Course Introduction

What is a budget? How is it controlled? The Instructor’s own commercial career experiences and many other real-world business scenarios are shared throughout this stimulating Course to deal comprehensively with the questions you have always wanted to ask about budgeting and clarifies the jargon and methodology. Financial planning, budget setting, and budgetary control, are covered in plain language that is easy to understand.

A thorough training in the tools and techniques of successful budgeting and budgetary control is provided to ensure that organisational goals are met and to illustrate and reinforce the practical application of best practice. The Course is presented in a very hands-on way to suit individuals with varying levels of financial knowledge and experience, and includes presentations, worked examples and group discussion, promoting exchange of ideas to provide an enjoyable and interactive experience.

Objectives

By the end of this Course, participants will have learned how to:

• Develop budgets and financial plans using current best practice
• Use activity based budgeting (ABB) as a better alternative to traditional budgeting
• Set an operating budget, cash budget, capital budget, and prepare a master budget
• Use flexed budgets and variance analysis for budgetary control
• Use a balanced scorecard to link budgets with KPIs
• Integrate continuous performance improvement into the budget process

Who Should Attend?

Anyone, with a financial or non-financial background,  who needs or wishes to develop their understanding of  budget-setting and budgetary control processes best practice. In addition to financial analysts, controllers, and accountants active in the planning and budgeting processes, it will benefit departmental managers and business professionals who have strategic planning and budget responsibility in companies, corporations and governmental organisations.

Course Outline

• How your Organisation Controls its Budget – Types of Operating Budget
• Top Down, Bottom Up, Incremental, Zero-Based, and Activity Based Budgets (ABB)
• The Master Budget Process and the Cash Forecast Preparation
• Cost Analysis for Budgeting, Budgetary Control and Performance Measurement
• Financial Planning and Modelling using Excel
• The Human Side and the Behavioural Aspects of Budgeting
• Budgetary Control Systems and Responsibility Accounting
• Flexed Budgets and Variance Analysis
• Capital Project Budgeting using DCF Methods of NPV, IRR and PI
• Using the Balanced Scorecard to link Strategy, Budgets, and Performance Measurement