Founder-led training programme
Finance for Non-Finance Managers
Read the numbers in plain English, challenge financial performance and connect team decisions to cash, margin and working capital.
Build the financial judgement to question reports, explain variances and assess how an operational choice could affect cash, margin, working capital and reported performance.
Duration: 1 Day.
A concentrated one-day management finance programme.
Format: Public Online · Private Online · Private On-Site.
Choose a scheduled virtual cohort, closed online delivery or a private workplace session.
Level: beginner.
Designed for operational managers accountable for budgets, costs or business performance.
Overview
What this programme covers
Connect financial statements and variances to the operating choices managers make about cost, cash, margin and resources.
Managers do not need to become accountants to make financially responsible decisions, but they do need to understand what the numbers are saying—and what they leave unanswered. Designed for people with budget or performance responsibility who find financial reports remote from day-to-day operational choices. Participants learn to interpret core financial statements in plain English, investigate variances and ask commercially useful questions before accepting an explanation or committing resources. They practise tracing a team decision through revenue, cost, margin, cash and working-capital consequences, distinguishing accounting performance from cash movement along the way. The programme output is a management finance interpretation and challenge pack that records the issue, evidence, assumptions, questions, owner and next action. A monthly review and exception-escalation routine helps turn financial interpretation into an ongoing management discipline rather than a once-a-year exercise.
Evidence standard
Evidence and learning boundaries
Learning is evidenced through each participant’s interpretation of a management finance scenario, the questions they use to challenge it and the decision consequences recorded in their finance challenge pack. Attendance alone does not demonstrate workplace capability, and no financial or commercial outcome is guaranteed.
Learning outcomes
What participants will learn
Participants should be able to interpret the numbers, ask sharper questions and explain the financial consequence of a decision.
Interpret the purpose and relationships of core financial statements without relying on unexplained accounting terminology.
Separate profit, cash and working-capital effects when evaluating a team decision or reported performance movement.
Investigate budget and performance variances by asking for the operational drivers, evidence and assumptions behind the number.
Prepare a management finance interpretation and challenge pack with a clear issue, questions, owner and next action.
Use a monthly finance review and exception-escalation routine to follow material issues through to an accountable response.
Programme structure
Programme modules
Four stages translate core reports into variance investigation, commercial challenge and a repeatable monthly finance routine.
Read the financial story
Participants translate the structure and purpose of core financial statements into plain management language. They examine how reported revenue, costs, assets, liabilities and cash relate without treating any single figure as the whole story. The module builds a connected view of performance and equips participants to identify where a report needs explanation before it can support a decision.
Trace decisions through profit and cash
Using an operational choice as the starting point, participants follow its possible effects through cost, margin, cash and working capital. They explore why a profitable activity can still create cash pressure and why timing, stock, receivables or payment terms matter. The aim is to make financial consequences visible before a manager commits resources or accepts a forecast.
Challenge budgets and variances
Participants move beyond noting that a figure is above or below budget. They investigate volume, rate, mix, timing and one-off explanations, identify what evidence would confirm the driver and frame questions that finance and operational colleagues can answer. The exercise develops constructive challenge: neither accepting the report uncritically nor disputing it without evidence.
Build the monthly management routine
The final module converts interpretation into action. Participants assemble a management finance interpretation and challenge pack that states the issue, financial and operational evidence, assumptions, questions, accountable owner and next step. They then define a monthly review and exception-escalation routine so material variances, cash risks and unresolved explanations have a visible route to decision.
Audience
Who this is for
Designed for budget-holding and performance-responsible managers who work with finance colleagues but do not hold finance roles.
Non-finance managers who own a budget, cost centre, revenue target or operational performance measure.
Team leaders who receive monthly financial reports but need more confidence interpreting and challenging them.
Project, service or operational managers assessing the cash, margin and working-capital consequences of decisions.
Cross-functional colleagues who need a shared language for discussions with finance without training as accountants.
Fit check
Pause before booking when
People seeking a regulated accounting qualification, formal certification or examination preparation.
Experienced finance specialists looking for advanced technical accounting, tax, treasury or valuation training.
