Integrating Budgeting, Forecasting & Business Planning

Course overview

Course outline

1. 1Day 1: Budgets and Strategy in Today’s International Environment

   • Organizational planning framework
   • The product / information / decision support cycle
   • Strategic, tactical and operational forecasts
   • The strategic approach to business planning
   • Various strategic and tactical approaches to business planning
   • The international business environment
2. 2Day 2: The Business Plan and Budget Development

   • Developing the business plan
   • Identification of key value drivers
   • Achieving objectives
   • Zero base budgeting
   • Activity based budgeting
   • Developing the cash budget
3. 3Day 3: Analysing the Applicability of Historical Data Using Excel®

   • Problems of forecasting
   • Using historical data to help predict the future
   • Forecasting techniques and applications
   • Development of time series models
   • Using regression analysis as a predictor and estimator
   • Mastering exponential smoothing as a data analysis tool
4. 4Day 4: Using Activity-Based Budgeting and Cost Analysis Techniques

   • Cost behaviour and breakeven analysis
   • Activity based costing
   • Budgeting for processes rather than departments
   • Defining key cost drivers
   • Defining key activities
   • Developing the activity-based budget
5. 5Day 5: Capital Budgeting and Project Appraisal

   • Identify the various types of capital projects
   • Discuss the capital project evaluation process
   • The impact time has on the value of money
   • Using WACC and ROIC as benchmarks
   • Development of the hurdle rate for capital projects
   • Evaluate capital projects using NPV, IRR, ARR and payback models