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An accounting for non-accountants course teaches managers and staff without a finance background to read, interpret and act on the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. With financial statements training, your people can defend a budget, question a variance and see what drives margin, instead of leaving the numbers to finance. BOTI runs this practical, jargon-free training for whole teams, and you can compare the options in BOTI’s finance training courses for non-financial managers.
This article covers what the training teaches, who it suits, how it is delivered, the certificate delegates receive, and how the spend fits your skills development and B-BBEE planning.
The business problem: good managers who cannot read the numbers
Most managers were promoted for what they know about their function, such as operations, sales, projects or people, not for accounting. So when the monthly management accounts arrive, a costly pattern plays out:
- Decisions get made blind: a discount, hire or purchase is approved without grasping its effect on margin, cash or the budget.
- Budget conversations go nowhere: people cannot defend their own numbers or explain a variance, so budgeting becomes a finance monologue.
- Profit and cash get confused: a team celebrates a profitable month while the bank balance shrinks, because nobody connected the income statement to the cash flow statement.
- Red flags are missed: rising debtor days, a thinning gross margin or a creeping cost line sit in plain sight, but no one outside finance recognises them.
- Finance becomes a bottleneck: every question routes back to one overloaded team, slowing decisions across the business.
Financial statements training closes that gap. It explains the three core reports, shows how they connect, and gives non-accountants a repeatable way to read a set of financials and ask the right questions.
Who this course is for
This is corporate training for South African organisations developing their own staff and teams. It suits:
- Department, operations and project managers who hold a budget but have no formal finance background.
- Sales and commercial teams who need to understand margin, pricing and the profit impact of the deals they close.
- Business owners and executives from a non-financial discipline who want to read their own management accounts.
- Team leads and supervisors moving into cost or budget responsibility for the first time.
- HR and L&D leads rolling out financial literacy across departments so the organisation speaks one numbers language.
No accounting background is assumed. The course starts from first principles and is pitched at the level of your delegates and the reports they receive.
What financial statements training covers
The programme is practical and based on worked examples. Delegates read realistic statements, calculate the ratios and interpret what they mean. A typical outline:
| Module | What your team learns |
|---|---|
| 1. Why the numbers matter | The difference between bookkeeping, accounting and financial management, and how finance underpins decisions. |
| 2. The income statement | Revenue, cost of sales, gross and operating profit and net profit — what each line says about performance. |
| 3. The balance sheet | Assets, liabilities and equity; what the business owns and owes, and what a healthy one looks like. |
| 4. The cash flow statement | Why profit is not cash, the three cash flow categories, and spotting a business starved of cash. |
| 5. How the statements connect | Following a transaction through all three reports so the financials read as one linked story. |
| 6. Ratio analysis | Interpreting profitability, liquidity, efficiency and gearing ratios to judge performance and risk. |
| 7. Budgets, variance and the right questions | Reading actual-versus-budget reports, explaining a variance, and reviewing any financials to spot red flags. |
For in-house bookings, the outline is tailored to your sector and your own management reports, so delegates practise on the financials they receive each month.
Want this scoped to your team and your reports? Phone 011 882 8853 or request a quote. You can also ask BOTI to help you build a one-page summary of the three core reports and the key ratios for your managers.
Why this training pays back
When your non-accountants can read the financials, decisions improve. Managers who understand cost, margin and cash make sound calls without routing everything through finance. They build and defend their own budgets. They catch a slipping margin or a cash squeeze while there is still time to act. And finance and operations stop talking past each other. The training raises the judgement of every manager who handles a budget.
Delivery formats
You choose the format that fits your teams:
- In-house / on-site at your premises, built around your own management accounts.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, for teams that prefer to train away from daily interruptions.
- Live online with a facilitator, for distributed teams, with worked examples analysed live and no travel.
In-house delivery is usually the most practical choice once you have a group of managers to train together, because the examples can use your own reports.
Certification
Financial statements training for non-accountants is a practical, facilitator-led programme. Delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance, and attendance is recorded so the training can go into your Annual Training Report (ATR). If you need an accredited route instead, look at BOTI’s accredited programmes. Tell us your reporting objectives when you book and we will recommend the right structure.
