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Budgeting and Forecasting in Excel Training Course

This training course teaches you essential skills in using Excel for budgeting and forecasting purposes.

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Course Overview

If you are new to the budgeting and forecasting process, this practical course will cover issues such as using budgets to measure staff performance, linking budgets to the strategic planning process and a comparison of budgeting techniques. We will explore the difference between budgets and forecasts, and you will learn how to create your own budget, rolling forecast, variance report and budget scenarios in Excel.

Have a question? Email us at:

or call us at: (+852) 2273-4393

Course Agenda

Optional Pre-Course Workshop: Essential Excel for Finance

Day One: Budgeting and Forecasting Theory

Cost Management Concepts
Overview of accounting theory critical for the budget manager

Financial Accounting vs. Management Accounting
General ledger accounting for budgeting
Budgeting for marginal, opportunity and sunk costs

Budgets and Strategic Planning
How budgeting fits into your organisation's strategic planning process

Linking Budgets to business objectives
Budgeting to achieve organisational objectives
How to turn measurement into management

Using Budgets as Performance Management
What gets measured gets done!

The impact of budgets on organisational performance
Successfully integrating forecasting and budgeting as essential tools for measuring performance
Translating the organisation's values into measures and targets

Financial Statements
Consolidating the detailed budget into financial statements

Creating a Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet budget
Measures such as NPAT, EBIT and EBITDA
Budgeting cashflow
Capital Expenditure and depreciation budgeting

Financial Ratio Analysis
Learn to calculate and analyse commonly used ratios to test your budget prior to approval

Profitability ratios, e.g. RONA, Net Profit Ratio
Liquidity ratios e.g. Quick ratio
Efficiency ratios e.g. Asset Turnover, Debtor and Creditor Days
Inventory analysis
Practical exercise: Calculate set of financial ratios in Excel from a pro-forma P&L and Balance Sheet.

Reporting
Using budget reporting for management and decision making

Using reporting to promote accountability
Variance analysis
Budgeting and forecasting as a planning and management tool
Assessment and selection of appropriate systems

Budgeting Techniques
Discussion and overview of different budgeting systems and methods

Historical-based versus Zero-based budgeting
Top down vs bottom up
Activity Based Budgeting
Flexible budgets
Rolling forecasts
Differences between a static, flexible and rolling budget
Budgeting for capital expenditure vs. operational expenditure
Contingency planning

Limitations of budgets
What s wrong with how we do budgets?

Critique of the traditional budget process
Estimations and rigidity
Staff perceptions and changing environments
Dysfunctional budgeting behaviour

Budgeting "Soft" Skills
Non-financial skills required for the budget manager

Achieving buy-in from stakeholders
Involving non-financial management of the organisation
Techniques in getting your budget approved
Managing conflicting priorities and demands
Setting timelines

Day Two: Budget and Forecast Modelling

Budget Modelling
Turn your budget theory into a practical and dynamic financial model

Fixed vs. variable costs
Drivers in budget modeling; e.g. industry forecasts, growth rates, market share
Key factors and considerations for a reliable forecasting
Modelling for Stepped costs
Using goal-seek to perform break even analysis
Practical exercise: create a model in Excel which will calculate volume-dependent "step" costs. Calculate break-even point using goal-seek.

Historical Data Analysis in Excel
Learn advanced excel ways of analysing historical data in Excel

Overview of Data Analysis tools in Excel
Development of Time Series Models
Using Regression Analysis as a predictor and estimator
Qualitative vs. Quantitative forecasting methods

Determination of business trends, cycles & seasonality
Utilisation of trends, cycles of the current market situation in the forecasting process

Understanding the inter-relationship among trends, cycles and seasonality
Identifying and calculating business trends, business cycles and seasonality in historical data
Using the seasonality factor in interpreting the forecast variances
Practical exercise: Forecast a sales cycle in Excel based on historical data by calculating the seasonality index and adjusting the forecast accordingly.

