Certificate in Advanced Budgeting and Forecasting

Programme Overview

This course is the second level course in budgeting after Meirc's 'Effective Budgeting and Cost Control' course. It goes beyond the theory of budgeting as a concept to cover specific steps to make the budget a value-added process in the organization. By building user-friendly models and applying scenario analysis, management will spend less time gathering data and more time analyzing this data for decision making. Several Microsoft Excel tools are used throughout this course for practicality and to provide participants with the skills needed to apply in their organization immediately. Such tools include 'what-if' analysis and the 'solver', among many others.

The course also highlights some of the main forecasting models and the detailed evaluation of capital budgeting techniques, all of which are applied in Microsoft Excel and put into practice.

Programme Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Evaluate the budgeting process in their organizations and recommend improvements
Create budget templates and models for their departments or organizations
Apply several forecasting techniques to better manage uncertainties in budgeting
Evaluate capital budgeting decisions using several methods and recommend proper action
Utilize Microsoft Excel functions and tools in the budgeting process including breakeven analysis and optimization

Target Audience

Finance directors, managers, controllers, accountants, budget analysts, budget owners and professionals who wish to expand their budgeting knowledge.

Target Competencies

Budgeting
Building models in Microsoft Excel
Forecasting
Evaluating proposals
Applying Microsoft Excel functions and tools
Assessing budgeting process

Programme Outline

Budgeting and planning

Strategy development framework
The three horizons of growth model
Strategic budgeting and resource allocation

Growth-share matrix
Nine-box matrix

Budgets and the key financial statements

Budget cycle, process and approaches

The budget cycle
Characteristics of successful budgeting
Making the budget a value-adding activity
Top ten problems with budgeting
Choosing the proper budgeting approach:

Incremental budgeting
Zero-based budgeting
Flexible budgeting
Kaizen budgeting
Activity based budgeting
Rolling (continuous) budgets and forecasts

The master budget and its components
Operating and capital budgets
Best practices in budgeting
Creating a user friendly budget template

Forecasting techniques

Forecasting models
Qualitative and quantitative methods
Steps in developing forecasting models
Time series and trend analysis
Data conditioning techniques
Exponential smoothing and moving averages
Simple and multiple regression analysis

Modeling projected financial statements

Micro and macro factors
Forecasting sales

Estimating market demand
Estimating company demand
Developing sales forecast

Forecasting cost of sales
Forecasting operating expenses
Forecasting key assets and liabilities accounts
Modeling the income statement forecast
Modeling the balance sheet forecast

Advanced capital budgeting evaluation techniques

Business risk and cost of capital
Classifying investment projects
Cash flow estimation
Analyzing investment and operating cash flows
The time value of money concept
The required rate of return
Net Present Value (NPV)
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Multiple internal rates of return
Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR)
Profitability Index (PI)
Payback period and discounted payback period
Capital rationing
Comparing and evaluating techniques
Sensitivity and risk analysis

Breakeven analysis and optimization techniques

Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis
Using CVP to reach a target income
Single product and multiple products breakeven analysis
Working with budget constraints
Building optimization models

The course also highlights some of the main forecasting models and the detailed evaluation of capital budgeting techniques, all of which are applied in Microsoft Excel and put into practice.

Programme Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Evaluate the budgeting process in their organizations and recommend improvements
Create budget templates and models for their departments or organizations
Apply several forecasting techniques to better manage uncertainties in budgeting
Evaluate capital budgeting decisions using several methods and recommend proper action
Utilize Microsoft Excel functions and tools in the budgeting process including breakeven analysis and optimization

Target Audience

Finance directors, managers, controllers, accountants, budget analysts, budget owners and professionals who wish to expand their budgeting knowledge.

Target Competencies

Budgeting
Building models in Microsoft Excel
Forecasting
Evaluating proposals
Applying Microsoft Excel functions and tools
Assessing budgeting process

Programme Outline

Budgeting and planning

Strategy development framework
The three horizons of growth model
Strategic budgeting and resource allocation

Growth-share matrix
Nine-box matrix

Budgets and the key financial statements

Budget cycle, process and approaches

The budget cycle
Characteristics of successful budgeting
Making the budget a value-adding activity
Top ten problems with budgeting
Choosing the proper budgeting approach:

Incremental budgeting
Zero-based budgeting
Flexible budgeting
Kaizen budgeting
Activity based budgeting
Rolling (continuous) budgets and forecasts

The master budget and its components
Operating and capital budgets
Best practices in budgeting
Creating a user friendly budget template

Forecasting techniques

Forecasting models
Qualitative and quantitative methods
Steps in developing forecasting models
Time series and trend analysis
Data conditioning techniques
Exponential smoothing and moving averages
Simple and multiple regression analysis

Modeling projected financial statements

Micro and macro factors
Forecasting sales

Estimating market demand
Estimating company demand
Developing sales forecast

Forecasting cost of sales
Forecasting operating expenses
Forecasting key assets and liabilities accounts
Modeling the income statement forecast
Modeling the balance sheet forecast

Advanced capital budgeting evaluation techniques

Business risk and cost of capital
Classifying investment projects
Cash flow estimation
Analyzing investment and operating cash flows
The time value of money concept
The required rate of return
Net Present Value (NPV)
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Multiple internal rates of return
Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR)
Profitability Index (PI)
Payback period and discounted payback period
Capital rationing
Comparing and evaluating techniques
Sensitivity and risk analysis

Breakeven analysis and optimization techniques

Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis
Using CVP to reach a target income
Single product and multiple products breakeven analysis
Working with budget constraints
Building optimization models

Budgeting and planning

Strategy development framework
The three horizons of growth model
Strategic budgeting and resource allocation

Growth-share matrix
Nine-box matrix

Budgets and the key financial statements

Budget cycle, process and approaches

The budget cycle
Characteristics of successful budgeting
Making the budget a value-adding activity
Top ten problems with budgeting
Choosing the proper budgeting approach:

Incremental budgeting
Zero-based budgeting
Flexible budgeting
Kaizen budgeting
Activity based budgeting
Rolling (continuous) budgets and forecasts

The master budget and its components
Operating and capital budgets
Best practices in budgeting
Creating a user friendly budget template

Forecasting techniques

Forecasting models
Qualitative and quantitative methods
Steps in developing forecasting models
Time series and trend analysis
Data conditioning techniques
Exponential smoothing and moving averages
Simple and multiple regression analysis

Modeling projected financial statements

Micro and macro factors
Forecasting sales

Estimating market demand
Estimating company demand
Developing sales forecast

Forecasting cost of sales
Forecasting operating expenses
Forecasting key assets and liabilities accounts
Modeling the income statement forecast
Modeling the balance sheet forecast

Advanced capital budgeting evaluation techniques

Business risk and cost of capital
Classifying investment projects
Cash flow estimation
Analyzing investment and operating cash flows
The time value of money concept
The required rate of return
Net Present Value (NPV)
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
Multiple internal rates of return
Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR)
Profitability Index (PI)
Payback period and discounted payback period
Capital rationing
Comparing and evaluating techniques
Sensitivity and risk analysis

Breakeven analysis and optimization techniques

Cost Volume Profit (CVP) analysis
Using CVP to reach a target income
Single product and multiple products breakeven analysis
Working with budget constraints
Building optimization models

Total Fee

£1390

Programme Details

Code

TR-1026

Duration

5 Days

Delivery

Classroom - Virtual