Strategic Planning & Effective Budgeting & Cost Control

Featuring: Introduction to planning and control Budgeting overview Behavioural aspects of budgeting Understanding cost behaviour Flexible budgets and standard cost systems Developing an annual/master budget Conceptual aspects of budgeting Resource allocation Activity-based management and activity-based costing Cost control Measuring and evaluating performance Who should attend: Those with management experience in industry or public practice Those with management responsibility in finance, operations or planning Those with experience in finance, operations or accounting Owners, CFOs, controllers, financial officers and budget managers Accountants and internal auditors in middle and upper management positions as wel as public practitioners responsible for the any of the following areas: planning, budgeting, performance, productivity and profitability of their organizations What this course will enable you to do: Acquire best practices in budgeting Understand the strategic role of cost concepts Explain the costs concepts to the use of cost information for management control Describe the role of budgets in the management process Discuss the importance of strategy and its role in the master budget Prepare a master budget and explain the interrelationships among its supporting schedule Understand zero-base, activitybased, and kaizen approaches to budgeting Explain the essence of control systems Develop flexible budgets for evaluating short-term financial performance Identify different cost control measures Measure and evaluate performance Today, the human mind is often absorbed in so much data, that it has difficulty processing the multitude of facts and relationships simultaneously and sometimes forgets important elements. Thus, as plans become more and more intricate, they should be documented in writing and include qualitative narratives of goals, objectives, and means of accomplishing the objectives. This course will allow the participant to explore and share with other participants new thoughts in the planning, control, and budgeting cycle, resulting in a renewed energy in returning to the workplace and implementing a more focused budgeting process, which communicates useful and timely information to management. The course will provide a framework for each topic covered, and then will make extensive use of exercises and case studies. Live group instruction Detailed practical examples Use of case studies and real world examples Interactive participation All participants receive a comprehensive binder containing copies of the presentation slides, handouts and other course materials
Day 1 Introduction To Planning And Control Organizational operating environment Organizational structure: centralization v. decentralization Responsibility accounting Planning and control cycle: strategic v. tactical Hierarchy of planning Budgeting Overview Roles of budgeting Formal plan Management decisions on the budgeting process Communication and coordination Evaluation tool – budget report Top management commitment Case study: budgeting in today’s environment Behavioral Aspects Of Budgeting Goal congruence Controllability and performance evaluation Participatory budgeting Departmental budgeting Implementation of new system Day 2 Understanding Cost Behavior Cost structure Handling indirect costs Cost-volume-profit analysis Product life cycles Case study: Cost Behavior Flexible Budgets & Standard Cost Systems Why activity level matters Setting standard costs Level of standards Advantages of standard costs Behavioral issues in standard cost systems Case study: flexible budgeting and standard costing Developing an Annual/Master Budget Introduction How standard costs affect the budgeting process Budget development process Budget games managers play Case study: Preparation of Master Budget Management by exception Variance analysis (including the possibility of fraud red flags) Day 3 Conceptual Aspects Of Budgeting Alternative approaches to budgeting Kaizen budgeting Continuous/rolling budgets Contingency budgeting Incremental budgeting Zero-based budgeting Program budgeting Integrating uncertainty into the budgeting process Resource Allocation Measuring service department costs Assigning service department costs Nature and problems of reciprocal services Transfer pricing Activity-Based Management And Activity-Based Costing Activity analysis: value-added, non-value-added, business value-added Levels of cost incurrence Using activities to allocate costs Determining if ABC is appropriate Activity-based budgeting Case study: Budgeting Day 4 Cost Control Committed v. discretionary costs Control using the budget Economic order quantity Methods of cost reduction Just-in-time Six sigma Lean processes Single sourcing Outsourcing Measuring And Evaluating Performance Financial measures Nonfinancial measures The balanced scorecard Communicating, motivating, and rewarding Closing the loop: back to budgeting! Case study: balanced scorecard Note: This will be an active 4-days, as more cases will be included Course summary and close