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Description

Managing an SME or Business Unit: Steering, Trade-Offs and Reporting

Running an SME or a business unit calls for reading your accounts as closely as your order book

  • 2 days — 14 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Intermediate
  • Up to 6 participants

An SME owner or business unit head is accountable for the bottom line without the tools of a management control function. Figures arrive late and in an accounting format that is hard to connect to day-to-day decisions. Variances are noticed after the fact and investment requests are poorly defended in front of management or shareholders.

These two days connect the financial statements to the levers you genuinely control. You will learn to build an activity dashboard, then analyse how margin is formed and prepare your pricing and investment trade-offs.

Learning objectives

  • Connect profit and loss line items to the operational decisions within your scope
  • Build a monthly dashboard suited to the size of the unit
  • Analyse how margin is formed and identify where value leaks
  • Prepare an activity and cash flow forecast for the financial year
  • Build the case for an investment request before your management

What makes this programme different

A dashboard built during the session from the participant's own line items
Trade-offs worked through on SME and operating unit situations
A margin analysis framework ready to use on return to the workplace

Programme

1Financial Reading of Your Scope

What the accounts reveal about the business

  • Structure of a unit's profit and loss statement and balance sheet
  • Intermediate performance measures and reading the margin
  • Working capital requirement and the operating cycle
  • Useful adjustments when the unit has no balance sheet of its own

2Costs and Margins

Knowing where the money is made

  • Fixed and variable costs within your scope
  • Calculating the break-even point and break-even volume
  • Margin by product and by customer
  • Impact of a pricing decision on the break-even balance

3Dashboard and Variance Tracking

Steering with a limited set of indicators

  • Selecting activity and results indicators
  • Building the budget and the rolling forecast
  • Variance analysis and the associated action plan
  • Review cadence and data reliability

4Investment Decisions and Cash Flow

Defending your trade-offs

  • Cash flow forecasting and pressure points
  • Criteria for appraising an investment project
  • Internal funding and bank financing
  • Quantified business case for management or shareholders

Who is it for

SME owners and business unit heads as well as site directors and managers accountable for a profit and loss statement.

Prerequisites

Some prior experience of reading your company's accounting documents.

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.