Managing Finance Reports and Budget Forecasts

Managers who work with financial information and would benefit from a better understanding of how to contribute to the documents produced within their organisation. Those who need to improve their ability to read and understand financial documents. Managers who need to identify important financial information from forecasts and understand funding processes. By the end of the training delegates will be able to: . Manage budget forecasts: . Understand the nature and value of budgets . Understand the ways budgets can be constructed and how their organisation undertakes this . Contribute to the preparation of budgets for their area of responsibility . Identify and use budgets for monitoring purposes . Understand variance analysis and cost control . Determine specific ways to maintain control of budget costs . Manage financial reports: . Identify which financial documents are produced in their organisation and how they can be useful to managers . Work with the final accounting documents used in their organisation . Recognise significant financial indicators of business performance . Understand the difference between cash and profit and the need for cash flow forecasting and credit control . Identify the main sources of long, medium and short term funds for business . Understand source documents and their importance.

Day 1

Introduction and Workshop Objectives:

• What do I need to achieve from this course?
• What types of financial information will I need to know in my role?

Managing budgets:

• The types of budgets an organisation can have.
• Understanding ways budgets are prepared
• How the budget forecast affects my department

Contributing to budget forecasts:

• How variances are calculated
• Useful techniques to handle budget deviations and maintain control of costs

Practical exercises in budgeting

• Defend - the expense
• Design - a staff Christmas party
• Create - the buzz

Day 2

Managing financial reports

• Understand the significance of who reads the financial reports
• How to identify the key financial information in them

Practical Workshop

• Navigate around balance sheet, Profit and Loss statements, Income and Expenditure accounts, Annual Reports, cash flows ad credit controls

Funding

• Recognise the different sources of funding for business
• The value of source documents

The big picture

• Preparing a report for managers
• What will I take with me from this course?

Review and conclusion

TOTAL PROGRAMME HOURS: 12 hours over 2 days