Master Finance for Non-Finance

Description

Have you ever sat in a meeting where finance starts talking about EBITDA, working capital, IRR—and you nod along without fully following?
You’re not alone.

This course is designed for non-financial managers—people in Operations, Sales, IT, HR, Marketing, Supply Chain, Projects, etc. You make day-to-day decisions that impact your company’s financial performance. It’s only fair that you understand the basic principles of finance. And don’t worry—we are not trying to turn you into a finance analyst!

Instead, we focus on giving you the fundamentals you need to:

1. Understand what finance teams are saying
2. Ask the right questions to make better, financially informed decisions

To make it practical, the course follows a quasi-real-world case: VanCat, a growing catering business in Vancouver, run by two founders navigating everyday financial decisions—from managing cash to evaluating investments.

Throughout the course, we cover:

1. Why profit doesn’t equal cash, and how timing affects financial results
2. The difference between OPEX, COGS, and CAPEX—why it matters and what the matching principle is
3. How working capital and investments impact liquidity and profitability
4. What EBITDA really shows (and what it hides)
5. Why growing companies can still run out of cash
6. How debt changes the picture through interest, repayments, and covenants
7. How to evaluate investments using NPV and IRR—and what the heck a discount rate is
   
   

It’s a very short course (less than 30 minutes), and I hope you’ll find it useful!