Formation/Cours

Students who sign up for this course should have basic knowledge of accounting principles and in particular the structure of the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash flow statement. It is also imperative that they are willing to prepare and read the required material on their own before each session. The ability to participate, interact and ask critical questions is essential for success in this course

At the end of the course, the student should be able to :
-illustrate why knowledge of the corporate strategy is important for financial analysis
-decode financial statements to address the informational concerns of internal and external decision-makers regarding a business’ future performance and attached risks by:
(i) analysing the informational content of the balance sheet: a.o. by constructing and interpreting the statement of financial structure (i.e. working capital, working capital need and net cash)
(ii) analysing and interpreting the structure of the income statement (and the statement of intermediate balances)
(iii) analysing and interpreting the statement of cash flows: a.o. by calculating and interpreting excess cash flow, available cash flow and free cash flow, calculating and interpreting the cash conversion cycle
(iv) calculating, analysing (through decomposition) and interpreting financial ratios
(v) usefully comparing the financial statements and ratios over time and with those of other firms to help detect e.g. changes in strategy, differences in market approaches, differences in financial health, …. and generate advices for decision-making
At the end of the course, the students should have greater awareness about ESRS topics, in particular they should be able to
-describe different incentives and practices of earnings management

1. Introduction
2. Strategy analysis
3. Balance sheet analysis
4. Income statement analysis
5. Statement of cash flows analysis
6. Earnings management