Strategic Planning, Budgeting and Rolling Forecasts

Module 1: Strategic Planning in Organisations

• Modern strategic planning models & frameworks

• Translating strategic plans into actionable business plans

• Linking strategy to financial plans

• Identifying and managing strategic risks

• Effective strategy communication

Module 2: Building Effective Financial Plans

• Traditional vs. modern budgeting processes

• Integrating planning with budgeting and forecasting

• Engaging operational managers

• Communicating and driving buy-in

Module 3: Digital Tools for Budgeting (Excel & Power BI)

• Financial modelling techniques

• Using Excel for dynamic budgeting (advanced functions, lookups, data validation)

• Power BI: Creating live dashboards and visual reports

• Automating financial processes

Module 4: The Budget Cycle & Modern Budgeting Approaches

• The end-to-end budget cycle

• Characteristics of high-impact budgeting

• Making budgets value-adding

• Key budgeting approaches: Incremental, Zero-Based, Flexible, Kaizen, Activity-Based, Rolling

• Developing best-practice templates

Module 5: Practical Budgeting in Action

• Building sales, production, materials, labour, overhead, admin, and departmental budgets

• Consolidating to master budget

Module 6: Next-Generation Budgeting Techniques

• Why leading organisations are adopting new methods

• Top-down vs. bottom-up budgeting

• Driver-based and scenario planning

• Flex and priority-based budgeting

• Developing “soft skills” for budget negotiation and facilitation

Module 7: Cash Flow Planning & Management

• Building cash flow budgets

• Cash management strategies

• Cash vs. accrual approaches in planning

Module 8: From Budget Detail to Financial Statements

• Consolidation to P&L and Balance Sheet

• Ratio analysis for budget validation (profitability, liquidity, efficiency)

• Inventory and working capital management

Module 9: Capital Expenditure (CapEx) Budgeting

• Integrating capital investments in the planning process

• CapEx evaluation, business case development, and contingency planning

• Depreciation and intangible asset budgeting

Module 10: Dynamic Forecasting & Analytics

• Rolling forecasts: concepts, strengths & weaknesses

• Statistical and probabilistic forecasting (including Monte Carlo simulation)

• Choosing the right forecasting technique

Module 11: Implementing Rolling Forecasts

• Identifying key business drivers

• Designing a rolling forecast process

• Overcoming challenges and driving adoption

• Developing a forecasting capability across the finance team

Module 12: Performance Measurement & Scorecards

• Identifying and tracking KPIs and key business drivers

• Linking plans, budgets, and forecasts to strategic objectives

• Benchmarking and best-practice monitoring

• Enhancing reporting for decision support

Module 13: Achieving Organisational Performance Impact

• Embedding improved management accounting concepts

• Building financial literacy across the organisation

• Ensuring finance leads as a catalyst for growth and agility