Organisations expecting the facilitator to complete their budgets, accounts or financial analysis as consultancy without manager participation.
Delivery and pricing
Choose the route that fits the cohort
Delivery is shaped around the cohort’s reporting responsibilities, financial vocabulary and realistic management decisions.
Delivery
Public Online
Scheduled virtual delivery combines financial interpretation, variance questioning and decision practice for individual attendees. The relevant listing provides the available date, joining method and materials before a participant commits.
Delivery
Private Online
A private online cohort may examine management examples reflecting its budget, reporting and operating responsibilities. Discovery defines suitable contextual adaptation, participant access and confidentiality limits.
Delivery
Private On-Site
Tutor-led learning can take place at your nominated workplace for a private group. The proposal records venue readiness, headcount, required materials, access arrangements and the approved use of organisational examples.
Delivery
Applied pack and review routine
Managers assemble a finance interpretation and challenge pack, then establish a monthly rhythm for reviewing exceptions. A later facilitated check occurs only when the purchased scope names that additional work.
£295 to £495
Public Online
Your published cohort place covers the live teaching and participant resources identified for the chosen scheduled session.
£2,400 to £3,200 / £4,000 to £5,500
Private Tutor-Led
Private fees reflect participant numbers, the reporting environment, delivery setting and examples approved during the scoping conversation.
£99 to £179
On-Demand
Self-directed access exists only when a listed offer specifies its learning materials, availability period and support arrangements.
Founder-led delivery
Tobi Akiode
Founder-led facilitation focused on plain-English financial interpretation, commercial questioning and accountable management decisions.
Tobi Akiode personally leads Finance for Non-Finance Managers, connecting finance, data, systems, change and capability-building experience to the decisions non-finance managers face. Financial statements, variance analysis and commercial questioning are taught in plain English and applied to the cohort’s operating context.
Tobi Akiode conducts the initial conversation, shapes the learning design and facilitates this finance programme. Your managers’ budget accountabilities, existing confidence and intended workplace uses inform the scope, so participants know who leads the engagement and what the agreed learning can reasonably cover.
Questions
What buyers usually ask before booking
Clarify prior knowledge, practical outputs, use of organisational figures, delivery scope and how dates or fees are agreed.
Do I need an accounting background to attend?
Accounting experience is not a prerequisite. This programme supports managers outside the finance function who carry budget or performance accountability. Statements, variances, cash flow, contribution margin and working-capital effects are translated into management decisions. Discovery checks baseline knowledge so examples, pace and technical depth suit the attending group.
What financial topics does the programme cover?
Participants interpret principal financial statements, distinguish cash from reported profit, examine margin and working-capital effects, and investigate budget variances. Each topic is linked to operational choices. Practice focuses on asking better evidence-led questions, assigning ownership and identifying a defensible next action. The exercises connect interpretation to action.
Will this train participants to prepare statutory accounts?
Statutory accounts preparation, taxation, audit work and regulated accountancy qualifications sit outside this programme. The learning helps operational leaders interpret and challenge information supplied to them, recognise decision consequences and collaborate more effectively with finance specialists without presenting themselves as accountants. Professional advice remains available through appropriately qualified specialists.
Can this finance programme run for a closed team?
Yes. Private virtual or workplace delivery can use examples aligned with your managers’ actual accountabilities, provided the material is appropriate for training. The proposal identifies the selected route, available date, venue or technology, participant number, accessibility provision, learning resources and approved contextualisation before commitment. These details prevent ambiguity during purchasing.
What practical output will participants develop?
Every participant builds a structured management finance challenge pack capturing a defined issue, key assumptions, supporting operational and financial evidence, implications, questions, owner and action. They also set a recurring review routine with escalation points, helping significant variances, liquidity concerns and unresolved explanations receive continuing attention after training.
Ready to choose a time?
Book a focused discovery call when a conversation is the right next step.
Use this when you want to talk through an event, workshop, service or training need and agree the practical next step. Bring the challenge, desired outcome, timing and any constraints worth considering.
Choose an Event / Workshop Discovery time
This booking captures the meeting time. Use the enquiry route instead if you need to send context, files or a detailed brief first.