Day 1: Reading Financial Statements for Decision Insight

Income Statement Analysis

• Separate revenue cost and profit levels
• Track margin movement across periods
• Distinguish recurring items from exceptional events
• Connect profit change with operating causes

Conducting Balance-Sheet Analysis

• Interpret asset liability and equity structure
• Assess working capital and short-term liquidity
• Identify leverage and asset-use changes
• Relate balance-sheet movement to operating decisions

Conducting Cash-Flow Analysis

• Separate operating/investing/financing cash flows
• Explain profit-versus-cash generation differences
• Identify recurring cash pressure/one-off movement
• Link cash information with statement trends

Day 2: Ratios, Profitability, and Financial Drivers

Connected Ratio Analysis

• Combine liquidity, leverage, efficiency, profitability measures
• Avoid conclusions from a single ratio
• Compare periods with consistent definitions
• Build a compact analytical scorecard

Profitability and Return Drivers

• Calculate margins/returns on invested resources
• Identify price, volume, cost, asset-use effects
• Compare business units using appropriate context
• Explain what changed behind return measures

Trend and Benchmark Interpretation

• Select relevant historical or external comparison
• Recognize scale, seasonality, business-mix effects
• Identify movements requiring deeper evidence
• Write a balanced analytical conclusion

Day 3: Financial Tools for Management Decisions

Relevant Cost and Contribution

• Separate incremental avoidable and sunk costs
• Calculate contribution for a short-term choice
• Consider opportunity cost under capacity constraints
• Evaluate a make-buy or pricing decision

Break-Even and Sensitivity

• Calculate break-even volume or price
• Test the decision against changed assumptions
• Identify the variable with greatest effect
• Prepare a sensitivity view for management

Applied Decision Recommendation

• Combine financial results with nonfinancial constraints
• State assumptions and limitations explicitly
• Present alternatives before selecting one
• Draft recommendation with clear decision request

• Financial statement exercises linking ratios with operating explanations
• Relevant-cost and contribution cases based on short-term choices
• Break-even and sensitivity tools applied to management scenarios
• A concise decision brief presented for peer challenge