The new Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017 was passed into law effective from 20 November 2017 and Regulations were issued on the 17 of November 2017. The presentation and panel discussion will cover the provisions of the Act, the regulations as well as proposed amendments to the Regulations. The panel will include the presenters and eminent personalities in the industry. 

• New accounts
• Capital and current transactions
• Import and export of foreign currency or Sri Lankan currency
• Holding of foreign exchange in possession
• Identification of a 'resident' for the purposes of the said Act
• Administrative and penal provisions


Speakers
Mr. Udeni P Alawattage
Director
Department Foreign Exchange

Mr. Suresh R I Perera
Principal - Tax and Regulatory
KPMG Sri Lanka

Moderator
Rifka Ziyard
Associate Director - Tax and Regulatory KPMG

Panelists
Mrs. Renuka Weerakoon
Executive Director Board of Investment

Ms. Gnei Shanaz Kamileen
Senior Assistant Director Department of Foreign Exchange

Ms. Pavithri Vithanage
Senior Assistant Director Legal and Compliance Department, CBSL

Ms. Manique Kiriella Bandara
Compliance Officer
National Development Bank PLC

Find out more and register

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
CPD and Events
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: mastercourses.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com 

Good working knowledge of MS Excel and its functions is a valuable skill for professionals. Our informative workshop will focus on MS Excel features which can be utilized to analyze Financial data.

Programme content
• Knowledge on using, sorting and filtering functions effectively
• What-if analysis and goal seek
• Pivot tables and consolidation
• Analysis tool pack and other MS Excel add-ons
• Introduction to Excel data model and databases
• Producing charts and graphs
• Power-up MS Excel with advanced formulas
• Using Financial functions
• Advanced IF functionality
• Performing IF functionality
• Sparklines
• Further Mathematical functions
• Outlining Data
• Scenarios
• Custom views
• Arrays
• Useful Data Functions
• Other Useful functions
• Auditing and Troubleshooting formulas
• Pivot tables
• Pivot charts
• Goal seek and solver

Speaker
Harsha Wijesooriya
Chief Executive Officer, Silverlinesoft Pvt Ltd

Find out more and register

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
CPD and Events
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: mastercourses.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com 

The tax and foreign exchange regime of Sri Lanka is undergoing a change with the introduction of the new Inland Revenue Act and the new Foreign Exchange Act. Directors must be cognizant in identifying opportunities and pitfalls inherent to the transition. 

This forum will provide guidance on how to manage the important role of a Director in the context of the changing tax and foreign exchange environment. 

Programme content
• Session 1: Tax on Capital Gains
• Session 2: Overview of New Foreign Exchange Rules
• Session 3: Ideas pertaining to corporate and personal investment structures to make avail of new opportunities stemming from the new Inland Revenue Act and Foreign Exchange Act.
• Session 4: Tax Governance for the Board of Directors and Audit Committees - Tax risk management measures.

Speaker
Suresh R I Perara
Principal - Tax & Regulatory

Find out more and register

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: mastercourses.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com 

This program is designed to help managers and executives to expand their strategic mindset, acquire the skills needed to gain stakeholder buy-in, and translate strategy into value-driven decisions by introducing relevant concepts, analytical tools, and their application to real-world problems in a variety of industries and contexts. 

Learning outcomes
• Contemporary Strategic Audit (Analysis) Tools and Conceptual Frameworks.
• Generating Disruptive, Breakthrough ideas for Business Growth.
• How to build and leverage strategic capabilities in building new business models.
• How to create a ‘Strategic lock in’ and routes to Sustainable Competitive Advantage?
• How to evaluate strategic options and improve competitive positioning.
• Gain insights on the Best Practices in Strategy Formulation and Implementation.
• Deliver a ‘Strategic Planning Roadmap’ for the Company or Business Units.
• Setting Dashboards, KPIs, Objectives to Measure and Evaluate strategies

Who should attend?
Senior Managers, Cross-Functional Managers, Executives and Team Leaders in Corporate Planning & Decision-making positions

Trainer
Lewie Diasz
• Joint Managing Director and founding partner of Strategy College of Business and Marketing
• Author Marketing & Business Strategy
• Director Imperial College  

Find out more and register

Limited seats available and kindly register by 5 December 2017

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: kishnika.weeresinghe@aicpa-cima.com 

Fraud is a dynamic, ever-evolving art form. In today’s world, with ever shifting geopolitical, economic and social trends, frameworks based on traditional mindsets and ideas can no longer be valid in combating fraudsters and their complex methods.