Scenarios, Sensitivities and Stress-testing
Dealing with economic uncertainty

How sensitive is your business to changes in budget drivers?
The difference between scenarios and sensitivities
Stress-testing and validating your budget model integrity
Performing a what-if and sensitivity analysis
Creating and displaying budget scenarios

Practical Reporting Exercise:
Creating an actual vs budget variance analysis forecasting reporting model

Together, we will create a dynamic template into which actual and budget can be compared and analysed quickly and efficiently. Instead of a large report showing every month in the budget period, we will create a concise report that shows only the current month depending on the month selected by the user, and forecast for the full financial year. Automatic alert flags tell the user when the budget has been exceeded by a pre-defined amount.

Prerequisites

This course covers the practical usage of Excel in a budgeting and forecasting context. It is designed for users who use Excel fairly regularly, and are comfortable with commonly used Excel tools and techniques. Whilst a brief overview of tools used in this course is provided, it is assumed that delegates are confident Excel users.

It is recommended you attend the optional pre-course workshop: Essential Excel for Finance

Software used

Instructions will be given using both Microsoft Excel 2003 and 2007. This course is very practical and hands-on. In order to complete the exercises, delegates are required to bring their own laptops with their preferred version of Excel installed.

Have a question? Email us at:

or call us at: (+852) 2273-4393

Why Ethan Hathaway training courses?

Practical. Learn from experienced and active industry practitioners and what's being practiced by your peers.
Applicable. Apply what you learn in your job and your career
Specially designed courses by industry active experts for industry practitioners
Quality Control. Each expert instructor is interviewed and vetted through our senior management and our 5-point instructor criteria.
Valuable. Earn more revenue or save your organisation from monetary loss. You and your organisation will quickly earn back your investment on the course fee and more
Enjoyable. Speakers who have a passion for their topic
Clear. Turning complex concepts into easy to understand concepts
Limited seats - each session is limited to between 18-25 seats

What do you receive from an Ethan Hathaway training course?

You gain knowledge and skills that make you valuable to your company and your career
Instruction by industry experts
Course notes and reference package
Daily lunch, snacks and refreshments
Certificate of completion
Meeting your industry peers
Ask questions relevant to your job

Download the course brochure to learn more

Your course instructor

Danielle Stein Fairhurst: Danielle Stein Fairhurst is an MBA qualified business professional with over twelve years' experience as a financial analyst. She is the Principal of a Sydney-based consultancy specialising in Financial Modelling & Analysis. With her talent for financial modelling and professional approach, she helps her clients create meaningful financial models in the form of business cases, pricing models and management reports. She has hands-on experience in a number of industry
sectors, including telecoms, information systems, manufacturing and financial services and has taught management accounting subjects at Sydney University.

Dates & Locations & Fees

Date	Location	Venue	Course Fee	Early Bird Fee	Register
14 Oct - 15 Oct, 2010	SG, Singapore	Marina Mandarin Hotel	US$2898	See Brochure

Early Bird Savings Early Birds Save Up To 30% Off the Regular Fee, download the brochure to learn more

Limited seats - Email us: for availability.

* Venue, dates, course fees, promotions, course content, course instructor are all subject to change

Can't find a session in a city near you?

If there's no session scheduled in a city near you, you have the following options:

In-house training: If you have a group of 8 or more, consider having us run this course in-house for you
Co-sponsored training: Between 5-7 people, consider a co-sponsored course - you agree to send this set number of people to the course if we run it in a city near you and Ethan Hathaway sells the remaining seats to other companies
Distance learning: Less than 5 people, consider distance training format: live trainer presents over phone lines/web at pre-scheduled times (available only for select courses)
Just tell us where you want the course: Let us know which city you'd like us to run this course in - we'll plan it if there's enough demand

Email us at: for more information regarding the above options.

Register for the course

You may book your place on the course by any of these methods:

Online booking - simply click on the "Register Me" button next to the course date you wish to register and it will take you through our quick online registration procedure.
Email us at: - please include your full contact details.
Fax us the booking form (included in the brochure) to: +852 3014-0721
Or call: +852 2273-4393 during normal office hours

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