“Took a bunch of financial no-nothings and gave us a real level of financial comfort.”
Graduate student in Financial Fundamentals
for Communicators fall 2004
Course is part of KU’s Marketing Communications graduate program for professionals working in the Kansas City area.
Day-Long Programs
Markets, Documents and the Numbers of Business
Markets
Public companies have to deal with a variety of market forces and issues. This session ranges across common and preferred stock, bonds, the concept of risk and reward, and securities markets and how they are changing. I also discuss a number of concepts such as Reg FD/guidance, selling short, program trading, arbitrage, options and such.
Accounting and Finance Today
It’s a new world. Topics include understanding and dealing with Sarbanes-Oxley, longtime auditor-company relationships, “internal control” and the new auditor’s report, PCAOB, GAAP, etc. I also review the SEC and its role, and key SEC documents such as the 10-K, 8-K, etc.
Balance Sheet and Income Statement
How public companies keep score, including an overview of the assumptions and principles guiding accounting decision-making, as well as an examination of the balance sheet and income statement.
Participants analyze a company’s financial statements and present their findings.
Cash Flows and Footnotes
Despite the scores, cash is king. Participants work through the statement of cash flows, and learn how to calculate and understand the importance of that vital metric, free cash flow.
Participants work through key footnotes, including the options’ impact on the income statement, pension liabilities, etc., and learn what good business reporters will find of interest and that could embarrass the company.
Tools for Analysis
Participants learn a variety of resources and tools for analysis, including Morningstar, how to do and use Common Size Analysis and Horizontal Analysis, the role of securities analysts, etc.
Using these tools, participants compare their company with a competitor and present their findings.
Ratio Analysis
Ratio Analysis is at the heart of evaluating a company. Participants learn tools for assessing liquidity, profitability and financial solvency.
Using these tools, participants compare their company with a competitor and present their findings.
Half-Day Programs
Markets, The SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley
Overview of primary and secondary markets, NYSE and NASDAQ, common and preferred stocks, bonds, initial public offerings, quiet period, short selling, other key concepts, etc.
Detailed look at Securities and Exchange Commission and filings including 10-K, 8-K, 10-Q, proxy, prospectus, changes in filings and deadlines, insiders, comment letters, etc.
Examination of regulation and oversight of the accounting industry, including the recently-created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, basics of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, etc. Special emphasis on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, its provisions, especially Section 404 focusing on “internal controls over financial reporting,” and the new, much more complicated auditor’s report on the company. Also, a discussion of how the act is having an unexpected impact on private companies and not-for-profits.
Understanding the Numbers of Business
Strategy for examining a company’s financial condition, cash cycle, accrual method, balance sheet, income statement, cash flows (special emphasis on free cash flow), “one-time gains” that reoccur, pro forma, etc.
Participants do an analysis of company financial statements and discuss their conclusions.
Footnotes and Red Flags
Examination of the footnotes with special attention devoted to topics of greatest interests to investors and journalists. Includes topics such as executive compensation and perks, options and restricted stock, options and their impact on the income statement, audit fees, goodwill and impairment, special purpose entities, related party transactions, pension and postretirement expenses, smoothing, big bath, etc. This segment can be tailored to look at a specific company’s filings.
Ninety-Minute Programs
Markets: An Overview
Overview of primary and secondary markets, NYSE and NASDAQ, common and preferred stocks, bonds, initial public offerings, quiet period, short selling, other key concepts, etc.
The SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley
Detailed look at Securities and Exchange Commission and filings including 10-K, 8-K, 10-Q, proxy, prospectus, changes in filings and deadlines, insiders, comment letters, etc. Examination of regulation and oversight of the accounting industry, including the recently-created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, basics of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, etc.
Sarbanes-Oxley and Corporate Governance
Review of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, its provisions, especially Section 404 focusing on “internal controls over financial reporting,” and the new, much more complicated auditor’s report on the company. Also, a discussion of how the act is having an unexpected impact on private companies and not-for-profits.
Accounting Basics (requires two ninety-minute sessions)
Strategy for examining a company’s financial condition, cash cycle, accrual method, balance sheet, income statement, cash flows (special emphasis on free cash flow), “one-time gains” that reoccur, pro forma, etc.
Participants do an analysis of company financial statements and discuss their conclusions.
Footnotes and Red Flags
Examination of the footnotes with special attention devoted to topics of greatest interests to investors and journalists. Includes topics such as executive compensation and perks, options and restricted stock, options and their impact on the income statement, audit fees, goodwill and impairment, special purpose entities, related party transactions, pension and postretirement expenses, smoothing, big bath, etc. This segment can be tailored to look at a specific company’s filings.
Comparison and Analysis
Participants learn about common size analysis and various ratios, then compare companies and assess levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
Lunch, seminar or convention presentations
These modules can be presented in time blocks ranging from 30 minutes to two hours.
- Moving business reporters from “gotcha” to “great company”: 10 things you can do to impress the business press.
- How to calculate your CEO’s compensation package: Deciphering those tables in the proxy and other documents.
- Sex, lies and Enron: Why you need to start thinking like your company’s auditor: Building your credibility and protecting your company’s image.
- Ten red flags in your annual report’s footnotes and proxy statement: Things good business journalists just love to find.
- What Sarbanes-Oxley means for private companies and not-for-profits: The changes aren’t just for public companies.
