Advanced Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting: The Complete Process

Budget planning and forecasting are two of the most important tasks which provides direction and financial objectives of an organization. This Advanced Budgeting , planning and Forecasting programme provides an overview of the essential tools and the skills to build world-class standards into your planning, budgeting, performance measurement & reporting system, looking at new and best practice techniques, explain how they complement the traditional financial planning tools, and introducing new concepts for measuring and reporting performance to enhance shareholder wealth creation or provide value for money for Stakeholders. Important elements of this program include:

• Making your budgeting process more efficient & effective
• Understanding how to motivate managers to -buy into- to the budget process in an honest and effective way
• Using case studies and illustrations from real companies to help delegates understand how to apply different planning, forecasting and analysis techniques

The important features of the Advanced Budgeting, planning and Forecasting training course are:

• Budgetary problems – uncertainty, lacking transparency, forecast accuracy, objectivity, game playing
• Binding the budget to strategy, business planning, and forecasting processes
• Simple statistical and non-statistical techniques to improve forecast accuracy
• Rolling forecasts, Driver based, Zero Based and activity-based budgeting
• Making budgets management friendly

By the Advanced Budgeting, Planning and Forecasting course, delegates will be able to understand:

• How to implement advanced planning and control techniques into your budgeting process
• Know how to integrate the budgeting process with the development of the company’s long-term strategic vision
• Know how to provide a decision support structure that provides timely and useful information to decision makers
• Successfully build integrated planning, budgeting and reporting process
• Know how to forecast costs and revenues with greater confidence
• Apply management tools to the budgeting process that contribute to strategic goals
• Effectively manage the budgeting process
• Identify key performance indicators for effective and focused decision making
• Develop ways to increase profitability and performance through streamlined planning and reporting

• All professionals responsible for budget preparation and management reporting
• All process owners who require a more in-depth understanding of integrated planning and budgeting techniques,
• Personnel wanting to understand more about Financial planning and cost analysis
• Anyone with direct planning and budgeting responsibility, as well as managers, budget holders, advisors, accountants and business consultants

This highly practical and results-oriented program is based on adult learning concept. The facilitator will give plenty of input and then help participants to make sense of the themes through discussion and practice. It incorporates short inspiring demonstrations, role play and much practice to enhance learning. There will be ample time for Q&A, discussions with -return to work- action planning. The course will reinforce key concepts within an inspiring and engaging learning environment.

Pre & Post course assessments will be used to measure the effectiveness of this training and measure the skill and ability of participants.

• Organizational Planning and Control Framework
• The Product / Information / Decision Support Cycle
• Strategic, Tactical, and Operational Forecasts
• The purpose of planning and budgeting in business
• Defining the strategic approach to business planning
• Building the strategic planning model using financial data
• Various strategic and tactical approaches to business planning
• Defining the Decision-Support model: Assumptions/Goals and Key Success Factors

• The budget and the functions of management
• Budget as a planning tool
• Budgets and the key financial statements
• The top-down versus bottom-up process

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

Types of Budgets

• Zero Base Budgeting
• Activity-based Budgeting
• Rolling Budgets
• Operational Unit Budgeting
• Programme budgeting
• Developing the Cash Budget

Using Activity-Based Budgeting

• Developing the ABB application model
• Budgeting for Processes rather than Departments
• Defining Key Cost Drivers
• Defining Key Activities
• Development of ABB Cost Standards
• Developing the Activity-Based Budge

• Identifying fixed, variable and semi-variable costs
• Application of Regression in the development of budgets
• Building the financial simulation model using articulated financial statements
• Building the financial simulation model using simulation
• Forecasting models
• Qualitative and quantitative methods
• Steps in developing forecasting models
• Data conditioning techniques
• Exponential smoothing and moving averages
• Simple and multiple regression analysis

• 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.