As ever, the world will remain turbulent, and fraud will always sneak its way into our workplaces and into our lives. Here, we focus on what and where we can: on how we look at fraud from inside our company, how we set in place the controls and checks to mitigate the risks that we will be exposed to, and how we can use fraud detection and prevention tools to the apex of their potential. 

An interactive workshop style session conducted by full time fraud investigators, with case studies based on real life events and incidents to illustrate key learning points and thrusting participants into scenarios to build hands on experience.

Course content
• Diving deep into the facets of fraud and why it happens
• Diagnosing the subtle and not-so-subtle red flags of fraud
• Understanding the need for and formulating Fraud Risk Assessments
• Establishing and understanding the Fraud Risk Management Framework
• Comprehending the necessities of a proper Anti-Fraud Policy
• Understanding the purpose of Whistleblowing procedures
• Recognizing the “why”s, “when”s and “how”s of reporting fraud to external parties.

Speaker
Averil Ludowyke
Partner - Assurance, Ernst & Young

Who will benefit
• Chief Risk Officers and risk related senior staff
• Members of Internal Audit
• Finance Managers and senior finance staff

What you can gain
• Learning and recognizing fraud risks and red flags
• Understanding the reason for establishing and maintaining anti-fraud procedures
• Learning to recognize and protect yourself from possible fraud in your workplace
• Understanding how and to whom to report discovered fraud

Find out more and register

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: kishnika.weeresinghe@aicpa-cima.com 

The National Budget for 2018 will be presented in the Parliament on 9 Nov 2017. 
CIMA Sri Lanka is organizing a seminar to analyse the impact of the budget proposal. 

Chief Guest & Keynote Speaker
Hon. Eran Wickramaratna, State Minister of Finance

Topics/Speakers
Overview of the 2018 budget and its tax implications to businesses
Suresh R I Perera
Principal, Tax & Regulatory – KPMG Sri Lanka

Business impact of the 2018 National Budget
Hasitha Premaratne
Chief Financial Officer, Brandix Lanka Ltd

Macro-economic impact to business
Dr. Anura Ekanayake
Economist / Former Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce

A panel discussion and a Q&A session will be followed by the presentations. 
S R Attygalle
Deputy Secretary to the Treasury

Nishani Ariyawansa
Chief Financial Controller, Standard Chartered Bank

Aravinda Perera
Managing Director, Royal Ceramics Lanka Plc

Moderator
Rifka Ziyard
Associate Director, Tax & Regulatory, KPMG

find out more and register   

Contact us today
Kishnika Weeresinghe
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 260
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: kishnika.weeresinghe@aicpa-cima.com 

Through this program, you will be given a thorough understanding of the basic principles of Lean, how it creates business value and drives profitability.  You would be able to develop a basic value stream map for a process and identify opportunities for improvement. This program will also discuss the typical misalignments between traditional accounting and the Lean approach, and introduce you to the concept of Lean Accounting. 

Course content
• Introduction to Lean
• Value and Value Stream Mapping
• Basic Lean tools and their application
• Lean Accounting 

Speaker
Lasantha Wijeweera
Director Manufacturing, Associated Motorways (Private) LTD

Who will benefit from the programme?
This course is designed for management accounting and finance professionals in middle and upper management responsible for productivity improvement.

What you can gain from the programme?
• A broad overview of Lean and its application in business
• Ability to apply basic Lean principles in business situations
• Skills of using common Lean techniques
• An understanding of Lean Accounting and how it helps to rationalize the business benefits of Lean

Find out more and register   

Contact us today
Gayani De Soyza 
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 218
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: mastercourse.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com 

This course is for professionals with a basic understanding of the program, who wants to learn how to make spreadsheets do more of the legwork for them. You will learn how to work with VBA and the coding language of Excel. Post learning how to use VBA, you will be capable of creating much more interactive and powerful spreadsheets. Through the course, you will be able to set up automations and macros, which make Excel handle some of the heavy lifting of data entry and allow users to tackle more projects in less time.

