When people talk about ‘profits’, do they mean the same as ‘earnings’ and what’s this ‘EBITDA’ thing? The truth is that they are all ways of describing the performance of an organisation. ‘Profit’ is a word that means the amount that is left from income after deducting expenses. But which expenses? That’s a good question…. Read more »
Posts By: admin
What’s NPV (Net Present Value) & DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) all about?
Often managers are asked to have an NPV (or DCF) calculation done on projects they are proposing. This NPV calculation will typically be performed by the Finance team. But what are they actually doing? If I asked you to give me £100 now and I told you that I would give you back £100 in… Read more »
The EBITDA multiple & Business Valuations
Many organisations promote EBITDA as a key way of valuing a business. The idea is that EBITDA (that’s Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation & Amortisation) measures the amount of cash that a business has generated during the year. While this is not quite accurate, it is a rough guide to the level of cash generated… Read more »
All change in UK Accounting rules: FRS 100, FRS 101 & FRS 102
It’s finally happened, FRS 102 is here! The new blueprint for UK accounting was actually finalised in March this year. So how will things look going forward? When will everything change? And which organisations will be affected? All key questions that are revealed below. What are the reporting requirements going forward? The Financial Reporting Council… Read more »
Here we go with the NHS Commissioning Board
On the 1st October the NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) came in to being. I suppose the key question is, ‘what does the board do?’ Well the board is an executive non-departmental body which basically means that it has been established by government but operates independently of them. There are two key parts to the… Read more »
EBITDA
A widely used and often misunderstood way of tracking a business’ performance is to look at its EBITDA. What is this? The acronym stands for Earnings Before Depreciation, Interest, Tax & Amortisation. But what is it actually telling us? Earnings is another word for ‘Profit’. So EBITDA is basically your profit for the period before… Read more »
New Finance for the Non Finance Manager on-line learning programmes
Have a look at our ‘On-line learning’ tab and check out our new Finance for the Non Finance Manager on line learning programmes. There’s loads of video content (over an hour on each programme) plus PowerPoint slide shows to download, Quizzes to test your understanding plus a Finance for the Non Finance Manager Case Study… Read more »
New on line Finance for the Non Finance Manager videos
Have a look at our new Finance for the non Finance Manager videos. There’s a series for UK managers, one for international managers and one specifically aimed at managers in the NHS. You’ll find them on our Business Videos page
Service Line Reporting in the NHS
NHS organisations are moving towards a system of financial reporting known as ‘Service Line Reporting’ (SLR) Service Line Reporting is the same idea that’s used in the private sector for tracking the profitability of individual products and services. In the same way that a telecoms company knows the different costs and profits of its Pay… Read more »
IFRS for SMEs
Currently under review by the ASB is a proposal that will revolutionise the way UK companies prepare their financial statements. If the plans get the go ahead, these are the accounting systems that UK companies will use to prepare their accounts from as early as 2012: IFRS for AIM & Quoted companies IFRS for other ‘publicly accountable entities’… Read more »