Course on Financial Analysis, Budget Planning, and Control

Introduction:

The Financial Planning and Analysis course provides a comprehensive understanding of finance management, planning, and control within organizations. It covers practical applications of economic and financial models to evaluate corporate strategies and operational performance. This course equips participants with the skills needed to develop and manage financial resources effectively and to conduct detailed budget analysis. Participants will learn to apply these techniques to enhance strategic planning and financial management.

Objectives:

Upon completion of the Financial Planning and Analysis course, participants will be able to:

• Enhance future financial planning processes.
• Utilize financial techniques for planning, analysis, and control.
• Improve performance using economic and financial analysis tools.
• Integrate planning, budgeting, costing, and performance measurement systems.
• Demonstrate skills in budgetary and cost control.
• Assess financial data reliability and manage uncertainty and risk.
• Expand financial knowledge and manage financial aspects of their roles more effectively.
• Gain confidence in addressing economic and financial issues and communicating with financial professionals.
• Understand how financial considerations support strategic decisions and their impact on departments and the organization.
• Select appropriate financial techniques for investment, operations, and financing decisions.
• Understand strategic planning and budgeting concepts.
• Link finance and operations for effective budgeting and strategy execution.
• Build a comprehensive performance measurement system.
• Apply costing and budgeting terminology effectively.
• Recognize the importance of well-defined costing and budgeting processes.
• Understand cost behavior accurately.
• Perform and interpret variance analysis.

Training Methodology:

• Case studies
• Group discussions
• Games
• Role play
• Demonstration of analytical tools
• Work on real problems

Course Outline:

Unit 1: Making an Economic and Financial Decision: Its Inherent Problems

• Financial-economic analysis
• Corporate reputation and shareholder value
• Dynamic business benchmarking
• Agency theory in corporate governance
• Information and data relevance
• Financial statements overview
• Financial analysis and decision-making practices

Unit 2: Business Performance Evaluation

• Performance analysis with ratios
• Perspectives of managers, owners, and lenders
• Leverage ratios and performance pyramids
• "Dupont" system modification
• Measuring Economic Value Management (EVM) or Economic Value Added (EVA)
• Financial distress prediction

Unit 3: Projection of Financial Requirements

• Financial projections and budgets
• Costs management and performance evaluation
• Cash flow estimates and budgets
• Budget adjustments
• Business system dynamics and growth
• Operational leverage
• Financial growth planning
• Financial model construction

Unit 4: Analysis of Investment Decisions

• Time-sensitive metrics
• NPV, IRR, and strategic views
• Investment proposal improvement
• EAC, MIRR
• Sensitivity, scenario, and simulations
• Change and risk management

Unit 5: Valuation and Business Performance

• Managing value to shareholders
• Shareholder value creation context
• Restructuring and combination synergies
• Mergers and acquisitions strategy
• Business valuation
• Business restructuring and reorganization
• Management buyouts (MBOs) and management buy-ins (MBIs)

Unit 6: Strategic and Financial Planning

• Financial vs. managerial accounting
• Linkages between strategy, budgeting, costing, and performance evaluation
• Importance of strategic planning
• Mission, vision, strategy, goals, and objectives
• SWOT and PESTEL analysis
• Company-specific factors
• Value creation drivers

Unit 7: The Framework for Budgeting

• Definition and purpose of budgeting
• Budgeting process and types
• Human aspects of budgeting
• Sales estimation and budget timing
• Budgeting approaches: top-down vs. bottom-up
• Incremental vs. zero budgeting

Unit 8: Cost Analysis for Budgeting

• Understanding cost behavior
• Fixed and variable costs
• Breakeven analysis and contribution margin
• Traditional vs. activity-based costing
• All cost vs. period cost

Unit 9: Budgeting - Controlling the Budget Variance’s Activities

• Organizational budgeting practices
• Budgeting variance analysis
• Static vs. flexible budgets
• Performance variation analysis
• Standard costs in variance analysis
• Continuous improvement in variance analysis

Unit 10: Beyond Budgeting: Broadening Performance Measurement Perspectives

• Positives and negatives of traditional budgeting
• Enhancing budgeting practices
• Beyond budgeting concepts
• Balanced scorecard integration
• Finance, customer, internal processes, and growth perspectives
• Developing and modifying the scorecard