Introduction

All business decision-making involves analyzing situations containing varying degrees of risk. This program uncovers the essential skills required to understand the processes of budgeting and cost control for better decision-making. From understanding the importance of a well-defined budget process through to the importance of how costs behave so that realistic cost-cutting and budgeting plans can be produced.  In this program you will learn how to:

• Identify the principal factors required to produce a successful business case

• Develop budgeting and financial skills required for better decision-making

• Identify sources of financial and business data to support the budgeting process

• Learn new techniques and methodologies to simulate typical business scenarios

Objectives 

• Understand the importance of a well-defined budget process

• Learn costing and budgeting terminology used in business

• Master techniques for cost-benefit analysis

• Learn how to construct profit, cash, and balance sheet plans and budgets

• Learn how to evaluate variances from plan and identify corrective actions

• Understand discounted cash flow (DCF) techniques and their application to financial decision making

• Build and use budgets relevant to your organization

Target Audience

• Finance Managers and Financial Analysts
• Accountants and Senior Accountants
• Budgeting and Cost Control Professionals
• Cost Controllers and Cost Accountants
• Project Managers and Project Coordinators
• Operations Managers and Supervisors
• Department Heads and Team Leaders
• Business Planning and Strategy Professionals
• Commercial and Procurement Professionals
• Professionals involved in financial decision-making and performance management
• Professionals seeking to enhance budgeting, costing, and investment appraisal skills
• Newly appointed managers requiring stronger financial and budgeting knowledge

Outline

DAY 1 - The need for Financial Control in business

• Understanding accounting

• Management accounting versus financial accounting

• The relationship between business management and financial management

• How budgeting fits into the bigger picture

• How cost management  improves an organization’s financial position

• Key aspects of managing working capital

DAY 2 - Capital Budgeting and Investment Appraisal

• The time value of money

• Understanding Appraisal Techniques - Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Payback period

• Selecting an appraisal technique

• The use of Sensitivity analysis in evaluating projects

• Strategic  considerations in assessing capital projects

• Creating an effective Capital Budgeting framework

DAY 3 - Cost Analysis and Management

• Understanding cost structure and behaviour

• Costs as a relationship to outputs – cost/volume/price relationship

• The concept of contribution margin

• Break-even analysis for planning and control

• Cost allocation and apportionment

• Benefit-cost analysis

DAY 4 - Full Costing, Marginal Costing and Activity Based Costing

• Comparing full and marginal costing

• Direct and indirect costs in budgeting for decision making

• Role of costs in pricing strategies

• Activity-Based Costing (ABC)

• Managing cost control

DAY 5 - Budget Construction and Control

• Nature and purpose of budgets for planning and control

• Types of budgets and budgeting

• Creating Key Performance Indicators for financial and non financial performance

• Building a budget

• Budgetary control and variance analysis

• Budgeting for non-financial measures -introducing the Balanced Scorecard