Class Details
Budgets and Forecasts Course for Organisations
Course summary
Learn how to budget and forecast for your organisation. This training course is designed to provide financial skills to non-financial managers and staff; you will learn budgeting, project budgeting and financial evaluations.
The aim of this finance course is to provide a practical understanding of the workings of organisational budgets with the use of a budget framework. Participants will build a project budget and understand the drivers of project financial evaluation methods.
This budgeting and forecasting course will include:
- how organisations use budgets and the framework of an organisation-wide budget as a strategic planning tool
- structure of a master budget; breaking it down to sales, operations, overheads budgets and the alignment to profit and loss and cash flow
- highlighting the data sources and functionality of Excel as a budgeting tool.
Aims
This course aims to:
- build your knowledge of budgeting and forecasting terminology and concepts
- equip you with forecasting skills, using Excel, as a precursor to setting a budget
- demonstrate alternative ways of setting an organisational budget once forecasts have been generated
- explain how to set and manage a project budget
- show you how to calculate and interpret variances once a budget is set, with a view to initiating corrective action where needed.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- generate forecasts using a range of techniques, and incorporating these into building a budget
- prepare both a project-based and organisation-wide budget
- monitor and manage a budget by correcting for variances
- communicate effectively financial support staff through use of appropriate forecasting and budgeting terminology and concepts.
Content
- Budgeting and forecast theory, terminology and process
- Profit and Loss (P&L), balance sheet and cash flow budget
- Data sources and forecasting concepts, including history, market conditions and Delphi method
- Factors impacting on a budget – market conditions, internal forces, cyclical and seasonal trends
- Framework for an organisation-wide budget
- Setting an organisation-wide budget
- Measuring budget effectiveness – variance analysis
Who this course is for
Suitable for anyone needing to set and manage a budget for an operational unit and designed for operational managers tasked with forecasting and budgeting. This could be for a profit centre, cost centre, or in setting an expense budget.
Prerequisites
Designed for people with basic finance knowledge. This is not an Excel course; it will assist you if you are familiar with simple formulas in Excel. Course work is designed to include practical work examples using case studies, and you will work to complete basic mathematic budget calculations. Representation of key concepts will be demonstrated in Excel and students will receive a copy of all Excel modelling demonstrated.
Delivery modes
- Face-to-face, presenter-taught training in a computer lab
- Online training via the platform Zoom
Face-to-face classes
Classes run in a computer lab. You do not need to bring your own device.
Online classes
You need your own device. For the best experience, we recommend using a computer with a large monitor or dual screens/devices. Small laptop screens can make it difficult to follow the facilitator’s display while working in the software.
Materials
Course materials are shared electronically.
What you need to do before the course
To participate in this course, you will need Microsoft Excel installed on your device.
Sessions
Location
Face-to-face (CCE Building, Sydney)
Public transport
As bus and train timetables regularly change, we suggest you visit the Transport for NSW trip planner before you set out.
The nearest train stations are Newtown Station and Macdonaldtown Station. Macdonaldtown Station is closer by distance than Newtown Station, however trains do not stop as frequently as at Newtown Station.
Other information
Parking
Nearby parking is available at Wilson Parking - RPA Medical Centre Car Park (entry via Elizabeth Street off Carillon Avenue).
A Flexi Saver Rate is available but must be booked in advance online and includes the booking fee. Bookings can be made via the Wilson website or by downloading the Wilson Parking App. Otherwise, hourly parking rates will apply, as advertised on the Wilson Parking website.
Meet the facilitators
John Le Mesurier
John brings a wealth of business, management, IT, consultancy and training experience to many of the professional development courses on offer at CCE. This experience has included senior corporate and general management roles in American, British and Chinese multinationals, as well as consultancies for several leading UK and Irish management firms. His consulting projects have covered advanced practice studies in leadership, sales & customer service processes, strategic sourcing, human resource models and organisational issues. These projects have been undertaken in North & South America, Europe and China. His international client list includes Procter & Gamble, Red Bull, Johnson & Johnson, SC Johnson, Eli Lilly, Roche, Mitsubishi, Vodafone/ Hutchison Telecoms, Danone, Heineken, BOC/ Linde, Boehringer Ingelheim, British Government and Qantas. John also works for an Australian consulting firm, Newfocus, conducting projects in the government and Not-For-Profit sectors. John has been involved in projects at PwC and Macquarie University.
John is currently undertaking a M. Phil/ PhD and holds a Master of Business Administration (with Distinction), Bachelor of Arts (with Distinction), majors in Psychology and Statistics, sub-majors in Accounting and Economics; Diplomas in Management, Change Management, Risk Management, Project Management; Digital Badge in Advanced Analytics, Graduate Certificate in Learning & Teaching, and Certificate IVs in Competitive Manufacturing (Lean) and Training and Assessment. John has been awarded the highest qualification by The Australian Research Society, namely Qualified Professional Researcher. John is an accredited Sydney Lifeline counsellor, where he also trained counsellors for more than 20 years.
John has lectured in Bachelor of Business at Torrens University, Master of Business Analytics at Kaplan Business School and Master of Community Development offered through Southern Cross University (SCBIT Sydney campus). John has been an Executive Coach at UNSW, where he has also been a guest lecturer in marketing and change management. He has taught 1st year statistics at UTS (Insearch) and Macquarie University (Navitas) and delivered IT training in corporate settings for 30 years.