Course content
• Automate and customize data entry forms.
• Choose the right loop for each task.
• Master the cells and range objects in multiple scenarios.
• Create multiple variable styles to match your need.
• Customize your VBA Editor and understand all the toolbars and options.
• Debug and troubleshoot code.
• Record, modify or write macros from scratch.
• Make custom formulas / functions on the fly.
• Breeze through ‘if then’ statements and conquer all the logical operators.
• Batch out inter-active message boxes, input boxes and give users choices!
• Generate basic reports that can be printed.
• Add filters to report menus to narrow the records.
• Take control of forms, buttons, drop-down menus, check boxes and option buttons.
• Trigger code from a number of different methods - from clicking on a cell - to de-selecting a worksheet.
• Set up special commands when a workbook: Opens or closes, is selected, any cell or certain cells are selected, right before printing.
• Manipulate userforms for data entry, report generation, editing tables/databases - all within your control. Restrict the flow of data or make the userform(s) responsive, calculating and intuitive.
• Streamline your work and the work of others.
• Put Excel on autopilot.

Lecturer
Harsha Wijessorya, Chief Executive Officer, Silverlinesoft Pvt Ltd

Who will benefit
• This Excel course is for anyone who wants to learn Automation secrets in Excel VBA. It is for complete newbies and/or anyone looking for a refresher or reference tool, to pick and choose relevant lessons for their projects. No prior programming knowledge is needed.
• This course is probably not for you if you’re looking to learn super advanced report authoring, which will be covered in a future course specifically on this topic. We will, however, make sure you know how to make good solid reports from your data and various tricks to make them look good.

What you can gain
• Deep knowledge in Excel
• Automation
• Extending Excel’s usage

Sign up today as limited seats are available, therefore registrations will be taken on first come first served basis.

Find out more and register   

Contact us today
Tania Samarasinghe
T: +94 (0) 11 2503880 Ext 251
F: +94 (0) 11 2503881
E: mastercourse.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com 

This course on taxation will feature discussions on all amendments up to the Inland Revenue Amending Act No 9 of 2015 and the budget proposals for 2017.

Programme outline

• Income tax and amendments to date 
• VAT, NBT amendments 
• Double taxation 
• Tax incentives/BOI (SDP, HUB concept) under the Inland Revenue Act
• Land restrictions 
• Vehicle entitlement certificate fee 
• Mansion tax   
• Migrating tax 
• PAL 
• Super gain tax
• Casino industry levy
• Stamp duty and ESC
• Fundamental tax concepts (transfer pricing, thin capitalisation, tax on Islamic financing) 
• Application of RAMIS and the relevant procedure  

Find out more and register                   

We are pleased to present to you Speechcraft - our highly popular practical workshop which blends public speaking, communication and leadership skills.  Members from the CIMA Toastmasters Club will guide you through these workshops, as you learn to develop the necessary oratory skills which will enable you to become a better communicator and influencer.    

Find out more and register

Learn how to stand out and create your very own signature image at our highly inspiring personal branding workshop.

Find out more and register

This CPD event will shed light on SLFRS 15: Revenue from Contracts with Customers and SLFRS 16: Leases and their tax implications.  It is an opportunity for finance professionals to learn about the implications surrounding the application of new standards and tax implications due to the changes. 

Find out more and register

We understand that good working knowledge of MS Excel and its functions is a valuable skill for professionals.  Our informative workshop will focus on MS Excel features which can be utilized to analyse financial data.  

Find out more and register

Organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka

Now open for CIMA Members

Find out more and register

This highly practical workshop is aimed at professionals engaged in civil, ICT, architectural, Telco, banking and engineering projects.  Participants will have the opportunity to simulate a real project they are working on, to create project deliverables.

Main discussion topic will focus on the latest theories and best practices in project management, tools and techniques and case studies discussions will give you the skills to manage projects of any magnitude.  As a final value addition, the workshop also contains a practical session on MS Project to enable you to manage and track projects hands-on.

Find out more and register

Businesses today revolve round creating an impact among all stakeholders and eventually adding to shareholder value. The implications of finance could thus assist in this endeavour of value creation and overall business growth. However, not understanding the intricacies of finance could significantly affect the development process, at times rapidly seeing the downturn, or even worse unknowingly be that silent killer over the long term.

This CIMA Mastercourse will provide insights on interpreting and presenting financial data, impart the necessary knowledge to deal with the changing business environment, transform your understanding of finance and enable you to make better operational decisions.