Funding: skills development budget and B-BBEE
Spend on financial statements training is staff development, so it fits inside your existing skills development planning. As general guidance only:
- Employers pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL) at 1% of the leviable amount (total remuneration). Employers whose leviable amount over the next 12 months will not exceed R500,000 are exempt.[1]
- Training for your staff is recorded in your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR). The SETA mandatory grant pays back 20% of the levies you paid, but only when the WSP/ATR is submitted by 30 April and your levy payments are up to date.[2]
- Under the amended generic B-BBEE Codes, the skills development target is 6% of the leviable amount, not 6% of payroll. That 6% is 3.5% on learning programmes for black people and 2.5% on bursaries for black students at higher education institutions, plus a separate 0.3% target for black employees with disabilities.[3] Sector codes may differ. Documented team training may count when it meets the Codes’ criteria.
- Your sector SETA may also run discretionary grants for prioritised skills. These are worth checking at annual planning.
Where skills development supports tender readiness, note that public procurement still runs under the PFMA, the MFMA, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) and the Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022. Under the 2022 Regulations, organs of state score “specific goals” set in their own procurement policies rather than a generic B-BBEE level. The Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024 never came into force. The Constitutional Court declared the whole Act invalid on 17 September 2026,[4] and Parliament may pass a new procurement law. This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm specifics with your SETA, SDF or verification professional.
Why BOTI
BOTI is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider and a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor. It offers 450 courses, and its clients include Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg. We run practical training for whole teams, focused on skills your people can use at work the next day.
Financial statements rarely sit alone. Many clients pair this programme with related finance and bookkeeping training:
- Finance courses: all of BOTI’s financial literacy and financial management training.
- Finance for non-financial managers: the broader companion course on running a budget and managing financial performance.
- Interpret Basic Financial Statements (Unit Standard 117156): a short course focused on reading basic financial statements.
- Finance for Non-Finance Managers: Reading the Numbers Fast: a 3-hour online masterclass for a quick start.
- Budgets and financial reports: building budgets and producing the reports your managers will read.
- Basic bookkeeping: where the numbers behind the statements come from.
- Sage Pastel bookkeeping fundamentals: the software skills to generate these reports.
- In-house and on-site training: group delivery built around your own reports.
Not sure where financial literacy fits in your wider plan? Our team can map a finance learning path to fit your structure.
Frequently asked questions
What is an accounting for non-accountants course?
It is training for managers and staff with no accounting background. It teaches them to read, interpret and act on the three core reports: the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. It also shows them how to use ratios and budget reports to judge performance and spot problems early. BOTI delivers it as practical corporate training based on worked examples, tailored to your own accounts.
Do delegates need an accounting or finance background?
No. The course is designed for non-accountants and starts from first principles. It explains the language of finance before working up to full statements and ratios, so managers from operations, sales, projects or general management can follow it comfortably.
Can financial statements training be delivered in-house and tailored to our business?
Yes. BOTI runs the training in-house at your premises, at its venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. In-house bookings are tailored to your sector and your own reports, so delegates practise on the financials they receive each month.
Is this financial statements course accredited?
No. It is a practical professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. Organisations that need an accredited route can ask BOTI about its QCTO occupational certificates and skills programmes.
Does the training count towards our skills development spend?
Training delivered to your staff can be recorded in your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report, which your SETA uses for the mandatory grant. It may also count as skills development spend on your B-BBEE scorecard if it meets the Codes’ criteria. Confirm the details with your SDF, SETA or verification professional.
Request a quote
Stop letting capable managers freeze when the financials land. Request a quote and a BOTI consultant will scope a financial statements programme around your team, reports, group size and delivery format.
The BOTI course for this topic is Finance for Non-Financial Managers Training, a 2-day programme for managers who need to read and use the numbers. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected]. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Sources
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- Codes of Good Practice on B-BBEE: Code Series 300, Statement 300 – Skills Development (Government Gazette 42496) – Department of Trade and Industry, 31 May 2019.
- Godongwana notes Constitutional Court judgment on Public Procurement Act – SAnews (South African Government News Agency), 18 September 2026.