Business is a cutthroat environment. Even with an excellent idea or brilliant marketing plan, there is no guarantee of success. Besides having innovative ideas and the willpower to succeed, you need sound management and business skills and you need to know how to apply best business practices, whether you are an entrepreneur or professional manager.
A business is fundamentally a cash-oriented process. This means that its ideas, image or products, no matter how remarkable, are still not as important as the ability to earn an income to stay afloat and have a reliable and accessible cash flow.
A manager must be able to keep track of all income, expenses, assets the business owns and the cash flow. Poor fiscal management and inadequate accounting practices produce weak or incorrect information, preventing management from making well informed decisions or adapting adequately to changes in the environment.
Basic Financial Management was written to answer the question: What does ANY manager or entrepreneur need to know to guarantee sound financial management?
This updated third edition includes:
· basic financial management and statistical analysis principles and skills, discussed in an understandable and logical way, so that you can easily apply them to your specific profession
· guidelines for managing the finances of any enterprise or institution, including governmental institutions and NPOs/NGOs
· relevant examples and exercises, which will give you the confidence to apply the principles and practices in real-life situations.
What you will find in this book:
• An overview of the basic concepts of finance and what financial management means
• A logical introduction to the use of the accounting double entry principle
• Explanations of accounting formulas and statements demonstrated using practical examples
• Exercises that clarify how everything fits together
• An investigation into the capital requirements of an enterprise and various ways of financing theserequirements
• Diagrams and graphs that illustrate the concept of financial break-even analysis
• Explanations of different types of business budgets
• How to manage credit and stock/inventory
• A detailed discussion on the increasingly important subject of business statistics
• Important concepts and definitions are highlighted
• Many practical examples and self-evaluation exercises.
Willie Conradie is Emeritus Professor of Business Management at the University of Johannesburg and is the founder, owner and CEO of two companies. Welma Fourie is currently Financial Manager at Fundi Capital (Pty) Ltd. She was formerly a Senior Lecturer at Technikon SA in the Accounting Department. Prof Rene Pellissier of Research and Innovation, Prof of Information Sciences PhD (Systems Engineering), MBA, MSc (Mathematical Statistics) René Pellissier is an informationologist with experience having worked across the globe at significant universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and across Africa. She is the recipient of numerous research awards and has authored textbooks and scientific publications on strategic information, technology and innovation. She is an expert on research design and implementation, specifically in the quantitative field. She has held numerous positions in Europe, the United States of America and in Africa, thus understanding the complexities of information science. Her specializations are the impact of information and technology on the future world of work due to 4IR.
