PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

• What are planning strategies?
• Strategy analysis, choice & implementation
• The role of strategy maps in defining the business
• Effective and less effective management reporting practice
• The agency problem and corporate governance
• Planning requirements and the importance of working capital

FORECASTING IN BUDGETING AND PLANNING

• Determine the purpose and objective of the forecast
• Statistical analytical tools
• Quantitative analysis and forecasting
• Forecasting techniques
• Agency problems in forecasting- solutions
• Causal analysis models – regression analysis
• Using Excel ® to analyse historical data

BUDGETS, COSTS AND BUDGETARY CONTROL

• Why do we budget? – the purposes of budgeting
• Planning and control
• Putting the budget together
• Cost behaviour and classification
• Cost / volume /profit (CVP) and ‘what-if’ analysis
• Standard costing
• Flexed budgets
• Variance analysis and the reasons for variances

ACTIVITY BASED COSTING (ABC) AND ACTIVITY BASED BUDGETING (ABB)

• Activity based costing (ABC)
• Refinement of the costing system
• ABC and cost management
• Design of ABC systems
• The cost hierarchy and cost drivers
• Advantages and disadvantages of ABC systems
• From traditional budgeting to activity based budgeting (ABB)
• The ABB process
• Time-based ABC for services organisations
• Motivation and the behavioural aspect of budgeting

MEASURING CORPORATE PERFORMANCE: REQUIREMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

• Broadening performance measurement systems
• The Drive toward Shareholder Value (EVA®)
• Beyond budgeting: integrating financial and non-financial issues
• Introducing the Balanced Scorecard and the key perspective