Finance 101

Course description

Finance 101 is a self-paced, interactive online learning module that gives you the essential skills to understand and interpret financial statements from a governance perspective.

You’ll learn how to assess an organisation’s financial health by working through the three core financial statements - the Balance Sheet, Income Statement (Profit and Loss) and Cash Flow Statement - and explore how these connect to solvency, performance and strategic decision-making.

Whether you're new to finance or looking for a simple refresher, this practical module builds your financial confidence without the need for prior expertise or formal training. Work through real examples, apply your learning in context, and develop the skills to ask the right questions at the board table.

Who is this module for?

This course is designed for new and aspiring directors or executives, who want to build confidence in their financial understanding. It can be used as an introduction to financial statements or as a refresher, and can be used as preparation for Finance Essentials.

How you'll benefit

By completing Finance 101, you will learn how to:

• • Understand and interpret a Balance Sheet, Income Statement and Cash Flow Statement and their relationship to each other
  • Assess an organisation’s financial health, performance and liquidity
  • Apply the solvency test and identify early signs of financial risk
  • Understand how cost of capital and funding choices affect risk and value
  • Review and approve budgets and business cases with greater confidence
  • Ask the right questions to support sound, well-informed board decisions

Each section of the module includes a worked example, a practical activity and what to consider through a director’s lens.

Duration

Approximately three to four hours.
Access is available for six months after purchase.

Already taking this course?

If you purchased this course it can be accessed via  learn@iod. If you are unable to log in, click  forgot username or password, then to find your account enter your username (this is your email address) and click search to get a reset email sent to you.

Please contact our learning team by emailing governancedevelopment@iod.org.nz  or calling 0800 846 369 if you have any further questions.

Additional information

Pay by credit card when you register for the online module. We accept all major credit cards.

We will send you a username and password for the module to the email address you give when you register.

This module can be completed using Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari internet browsers on a desktop computer, tablet or other mobile smart devices. Internet Explorer is not supported.