Pooling Academy’s finance courses help learners understand their pool’s financial practices and decisions. This bundle of three courses is most appropriate for finance professionals newer to pooling, other staff who could benefit from knowing the basics of pool financial practices, and governing body members to better understand the pool’s financial reporting and budgeting. The courses include lessons in financial reporting standards and practices, effective budgeting techniques, influences to a pool’s annual operating budget, and internal controls. Through insights from pool finance experts and interactive real-world pooling scenarios, learners walk away with a better practical understanding of pool financials that they can put into practice right away.
Financial Reporting Practices
Every pool has processes and practices to ensure adequate and transparent financial reporting, whether determined solely by its own financial policies and governing body, or required by a regulation. At the end of a fiscal year, a pool will have its financial statements independently audited, with a corresponding report. Annual audited financial statements are an important foundation of pool financial reporting practices. In this course, we overview variations in pool financial reporting, describe how pools provide important financial reporting through their annual audited financial statements, and offer additional context helpful to understand pool financial reporting practices.
Internal Controls and Data Management
Internal controls are the mechanisms, policies and procedures used to ensure financial and accounting information integrity. Internal controls aid a pool in promoting transparency, accountability and fraud prevention. In this course, learners will explore the reasons why internal controls are vital to pooling, including important considerations for capturing and managing financial data.
Operating Budgets
Every pool must develop an accurate budget that adequately funds its operations and supports rate stability. This course overviews the types of budgets that may exist in a pool, including program, general administration, and capital asset budgets. It also describes common revenue sources and expenses within pooling, as well as other influences that may impact a pool’s annual operating budget.