course | Financial Analysis, Planning and Controlling Budgets

Module 1: Financial Analysis Planning & Control: The Challenge Of Financial Economic Decision-making
 

• The practice of financial/economic analysis 
• The value-creating company
• Corporate value and shareholder value
• A dynamic perspective of business
• The agency problem and corporate governance
• What information and data to use?
• The nature of financial statements
• The context of financial analysis and decision-making

Assessment Of Business Performance
 

• Ratio analysis and business performance 
• Management’s point of view
• Owners’ point of view
• Lenders’ point of view
• Ratios as a system – pyramids of ratios
• Integration of financial performance analysis 
• Economic value added (EVA)
• Predicting financial distress

Projection Of Financial Requirements
 

• Interrelationship of financial projections 
• Operating budgets 
• Standard costing and variance analysis 
• Cash forecasts and cash budgets
• Sensitivity analysis
• Dynamics and growth of the business system
• Operating leverage
• Financial growth plans
• Financial modeling

Analysis Of Investment Decisions
 

• Applying time-adjusted measures
• Net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) 
• Strategic perspective 
• EVA and NPV
• Refinements of investment analysis
• Equivalent annual cost (EAC)
• Modified internal rate of return (MIRR)
• Sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, simulation, and NPV break-even 
• Dealing with risk and changing circumstances
• Valuation and Business Performance
• Managing for shareholder value
• Shareholder value creation in perspective
• Evolution of value-based methodologies
• Creating value in restructuring and combinations
• Financial strategy in acquisitions
• Business valuation
• Business restructuring and reorganisations
• Management buy-outs (MBOs) and management buy-ins (MBIs)

The Framework For Budgeting
 

• What is a budget – and why budget?
• The budgeting framework and the various types of budgets: top-down, bottom-up, incremental, zero-based, and activity-based
• The budget process
• Qualitative and quantitative techniques for forecasting sales and costs, and sales pricing
• Budgeting for labor costs and depreciation
• The departmental budget
• Preparation of the master budget and the cash forecast/budget
• The human side and the behavioral aspects of budgeting
   

Activity-based Budgeting (Abb), Capital Budgeting, Budgetary Control, And Variance Analysis
 

• How the budget is controlled in your organization
• Activity-based budgeting (ABB)
• Budgeting for capital projects
• Discounted cash flow (DCF) is an investment appraisal method of net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return
• Capital rationing and the profitability index (PI)
• Budgetary control systems and responsibility accounting
• Standard costing for budgeting and budgetary control
• Fixed budgets, flexed budgets, variance analysis, and the reasons for variances

Beyond Budgeting – Broadening Performance Measurement Systems
 

• Integrating continuous improvement into the budget process
• Advantages and disadvantages of budgeting
• How to improve the budget process in your organisation
• The conflict between performance improvement and the costing system
• Lean thinking and performance improvement
• What next – beyond the budget?
• The balanced scorecard – linking strategy with budgeting and with performance measurement
• Developing and adapting the balanced scorecard: financial perspective; customer perspective; internal business process perspective; learning and growth perspective