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Accessibility statement
An image to illustrate Evaluating financial performance short course
This CPD course will help you analyse published financial information in a meaningful way. It deals with performance measures that can be calculated from information in published, audited financial statements of a business or public sector organisation. You'll also learn about the measures of profitability, efficiency, financial sustainability and financial results.
Many people may be interested in evaluating the financial performance of an organisation. The most obvious people are the owners and people who work in an organisation, and in particular its managers. Evaluating financial performance is a way of understanding how effectively and efficiently the organisation is working. Other interested groups may include suppliers, financiers, customers, employee representatives and professional financial analysts; they may wish to know how well an organisation is working, but perhaps for different reasons. Some may be interested in profits and returns, while others may be interested in efficiency, sustainability or results. All of these perspectives will be covered in this course.
Most businesses and public sector organisations have to publish audited financial statements every year. These financial statements include an income statement and a balance sheet and these two statements provide the raw material for many financial performance measures to be calculated. These measures are the subject of this course. The course will help you to analyse published financial information in a meaningful way.
This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course comprises four units:
Unit 1: Measuring profitability
This unit covers the covers the various ways in which profit may be evaluated, their benefits and limitations.
Unit 2: Measuring efficiency
This unit looks at the way assets and resources are managed in an organisation.
Unit 3: Measuring financial sustainability
In this unit you will learn how a business ensures it will be able to continue to operate for the foreseeable future, by understanding its liquidity and exposure to risk through gearing.
Unit 4: Measuring financial results
This unit goes beyond whether the investors or owners in a business achieve a profit to look at other measures of overall return.
The course is focused mainly on private sector businesses, and the examples and exercises within it are about business. However, many of the ratios and other measures identified in this course can be calculated and evaluated in a meaningful way for government and public sector organisations. However, some of them, such as profit measures and investor returns, do not translate to the public sector.
By studying this CPD course, you will be able to:
This course was designed to be independently studied with no tutor support. StudentHome is a dedicated website that provides general study support and there is a computing helpdesk.
There an end-of-course quiz to test your knowledge and understanding. Once completed and successfully passed you will receive a digital badge and a course completion certificate which you can download as a record of your learning.
The course will require around 10 hours to complete.
You can begin at any time during the life of the course and study at your own pace. The course will be open to you for a time period of between 6 and 18 months, depending on your course registration date, and you will be advised of the specific time limitations upon enrolment.
All learning materials, exercises, study support and end of course quiz are delivered entirely online.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
There are no formal academic requirements.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact us.
The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet you are advised to contact us about support which can be given to meet your needs.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying BGXS007 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
StartEngland fee
At anytime before 31/07/2026£150
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
If this course is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees. Your sponsor just needs to complete a simple form to confirm how much they will be paying and we will invoice them.
The fee information provided here is valid for short courses starting in the 2026/27 academic year. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
You can start this course anytime.
You can start this course anytime.
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