Budgets and Forecasts Course for Organisations

Finance. Boost your financial know-how.

COVID-19 update: arrangement of our courses

We are now delivering courses online and in-person. Please check the delivery format of each class before enrolling.

Please note that course materials (excluding prescribed texts) are shared electronically within 48 hours of course commencement. Printing is not available.

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. Students 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
• project budgets, financial evaluation methods of projects.

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.

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 organisational-wide budget
• monitor and manage a budget by correcting for variances
• financially evaluate the payback on a capital investment using Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return
• communicate effectively financial support staff through use of appropriate forecasting and budgeting terminology and concepts.

Content

This course includes the following topics:

• 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 organisational-wide budget
• Measuring budget effectiveness – variance analysis
• Financial evaluation of project (Payback, basic Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return)

Intended audience

Suitable for anyone needing to set and manage a budget for an operational unit. 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 student will receive a copy of all Excel modelling demonstrated. Please ensure you bring a calculator.

Delivery style

Delivery options:

• Face-to-face, computer-based training delivered on University premises.
• Online training via the platform Zoom.

Face-to-face classes

These classes run in a computer lab and you do not need to bring your own device.

Please bring a USB flash drive to class if you would like to make a copy of your work or any relevant class materials. Alternatively, you can save these to a cloud storage space or email them to your personal email address.

Online classes

If you are attending an online class, you will need your own device.

Materials

You will be provided with a link to download and access course materials prior to class.