Strategic Planning, Control and Budgeting Course

Today, the human mind is often absorbed in so much data, that it has difficulty processing the multitude of facts and relationships simultaneously and sometimes forgets important elements. Thus, as plans become more and more intricate, they should be documented in writing and include qualitative narratives of goals, objectives, and means of accomplishing the objectives.

This course will allow the participant to explore and share with other participants new thoughts in the planning, control, and budgeting cycle, resulting in a renewed energy in returning to the workplace and implementing a more focused budgeting process, which communicates useful and timely information to management

At the end of the training, participants will:

• Acquire best practices in budgeting
• Understand the strategic role of cost concepts
• Explain the costs concepts to the use of cost information for management control
• Describe the role of budgets in the management process
• Discuss the importance of strategy and its role in the master budget
• Prepare a master budget and explain the interrelationships among its supporting schedule
• Understand zero-base, activity based, and kaizen approaches to budgeting
• Explain the essence of control systems
• Develop flexible budgets for evaluating short-term financial performance
• Identify different cost control measures
• Measure and evaluate performance

Day one

Building a Common Financial Language

• The key role of budgeting and cost control in contemporary organizations
• The 21st-century business imperative: delivering value-added (but to whom?)
• Financial vs. Managerial accounting (for decision making)
• Understand your processes: integrating financial and non-financial aspects
• The budgeting processes

Strategic Planning

• Key elements in strategic planning
•  Finance’ role in supporting strategic planning
•  Assessing financial impact of strategic choices
• Challenging the operational and people impact of strategic choices

Day Two

Budgeting

• The key features of budgeting
• Advantages and concerns with budgeting
• Accountability and centers of responsibility
• Zero-based budgeting
• Setting budget targets and goals
• Budget responsibility centers
• Categorizing and regrouping relevant information
• The key budgetary statements
• Budgeting Pitfalls
• Budgeting and cost control 

Types of Budgets

• Departmental budgets
• Cash budgets
• Capital and operating budgets
• Master budgets

Budgeting Methods

• Top-down and bottom-up budgeting
• Zero-based and activity based budgeting
• Multiple-scenario based and flexible budgeting 

Day 3

Rolling Forecasts Overview

•   Role of forecasts and the link to strategy
•   Comparing and contrasting budgets and forecasts
• Why have a rolling forecast?
• The rolling forecast process
• Creating a forecast for revenue and expenditure
• Rolling forecast as a catalyst for change
•  Identifying key business drivers

Forecasting Templates

• Actual template
• Variance reporting template
• Reporting template

Annual Budget and Forecasting Cycle

• Key drivers behind sales, costs and margins
• Scenario planning for uncertain futures
• Budget and forecasting timetable

Day Four

Cost Analysis

• Different costs for different purposes
• Fixed vs. Variable costs
• The Cost-Volume-Profit analysis model
• Contribution Margin analysis

Traditional vs. Advanced Techniques in Cost-Control

• Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability
• Indirect (OH) vs. Direct costs:
• Traditional Cost Allocations systems vs. Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
• Linking resources, activities, and management
• Variance analysis

Day Five

Financial Plan

• Appraisal techniques (net present value, internal rate of return, economic order quantity, simple payback)

Beyond the Budgets: Balanced scorecards and Six-sigma

• Broadening performance measurement systems
• Beyond budgeting: integrating financial and non-financial issues
• Introducing the Balanced Scorecard
• Introducing the Strategy maps
• Introducing Six-sigma