AEES Executive Certificate in Finance for executives

The capabilities the assessment attests if you pass.

• Decide from an account
• Separate profit and cash
• Judge a financial risk
• Decide a debt or an investment without telling yourself a story
• Spot a gap that requires a judgement this week
• Ask a financier the one question

This is the European Commission’s classification of skills, competences, qualifications and occupations. This certificate is linked to it through the skills below. Each link opens the official record.

• manage budgets http://data.europa.eu/esco/skill/21c5790c-0930-4d74-b3b0-84caf5af12ea
• investment analysis http://data.europa.eu/esco/skill/bf12b461-1c53-4d81-a395-8ba77f7483c4
• risk management http://data.europa.eu/esco/skill/6eff134b-e34f-4d6e-a6e8-5e47cf2228d0

Scientific readings related to this certificate.

• Financial Risk Management and Explainable, Trustworthy, Responsible AI 2022 · Finance, risk and ESG
• Machine Learning for Financial Risk Management: A Survey 2020 · Finance, risk and ESG

1. AEES Executive Certificate in Finance for Executives, Module 1: Account Executives see results every month and quarter. A line shows profit up or down, sometimes a headline mentions EBITDA, and a narrative explains a change in performance. This module teaches you to read that account of results with precision. You will separate what truly reflects operating performance from what only reflects timing, accounting policy, or one-off items. The key principle is accrual accounting. Revenues and expenses are recorded when earned or incurred, not when cash moves. It is a better measure of performance over a period, but it can mislead if you equate it with cash. You will learn where to look for the differences, how to make small adjustments that clarify the story, and how to turn an account into a decision.
2. Module 2 - Balance sheet The balance sheet is a snapshot of a business at a point in time. It shows resources controlled by the company, the claims against those resources, and the residual interest of owners. As an executive, you do not need to become a preparer of accounts. You do need to identify what matters: which assets really turn into cash, which liabilities crystallize soon, and which parts of equity carry pressure or room to maneuver. This module strips the balance sheet to decisions. We start with structure and language, then anchor key lenses: liquidity, solvency, working capital, net debt, and capital employed. You will learn to ask one focused question for each section of the balance sheet, to separate healthy structure from hidden fragility, and to connect the static picture to imminent actions such as renewing a facility, renegotiating a covenant, or tightening credit control.
3. Module 3, Cash: Follow real money, not the accounting intention Profit is a story the accounts tell. Cash is the fact the bank confirms. This module trains you to run decisions on the bankable fact. You will link daily operations to liquidity, separate cash from profit with discipline, and install a practical routine for visibility and control. You will focus on what you can measure today: balances, receipts, disbursements, and binding obligations. You will learn how working capital really behaves across a quarter, why timing beats averages, and which cash signals matter to lenders and boards. You will practice a 13-week cash forecast to manage seasonality, payroll, tax, and debt service without surprises.
4. Module 4: Leverage Leverage is simple in idea and demanding in practice. You use other people’s money to accelerate a result. If the return on what you do with that money exceeds its cost with enough certainty, equity gains. If not, equity pays. This module equips you to take that decision in a way that fits a real business week. You will work from a one-page view that connects cash generation, obligations, covenants, and risk into a go, adjust, or stop decision. As an executive, you do not need banker jargon or a complex textbook model. You need a clear capacity view: how much debt service your firm can carry, how much headroom you keep under the tightest condition, and how the downside looks before it happens. You also need a clean split between the business case for an investment and its financing, so you do not blend a growth story into a debt story.
5. Module 5: Signal Executives do not have the luxury of endless analysis. You need to make timely calls when numbers deviate from plan or when a pattern starts to look different. This module trains your eye to detect a financial signal: a gap in performance or risk that is material enough to demand a judgement now, not next quarter. You will learn to separate noise from what truly matters for liquidity, solvency, and momentum. A signal is rarely a single number. It is the conjunction of a deviation, a trend, and a consequence if you wait. It can be a small variance that persists, a sudden change in customer behavior, a narrowing covenant headroom, or an outlier in the cash cycle. Your goal is not to explain everything. Your goal is to decide whether to probe, act, or hold, and to record that judgement so you can learn from it next week.
6. Module 6/6, The One Question that Unlocks Financial Clarity Executives make decisions before all the facts are perfect. Finance can help, but only if you ask for what matters. The most efficient way is to ask one precise question that reveals cash, timing, risk and value in one view. This module gives you that question, shows you how to use it, and equips you to keep the conversation practical and short. You already learned how to read an account, separate profit from cash, judge risk, decide debt or investment, and read signals. Now you will close the loop: you will convert a stack of slides into a one-page answer you can act on this week. The method works for capex, pricing, hiring, M&A, software builds, and financing moves.