Law Firm Finances 1 – Planning and KPIs

Finding your way around

Date: Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Time: 9.00 registration, 9.30 – 11.00 seminar
Venue: BPP
CPD: 1.5 learning Hours
Fees: Members: £50 + vat; Non-members: £60 + vat
Speaker: Doug Robinson

Outcomes
As a result of attending you will:
• improve your ability to read and understand published accounting information
• recognise the key elements of a set of accounts
• appreciate how the information in a set of accounts can be manipulated
• appreciate the importance of developing your commercial awareness
• be encouraged to improve your knowledge of the economy, your clients’ businesses and financial reporting in a legal context

Content

1. Quiz – what do you already know?
The key components
2. Finding your way around
The format and key elements of the primary statements; profit and loss account (operating profit, EBITDA and earnings), balance sheets (capital employed, debt and equity funds) plus cash flows and the statement of other gains and losses
Secondary information – the key notes to the accounts, what devil can you find in the detail?
3. Key issues with reporting profits
Revenue recognition – when should a sale be reported?
Unusual, exceptional and extraordinary items – what can and should be excluded from operating profit?
4. Key issues with balance sheet items
Reporting assets and liabilities
Liquidity, solvency and working capital
Differentiating debt from equity funding
Providing for uncertain liabilities

Delegates
Lawyers who want to improve their ability to read financial information