Financial Analysis for Technical Professionals, Managers, and Planners New

Technical professionals need to understand the financial aspects of their work to successfully develop and plan their projects, products and services.  This course will provide them with the analytical skills needed for estimating initial and lifetime costs and making sound capital investment decisions. No prior financial experience or knowledge is required.

Topics include interpretation of common financial statements, allocation of overhead costs, life cycle costing, net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR), capital project evaluation and project budgeting.  Course concepts will be reinforced through application to life-like case studies.

The course will be delivered via live Zoom sessions (weekly, 2-hours) over 7 weeks, with 2 hours total of reading / preparation outside the live sessions, for a total of 16 professional development hours.

• Technical professionals
• Managers
• Planners
• Engineers
• Business owners
• Project and program leaders 
• Design and operations professionals

This course is part of the Technical Leadership Certificate. The course may be taken individually as well.

Session 1: Interpreting common financial statements

2 hours, live Zoom session

• Income statement
• Balance sheet
• Key financial ratios

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to calculate key financial ratios and interpret common financial statements.

Significance: Knowledge of these foundational concepts is key to performing due diligence in, for example, selection of suppliers, contractors and business partners.

Session 2:  Analyzing capital investment opportunities

2 hours, live Zoom session

• Time value of money / Discounted cash flow
• Discount Rate / Hurdle Rate / Minimum acceptable rate of return (MARR)
• Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)
• Capital expenditures (CapEx)
• Payback
• Net present value (NPV) and Internal rate of return (IRR)
• Depreciation considerations
• Other non-financial considerations

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to use commonly used methods for analyzing / making capital expenditure decisions.

Significance: This analysis is a key input for evaluating and approving capital projects.

Session 3: Case study

1 hour advance reading / preparation of case study before the live Zoom session
2 hours, live Zoom session

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to evaluate capital expenditure opportunities.

Significance: Working through a case study is a proven method to build and reinforce practical skills.

Sessions 4 and 5: Estimating costs

2 hours each, live Zoom session

• Fixed, Variable and Absorption cost
• Prime cost, Standard cost, Activity-based cost
• Cost-plus pricing
• Contribution margins
• Sensitivity analysis

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to estimate different types of costs relevant in a technical context.

Significance:  This is critical input for planning and budgeting for projects, products and services.

Session 6: Life cycle costing

2 hours, live Zoom session

• Life cycle costing
• LCCA – Life Cycle Cost Analysis
• Federal project requirements

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to estimate life cycle cost of a project.

Significance: LCCA provides a full cost view of projects.  It is required for many types of federal projects.

Session 7: Case study

1 hour advance reading / preparation of case study before the live Zoom session
2 hours, live Zoom session

Learning Objective: Attendees will be able to analyze life cycle costs.

Significance: Working through a case study is a proven method to build and reinforce practical skills.

"I liked all the real-life examples provided—to better understand my staff meetings, and I'll be able to justify projects."
—Juan, Director of Engineering, Olsun Electrics, Richmond, Illinois; June 2019

"Case studies and worksheets were great for information retention and reinforcing content."
—Kent, Project Engineer, Tri-State G&T, Westminster, Colorado; November 2018

"As I move into a PM role, I will be required to know more of this. Now I have an advantage going in."
—Adinda, Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., Hutchinson, Minnesota; October 2019

"I learned a lot of valuable information and have a much better overall picture of the finance/accounting of a company."
—Kyle, Engineering Supervisor, Heartland Business Systems, West Des Moines, Iowa; November 2018

"Great teacher, kept my focus and attention. Very impressed at how he researched our companies in advance."
—Michael, Civil Engineer, Edge Consulting Engineers, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin; June 2018

"Very good introductory course into finance. It touched on many things we used."
—Drew, Maintenance Engineering Manager, Gelita, USA, Sergeant Bluff, Iowa; October 2017

"Gave me a good overview of the materials for decision making—the instructor, slides, and spreadsheets provided were great."
—Craig, Kunkel Engineering Group, Naples, Florida; October 2019

"The course information was helpful in removing the mystery or the terminology and methodology of finance and accounting."
—Geoff, Public Works Director, Village of Howard, Green Bay, Wisconsin; May 2017

Raj Kamal

Raj Kamal is a lecturer in the College of Engineering at UW-Madison, and the owner of Credens LLC, a management consulting firm based in the Madison, Wisconsin area.

He has 25+ years of industry and blue-chip consulting experience with both Fortune 500 and smaller organizations in manufacturing and distribution; financial services and insurance; and government and higher education. Raj also brings extensive expertise in program management; quantitative modeling; and statistical analyses.

He holds a Master of Science in Management from Purdue University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, India, and a BA (with honors) in Economics from Delhi University, India.

In the Master of Engineering MEM program, Raj teaches EPD 611 – Engineering Economics and Management. Outside EPD, he also teaches operations management, statistics, strategy, information technology, and quality in the MBA program at Edgewood College, and has previously taught at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Business.