One of the most difficult challenges professionals face in making decisions is, probably, estimating and projecting future events. This difficulty is usually dealt with, unfortunately, by excessive reliance on professional judgement and educated guesses. Though judgement and experience play a significant role in building proper forecasting, there are certain tools and techniques that can help professionals in this daunting task. This course focuses on these tools and puts them into practice utilizing MS Excel.

Course Methodology

The course is a hands-on workshop that applies the forecasting techniques utilizing MS Excel using different exercises and case studies.

Course Objectives

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

• Apply different forecasting techniques that will help in making financial and business decisions
• Utilize Microsoft Excel to build forecasting models effectively
• Explain the different macro and micro assumptions affecting financial and business forecasts
• Build models for forecasting income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements and their components
• Differentiate between various forecasting models and approaches and assist senior management in understanding their impact

Target Audience

Financial controllers, analysts, finance and accounting managers, supervisors, and finance professionals who need to create, interpret, and maintain forecasts in their organizations.

Target Competencies

• Forecasting
• Time series analysis
• Regression analysis
• Modelling financial statements
• Applying Excel functions and tools

Note

This is a hands-on training course using laptops, participants are required to bring their own laptops with a fully functional version of Excel 2010/2013.

Course Outline

• Forecasting models
• Qualitative models
• Market research approach
• Delphi method technique
• Quantitative models
• The indicator approaches
• Causal models
• Econometric models
• Regression analysis: simple and multiple
• Correlation coefficient and coefficient of determination
• Time series methods
• Simple average
• Moving average
• Exponential smoothing
• Expected value
• Types of forecasting
• 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
• Modelling the income statement forecast
• Modelling the balance sheet forecast
• Building forecasting models
• The units, quantity, and activity levels
• The price and cost per unit of activity
• Pricing strategies
• Cost plus pricing
• Pricing: business objectives
• Pricing: return on investment
• Price skimming
• Variable cost pricing
• Breakeven pricing