Find out more and register

It is said that in the modern business world, “Companies don’t compete, supply chains compete.”  Over the years, supply chain management has evolved from being an auxiliary function to being a business critical function; and many companies owe their success to careful and far sighted management of their supply chains. Despite its momentous importance, most companies define their supply chains very narrowly, thereby losing out on efficiencies and market opportunities. 

Find out more and register

Corporate Tax Governance is an essential element of the role of a Director, whilst tax expense is the most significant expense in the income statement. Failure for due compliance attracts reputation risk for the company and exposure for Directors’ liability. 

This forum will provide guidance on how to manage this important role in the context of the complex tax system in Sri Lanka.

Find out more and register

Find out more and register

Today’s cyber-resilient organizations leverage exceptional resilience leadership, culture, networks and change readiness to create a sustainable advantage over other organizations, cyber criminals and other malicious actors.

This Mastercourse will discuss these issues in-depth and help you adapt these measures to create a cyber-resilient organization.

Find out more

Technology is one of the most transformational elements in an organization’s strategy as it seeks to extend its competitive advantage. Together, technology and innovation can fuel growth, creating thriving organizations with improved processes and better customer experiences.    

This CIMA Mastercourse is free for CIMA Members.

Find out more

On behalf of CIMA Sri Lanka, I am pleased to invite our distinguished members to serve on our individual sub committees which form part of the Sri Lanka Country Network Panel. 

The Sub Committees that have presently been identified are as follows:
1. Member Development
2. Member Engagement
3. Stakeholder Relationships
4. Student Development

Each Sub Committee can accommodate up to 9-10 members to achieve effectiveness, and the responses will be considered on the suitability to each committee on a first come, first served basis.

Sub Committee members are expected to attend a majority of the subcommittee meetings and to undertake any tasks which may be delegated to them by the Chair of the project team. Kindly note that failure to attend three sub committee meetings will result in the opportunity being given to another member.

To be considered for a Sub Committee please complete the application form and email it to colombo@aicpa-cima.com by 27 April 2018.

I look forward to your response and continued support for the successful implementation of CIMA Sri Lanka member activities.

Thank you.

Best wishes,
Mahesha Amarasuriya FCMA, CGMA
Chairperson
CIMA Sri Lanka Country Network Panel

This year's CXO Breakfast Forum will focus on bringing together dynamic business and thought leaders into a forward-thinking discussion around designing an organization of the future, in a business world where 'tomorrow' is already ' history'.

Book your tickets now as seats are limited! For further enquiries call us at 0112503880 ext. 260 or email kishnika.weeresinghe@aicpa-cima.com

Click here for more info.

To help you prepare for your CIMA membership application, we are organizing an informative workshop which will guide you through the CIMA membership process.  This session will give you the opportunity to clarify any doubts you may have regarding the application process.

31 December will be last date CIMA will be accepting applications under the existing PER method. We do hope that you make the best out of this opportunity. 

This workshop will also guide you for the Membership Assessments sessions to be held  on 10 & 11 November 2017 at CIMA Sri Lanka.

So reserve your seat for the workshop today via email membershipservices.srilanka@aicpa-cima.com and provide the following information.

1. Name
2. CIMA Contact ID
3. Designation
4. Company
5. Telephone
6. Mobile no.

More details on the workshop can be found here.

In celebration of 30 years of success on Six Sigma, Six Sigma Management Institute Asia (SSMI Asia) would like to present Sri Lanka's first ever Organisational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma Conference featuring the co-founder of Six Sigma Prof. Mikel J Harry.  The conference will also feature key industry pace-makers and technical experts who will be sharing their journey with Lean Six Sigma in various industry segments.  This includes former Ferrari and Maserati Quality Leader Dr. Fabrizio Majorana, former Vice President of Merrill Lynch Don Drury; and a list of CEOs and Directors carefully selected based on their prowess and contribution towards promoting the use of OE & Lean Six Sigma in the region.

Refer to website for full list of speakers and agenda: 

https://www.leansixsigmasrilanka.com/ 

Contact details for more information:

• Dumi +94 77 333 9300 
• Inoka +94 77 361 7667
• Jayantha +94 721 705 420

The Organisation of Professional Accountants of Sri Lanka (OPA) has organised its 30th Annual Conference on 'Strategic Imperatives for Economic Growth.'  Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, will be attending the event as the Chief Guest.

More details can be found here.