Finance training for non-financial professionals: Brussels and Luxembourg
You run an SME or lead a team, and finance remains the business of your accountant or your CFO. As a result, you approve budgets, investments and prices without mastering the numbers behind them. Since 2006, Sagora has been training non-financial executives and managers to read, question and use their company's finances. Sessions take place in Brussels and Luxembourg, or in-company at your premises.
Who is this training for?
This training is designed for SME executives, managers and team or business unit leaders who make decisions with financial impact without a prior finance background. No prerequisites are required: the programme starts from the fundamentals and builds on concrete business situations.
What our participants have in common is not their job title but their situation: they commit company money without ever having been given the keys to discuss it on equal terms with a CFO, a banker or a board of directors.
SME executives who arbitrate investment and financing decisions on their own.
Managers and business unit leaders who need to build and defend a budget.
Sales, operations or HR profiles who deal with the finance department.
Buyers of businesses and board members who want to read annual accounts without an intermediary.
What you will be able to do
By the end of the training, you can read a balance sheet and an income statement without outside help, you distinguish accounting profit from actual cash, and you defend a budget with quantified assumptions rather than gut feeling.
Read a balance sheet and an income statement: structure, key items, orders of magnitude.
Distinguish profit from cash: understand why a profitable company can run out of liquidity.
Manage margin and working capital: identify where money is created and where it gets tied up.
Build and defend an annual budget: volume, price and cost assumptions.
Talk to your CFO, your banker or your board with the right vocabulary.
Trainers who are both professors and practitioners
Sagora programmes are taught by professors from the Solvay Brussels School (ULB) and corporate finance practitioners. This dual background guarantees rigorous content, illustrated with real-life situations rather than textbook examples.
Sagora has been training executives and managers since 2006. Participants rate our training 5/5 on Google. The teaching approach favours concrete cases: you work on real company accounts, not abstractions.
Programme, formats and next step
The reference programme for a non-financial audience is Finance for managers, Part A: financial diagnosis, planning and steering, i.e. 7 days split into three blocks (3+2+2). Dates and prices for open-enrolment sessions are published on the programme page; in-company formats are built on request.
If you are hesitating between programmes, our course finder recommends a path in three questions. And if the need concerns a whole team, an in-company session at your premises allows the case studies to be adapted to your sector.
No. The training is designed for non-financial profiles and starts from the fundamentals. No prior accounting knowledge is required: concepts are introduced progressively, from concrete business situations.
Where and in what format does the training take place?
In person, in central Brussels or in Luxembourg City for open-enrolment sessions. To train a whole team, Sagora organises in-company sessions at your premises, with case studies adapted to your sector.
Can my company benefit from training subsidies?
In Luxembourg, yes: Sagora is INFPC-accredited, so Luxembourg companies can benefit from public co-financing. In Belgium, accreditation is in progress: regional aid schemes will be available shortly.
How long does the training last?
The reference format is Part A of the Finance for managers programme: 7 days split into three blocks (3+2+2) spread over several weeks. For in-company sessions, the duration is adjusted to your objectives and your teams' availability.
In which language are the sessions taught?
Open-enrolment sessions are taught in French. For a specific in-company need, contact us: we will assess feasibility with you.
What is the price of the training?
Prices for open-enrolment sessions are published on the Finance for managers programme page. For an in-company session, the price depends on the format and the number of participants: it is communicated on request.
Move from spectator to actor in financial decisions
Browse the Finance for managers programme, or tell us about your need: we will point you to the most suitable format.