8605-407 Understanding Financial Management

Unit Overview

8605-407 Understanding Financial Management is a unit within the ILM Level 4 module that focuses on building the ability of the middle-level managers pursuing the course to achieve a level of awareness on managing financial resources within eh organisation. Middle-level managers are tasked with overseeing critical processes within the organisation that utilise financial resources that are assigned within the organisation. This makes it important for managers at this level to improve their ability to handle and ensure that finances are effectively handled to achieve the desired goals and objectives.

This unit helps to understand both the sources of the finance and the goals that financial resources are aimed at achieving. It also helps them to understand their obligation to ensure that the stakeholders are able to receive a return on their financial expectations hence fulfilling the obligation of the organisation to the stakeholders. The unit further builds an understanding of skills that can be used to manage financial information to make effective decisions in their various areas of responsibility.

Financial performance indicators can be used to monitor the performance of teams and the organisation in general hence managers are guided on using these performance indicators to improve their situational awareness and alignment with the set goals and objectives within the organisation. The main purpose and aim of this unit are to develop an understanding of finance within h context of the organisations, which facilitates the fulfilment of responsibilities for practising or potential middle managers. The unit is taught in 12 hours of guided learning and accounts for 3 credit values in the completion of the ILM Level 4 module.

Suitability of the Unit

Managers need to ensure that they understand the process of using financial resources effectively to achieve the desired organisational goals and objectives. 8605-407 Understanding Financial Management is a unit that helps the manager to build this understanding hence making the unit highly suitable for managers or employees with the aim of becoming managers in future. The unit is specifically designed to meet the learning needs of middle-level managers including departmental hands, line managers or regional managers within the organisation.

These are individuals tasked with achieving specific goals and objectives within the organisation to ensure that the organisation is able to give a return on capital to the investors. The unit is, however not limited to middle managers as it can also provide important concepts for the top management within the organisations to learn, including the ability to effectively monitor financial sources and ensure that processes such s budgetary control and cash flow are effectively managed within the organisation.

The employees and junior managers can also pursue the course to prepare them for leadership positions that they could be assigned and boost their financial ability. The unit is also highly suitable for external consultants who support the making of financial decisions within the organisation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learner should be able to:

• Show understanding of the sources of finance and funding for the organisation they are engaged with

• Analyse the different range of financial stakeholders in describing the expectations of each stakeholders on the organisations

• Understand the principles of cash flow forecasting and cash flow management and their importance within the organisation. Conduct an effective assessment of organisational performance by utilising financial measures

• Identify and explain the different financial performance indicators that can be used to monitor the achievement of objectives

• Explain the purpose of financial documents that are sued within the organisation

• Show mastery of the process of budget setting within the organisation and in their areas of responsibility

• Show understanding of the use of different budgetary techniques and their contribution to controlling costs in their own areas of operation.

Key Learning Areas

8605-407 Understanding Financial Management focuses on improving t eh understanding of the financial performance and obligations of the organisations. The practising or potential middle-level managers are, therefore, prepared to handle the financial resources to facilitate the accomplishment of the organisational goals and objectives that have been set for them. Some of the main learning areas within this unit include:

Financial Management in the Organisational Context

This area of learning, lays the basic principles of financial management for middle-level managers. It ensures that they understand the importance of financial information in making decisions within their areas of responsibility as well as introduces the main principles of management accounting.

The learners are introduced to both income and expenditure accounts and how this influences cash, profit, and cash flow forecasting and credit control. Within this area of learning, the learners are taken through the different financial contributors and stakeholders and their expectations that they should aim at facilitating.

Recording Financial Management Information

This area of learning provides importance to the process of effectively creating financial records hence ensuring that information that can boost the ability of managers to make effective decisions is documented. It helps to understand the various source documents in accounting within the organisation, such as invoices and the statements of account, such as balance sheets, and profit and loss accounts, that could be used to support the role of middle managers in making financial-related decisions within the organisations. Lastly, the area of learning helps to develop an understanding of the performance indicators within the organisation and their role in ensuring that the preset organisational goals and objectives are achieved.

Budget Management

This area of learning prepares the learners for development and ensures that the budget process is implemented effectively. The area of learning introduces the learners to both financial and non-financial budges and the methods that are used to prepare the budges. The learners are also introduced to budgetary techniques that help to control operations and approaches that can be used to calculate variances hence boost their ability to analyse, monitor and control costs. This area of learning also introduces new approaches to budget management, such as zero-based budgets.

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are put through the assessment process. They are required to complete a 3000-words written assessment providing responses to questions on the topic to ensure that the assessor can evaluate the accomplishment of the learning goals and objectives and attainment of the expected learning outcomes.