The Balance Sheet Barrier
Finance For Non-Financial Managers

The light-hearted approach of this world-famous video helps take the fear out of financial documents and complex concepts, and although accounts might never become a manager's favorite topic, it does at least make them understandable. Using the device of contrasting the apparent worldliness of a well-educated company director and the business acumen of the streetwise owner of a small factory, we're shown how the whole process of business finance works.

Ask most managers and staff to explain a profit-and-loss statement or a balance sheet and their reactions will range from incomprehension to abject horror. Yet, if they had a basic understanding of how finance works, they would be in a better position to make the important decisions that affect the profitability of their organization.

Julian Carruthers (John Cleese), a high-level executive, asks his down-to-earth companion Rita Scroggs (Dawn French), who runs Scroggs Manufacturing, just what's what. Rita uses her business as the basis for lessons. She explains the lessons to Cleese in everyday language and uses graphics to emphasize key points.

In the Balance Sheet Barriers program, Rita demonstrates how a profit-and-loss statement is really just a historical view of the business. She goes on to show how the balance sheet is a snapshot of the business at any one time. And she reveals that the cash flow forecast looks at the future cash position of the company in terms of income and expenditure.

Although finance won't necessarily become anyone's favorite topic, the lessons in this video will make it more understandable. By the end of the video, key financial documents will hold no fear for any manager, at whatever level, or for trainee accounting staff and others who need to know the practical value of complex-sounding concepts.

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