Clear Vision Consultation and Training

Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Forecasting &Cost Control

Introduction to Budgeting

Executives are faced with ever-increasing challenges. Flatter corporate structures, global competition, overcapacity, downsizing, and changing business environments have placed enormous demands on managers, calling for greater management skills. Today’s executives wear multiple hats and need multiple skills. Even highly innovative and creative managers with excellent people skills must report and understand financial terms and concepts.

This exciting and informative program will enhance your ability to prepare, interpret and use Budget information in your managerial decision-making. It has been designed to transform the non-financial and finance manager into a more effective team member who can propose, analyze and evaluate Budgetary decisions. It does so by providing a fundamental understanding of the content, concepts, software models and terminology of Budgets.

Audience

Non-financial and Financial mid to upper level managers in every functional area in all industry types, in both the public and private sectors.

Managers from areas such as marketing, sales, services finance, manufacturing, or engineering, as well as general who use financial data for decision making.

Managers in a position to influence the design of their organizations’ planning, control, costing, and performance measurement systems. Managers in a position to influence the financial planning process of a company, emerging business, and/or business unit within a large organization.

Course Outline

Module 1

Welcome & Introduction

Course Objectives

Module 2

The fundamentals of budgeting & cost control (BCC)

·        What is a budget?

·        Why is budgeting an important concept in managing a business?

·        Who is responsible for budget management in the business?

·        What is a cost object?

·        Costing methods

·        Why do business costs need controlling?

·        Uncontrollable costs – do they exist?

·        Who has the responsibility for cost management in the business?

Module 3

Budgeting and controlling revenues: sales and service income

·        How are sales revenues to be estimated – top down or bottom up?

·        Are there different approaches between manufacturing and service businesses?

·        Does market and field research have apart to play in this process?

Module 4

Budgeting and controlling materials usage in manufacturing and non-manufacturing businesses

·        Classifying materials used in manufacturing

·        Valuing materials and controlling stocks of materials

·        Managing Non-manufacturing material costs – indirect costs

·        Budgeting for materials and purchases – direct costs

Module 5

Budgeting and controlling direct and indirect labor costs

·        Determining labor costs both direct and indirect

·        Recording direct and indirect labour costs

·        Budgeting for direct and indirect labour costs

Module 6

Budgeting and controlling direct & indirect expenses

·        Determining direct & indirect expenses

·        Types of expenses

·        Budgeting for direct and indirect expenses

                                                Discussion & Individual exercises

Module 7

Flexible budgets: concepts, development and application

·        What is flexible budgeting?

·        Use of sensitivity analysis

·        Importance of flexible budgeting in practice

                                                Group & individual exercises

Module 8

Budgeting and controlling capital expenditures

·        Difference between capital and revenue expenditure

·        Organisation of capital expenditure budget approval systems

·        Need for capital project monitoring

                                                Discussion & review

Module 9

Budgeting and controlling cash flows

·        Turning budgeted sales revenues,  costs and capital expenditure plans into a cash budget forecast

Module 10

Completion procedures and applications of the overall profit plan or master budget

·        The budget process as a control system within the business

·        The behavioral aspects of accounting control systems

·        Responsibility budgeting, accounting & control ideas

·        Zero based budgeting concept (ZBB)

·        Activity based management (ABM) and Activity based costing (ABC) defined

                                                            Group exercises

Module 11

Analysis of budget variances

·        Variance Analysis and Standard Costing

·        Purpose of Standard Costing

·        Establishing Standards

Group exercise

Course review

Course critique

Course close