentary. Through practical Excel applications, you’ll explore how well-designed models enable sensitivity analysis, stress testing, and scenario analysis, while improving efficiency and reducing errors. Case studies will show how modelling strengthens budgeting, proposals, and variance analysis, while enhancing collaboration and communication with colleagues.

5. Quantitative skills

This module equips learners with essential quantitative skills needed to analyse and interpret financial data accurately. You will learn to set up, solve, and rearrange financial equations, understand and apply compound interest and growth, and perform de-compounding. These techniques are applied in practical case studies, including budgeting, forecasting, and project evaluation, as well as in key financial analyses such as ratio analysis and DuPont analysis. By mastering these quantitative methods, learners will be able to assess organisational performance, support decision-making, and communicate financial insights with confidence and precision.