Spreadsheet Skills for Planning Forecasting and Budgeting

Why Choose this Training Course?

This hands-on, practical finance & accounting training course will demonstrate how you can develop spreadsheet models to create a forecast, which can then be utilised to generate business plans and operating budgets with the use Excel® as it is used in practice. The applications will be focused on three crucial aspects of business and financial management - strategic planning, intelligent forecasting and realistic budgeting. Delegates will learn how accessible the power of Excel® is to provide realistic forecasts and prepare flexible budgets. The impact on efficiency in planning and control and therefore return on investment for companies and/or divisions will be startling.

This training course will feature:

• Mastery of the power of Excel®

• What functions to use from the Excel toolkit

• Principles of strategic planning and budgeting

• Mathematical forecasting models will be demystified

• Building financial models enabling "what if" analysis

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

• Navigate through the features and functions of Excel®

• Distinguish between data and output in spreadsheet architecture

• Analyze financial statements in order to plan ahead

• Build effective financial planning models

• Use forecasting techniques for budget preparation

Who is this Training Course for?

This training course is aimed at professionals who contribute to financial decision making. Participants with qualifications and or experience in accounting and finance will benefit from the new focus on building models and applying scenario's in financial planning.

This training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Business advisors, analysts & staff from all functional areas who need to advise, comment or develop business forecast plans and budgets

• Strategic Planners and Finance Officers

• Management Accountants

• Managers without formal financial qualifications

Course Content

Day One: Introduction to Spreadsheets using Excel®

• The power of Excel® for building financial models

• The Ribbons of Excel with their commands and functions

• Using formulae: Copying, anchoring and special pasting

• Using functions: financial, statistical and mathematical

• Review of the financial objectives of business: ROI, ROA, ROE

• Overview of Financial Statements

Case Study: Building a Quick Access Toolbar in Excel® and applying it to the analysis of financial statements of a division.

Day Two: Proper Planning

• Classical strategic planning models

• Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis and Break-Even as a planning example

• Economic Order Quantity as a planning example

• What-if analysis to build scenario's and test sensitivity

• Maximizing and optimizing techniques

• Linear programming and Solver as optimising tools

Case Study: Preparing a planning model and subjecting it to a range of sensitivity analysis in a manufacturing environment.

Day Three: Fantastic Forecasting

• Forecasting in perspective - the Past vs. the Future

• Necessity to apply a range of different forecasting methods

• Qualitative Models used in forecasting

• Quantitative Models focussing on time series and regressions methodology

• Forecasting growth rates

• Recording, applying and modifying forecast assumptions

Case Study: Applying the forecasting functions in Excel® to past data and building a model offering various scenario's

Day Four: Beyond Budgeting

• The budget process: Timing and Cycles

• Setting budgeting objectives and tolerance levels

• Budgeting Techniques

• "Beyond Budgeting" compared to traditional budgeting principles

• Operating and Capital budgets

• Monthly reporting procedures and timely action

Case Study: Building budget based on assumptions - Operating Budget, Cash Budget & Capital Budget

Day Five: Putting it Together – Building the Comprehensive Model

• Considering the financing mix in strategy

• Considering the Return to Shareholder as the primary indicator

• Build your planning model

• Build your forecasting model

• Build your budgeting model

• Link these together in review

Case Study: Building an integrated planning, forecasting & budgeting model