Introduction

This seminar will help participants to understand the jargon and methodology around financial planning, budgeting to enable their organisation to move forward.

Who Should Attend?

Non-finance professionals, small to medium enterprise personnel, budget holders with some experience and cost centre personnel who either are involved in or need to gain an understanding of planning, budgeting and controlling at a corporate or business level. In fact, anyone who is involved in controlling budgets would find this seminar extremely beneficial.

Aims - By the end of this seminar you will be able to:

• Plan and forecast at a business level.
• Distinguish between different cost systems.
• Evaluate cash and profits for corporate strategies.
• Develop an understanding of the corporate budgeting process.
• Read, understand and interpret master budgets.
• Work more productively with colleagues from the finance department.
• Prepare and monitor business performance and identify cost savings.
• Appreciate the importance of reducing unnecessary costs and working towards increased corporate efficiency.

Seminar Outline

The Need to Plan

• Understanding what strategic planning is and why it is important
• Clarify the difference between mission statement, goals and objectives
• The outside environment: the need to understand the economic cycle
• SWOT and PESTEL analysis

Financial Planning - Elements of Costing and Cost Strategies

• The nature and behaviour of costs, fixed, variable, semi-variable, direct and indirect costs
• Standard and actual costing - the difference
• Understanding overheads
• Activity base costing ABC
• Full cost pricing and managerial costing

Preparing the Business Estimates

• The purpose of forecasts for the business
• The limiting factors
• Break-even analysis
• How to predict sale revenues - different approaches
• Using the three financial statements for forecasting

Budgeting - The Corporate Budgeting Process

• Understanding the benefit of budgeting to an organisation
• Budgets' forms and purposes; the master budget
• The different types of budgets - fixed, flexed and zero based
• Preparing, coordinating and monitoring a budget

Presenting a Business Budget

• Giving clear information
• Presenting the main variables
• Getting agreement
• Putting it clearly onto paper

Tracking Expenditure

• Reconciling actual with budgeted expenditure
• Identifying cost saving opportunities
• Looking for volume discounts
• Phasing expenditure to help cash flow

Reporting on the Master Budget

• Preparing a report
• Providing the information to make decisions

Personal Development

• Action planning - the essential next steps
• Continuous professional development - what next?