Budgeting, Forecasting and the Planning Process

The programme

Programme overview

Ratomac training course on Budgeting, Forecasting, and the Planning Process provides participants with the essential theoretical foundation and practical skills needed to develop top-tier strategic planning, forecasting, and budgeting processes. A strategy outlines a long-term plan detailing how an organisation intends to achieve its overarching goals. This course equips delegates with the tools to create a framework that aligns strategies with annual budgets and targets, aiming for exceptional management and organisational performance.

A budget translates an organisation’s strategic plan into quantifiable short-term operational activities. This course teaches participants the skills and techniques necessary to develop budgets as plans, utilise control budgets, and analyse variances to identify areas for improving financial performance.

Who should attend

Who is this programme for?

• Anyone Involved in Budgeting and Planning Within Companies, Corporations, and Governmental, Educational, and Health Service Organisations
• Finance and Accounting Professionals
• Costing and Treasury Department Staff
• Non-Financial Professionals with Budget Responsibilities
• Line Managers
• Project Managers
• Professional Advisers and Consultants

Learning outcomes

What you will learn

• Enhance strategic thinking and integrate the organisation's strategic management and budgeting processes
• Employ forecasting techniques best suited to your organisation's planning and budgeting needs
• Apply key financial management principles, including shareholder wealth maximisation, cash flow, time value of money, and risk management
• Understand cost behaviours and determine the most suitable costing methods for financial planning, budgeting, and control, including where AI now accelerates cost-driver analysis
• Implement best practices to create operating budgets, capital expenditure budgets, and cash flow budgets and forecasts, including how AI now accelerates DCF/WACC-based capital budgeting

Explore the programme

Detailed programme outline

3-Day Essentials — Training Outline

• Strategic analysis, choices, and implementation; links between strategy, forecasting, planning, and budgeting
• Shareholder wealth maximisation and corporate value creation
• Cost of equity (CAPM), cost of debt, and Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), including how AI-assisted modelling now improves WACC and terminal value accuracy
• Using the Balanced Scorecard to link strategy to performance measurement
• The financial planning process and modelling using Excel
• Core statistical forecasting tools: time series, moving averages, exponential smoothing, trend and regression
• Forecasting sales revenue and pricing
• Cost behaviour: fixed, variable, direct, and indirect costs
• Absorption and marginal costing
• Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) analysis using Excel
• Activity-Based Costing (ABC), including how AI now supports cost-driver analysis across large transaction datasets
• Purposes and reasons for budgets, and stages in the budget preparation process
• Preparing the master budget
• Responsibility accounting and variance analysis
• Standard costing and flexed budgets
• Business, financial, systematic, and unsystematic risk
• Choices available to minimise and mitigate risk
• The time value of money, and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) principles — now achievable in a fraction of the traditional manual build time with AI-assisted modelling
• NPV, IRR, and payback for investment appraisal
• Sensitivity analysis for project risk
• Deciding whether the 5-Day Comprehensive programme is the right next step

5-Day Comprehensive — Training Outline

• Strategic analysis, strategic choices and evaluation, and strategic implementation
• The links between strategy, forecasting, planning, budgeting, and performance measurement
• Strategic capability and avoiding the spiral of death
• Shareholder wealth maximisation, corporate and shareholder value creation
• Financial strategy, dividend policy, the agency problem, and corporate governance
• Long-term financing: debt and equity; cost of equity using Dividend Growth and CAPM; cost of debt; Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), including how AI-assisted modelling now improves WACC and terminal value accuracy by learning from historical patterns
• Capital structure optimisation models to minimise WACC
• Using strategy maps to link strategies to performance measurement: the Balanced Scorecard, including how AI-powered dashboards now support real-time tracking across its four perspectives
• Statistical forecasting tools and techniques: time series, moving averages, exponential smoothing, Pareto analysis, trend progression, linear regression, correlation
• Forecasting long- and short-term sales revenues, and sales pricing
• Porter's generic strategy, Bowman's strategy clock, full/marginal/target cost pricing, life-cycle costing, kaizen costing, value-based pricing
• Using Excel for optimum product mix decisions
• Short-term financing, working capital, and the cash operating cycle
• Direct and indirect cash flow analysis and cash flow forecasting using Excel
• Uncertainty and risk: business, financial, systematic, and unsystematic risk, and the choices available to minimise and mitigate risk
• Cost behaviour and activities
• Fixed and variable costs, direct and indirect costs
• Product costs and period costs
• Cost allocation and absorption of overheads
• Absorption or full costing, and marginal costing
• Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) and 'what-if' analysis using Excel
• Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and Activity-Based Management (ABM), including how AI now supports cost-driver analysis by identifying patterns across large transaction datasets more quickly than manual review
• To budget or not — purposes and reasons for budgets
• Stages in the budget preparation process
• Preparation of the master budget
• Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB)
• Standard costing; flexed budgets; budgetary control to measure organisational and management performance
• Advantages, disadvantages, and behavioural aspects of budgeting
• The conflict between performance improvement and the costing system
• Lean thinking and integrating continuous performance improvement into the budget process
• The time value of money: future values, present values, Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) — traditionally a lengthy manual build, now achievable in a fraction of the time with AI-assisted modelling covering revenue projections, WACC, terminal value, and sensitivity analysis
• Capital investment project appraisal: ARR, payback, NPV, IRR, MIRR, discounted payback, Equivalent Annual Cost (EAC)
• Project risk: sensitivity analysis, simulation, scenario analysis, NPV break-even, including how AI-enhanced simulation now runs thousands of iterations rapidly and predicts tail risk more effectively than traditional methods alone
• Capital rationing
• Capital budgeting and the Profitability Index (PI)

Learning approach

How you will learn

Our diverse instructional approaches ensure effective learning:

– Lectures & Presentations: Engage with expert-driven, stimulating content.– Course Material: Access well-crafted supporting resources.– Group Work: Collaborate on discussions and case studies for practical insights.– Workshops & Role-Play: Participate in immersive, scenario-based activities.– Practical Application: Focus on applying theoretical knowledge in real situations.– Post-Training Support: Receive extensive support after training for skill implementation.

Discuss your requirements

Dates, duration & arrangements

Contact Ratomac to confirm dates, duration, delivery format, entry requirements and any applicable assessment or certification before booking.