Integrated Budgeting, Forecasting, and Business Planning Masterclass

Module One: Budgets and Strategy in Today’s International Environment

• Organizational planning framework

• Product/information/decision support cycle

• Strategic, tactical, and operational forecasts

• Strategic approach to business planning

• Various strategic and tactical approaches to business planning

• International business environment

Module Two: The Business Plan and Budget Development

• Developing the business plan

• Identification of key value drivers

• Achieving objectives

• Zero base budgeting

• Activity-based budgeting

• Developing the cash budget

Module Three: Analysing the Applicability of Historical Data Using Excel®

• Problems of forecasting

• Using historical data to predict the future

• Forecasting

• Development of time series models

• Using regression analysis as a predictor and estimator

• Mastering the use of exponential smoothing as a data analysis tool

Module Four: Using Activity-Based Budgeting and Cost Analysis Techniques

• Cost behaviour and breakeven analysis

• Activity-based costing

• Budgeting for processes rather than departments

• Defining key cost drivers

• Defining key activities

• Developing the activity-based budget

Module Five: Capital Budgeting and Project Appraisal

• Identifying various types of capital projects

• Discussing the capital project evaluation process

• Understanding the impact of time on the value of money

• Using WACC and ROIC as benchmarks

• Developing the “hurdle rate” for capital projects

• Evaluating capital projects using NPV, IRR, ARR, and payback model