Financial Analysis, Planning & Controlling Budgets Conference

Introduction:

This financial analysis, planning, and control conference is a comprehensive gathering that connects the crucial aspects of financial management. It offers participants a wealth of knowledge in financial planning, analysis, and budgeting.

Attendees at this financial analysis, planning, and control conference can expect to gain a deep understanding of an organization's quantifiable dimensions, strategies, and best practices in financial planning and analysis.

Organizations and individuals aiming to sharpen their skills in budget analysis can gain extensive knowledge through the dedicated content provided at this financial analysis, planning, and control conference.

This financial analysis, planning, and control conference serves as an opportunity to delve into financial planning and analysis, obtain certification, and emerge with enhanced capabilities to improve budgeting and financial performance within one's company.

Financial Planning and Analysis Training:

The financial analysis, planning, and control conference aligns with various professional development needs, including financial planning and analysis certification. By offering training through different units, individuals aiming to become qualified financial planning and analysis managers can gain a significant edge.

Targeted Groups:

• Project Managers.
• Financial Analysts.
• Financial Controllers.
• Accountants.
• Treasurers.
• Corporate Planners.
• And all management levels within any organization.

Conference Objectives:

By the conclusion of this financial analysis, planning, and control conference, participants will be able to:

• Plan more effectively for the future.
• Use the financial techniques of planning and control.
• Improve performance by using financial analysis tools.
• Link planning and budgeting with costing and performance measurement.
• Master the skills of budgetary and cost control.
• Understand how reliable the available financial data is and how uncertainty and risk are likely to impact decision outcomes.
• Expand their financial knowledge, develop and manage the financial aspects of their role more effectively, and enhance their performance.
• Increase their self-confidence in dealing with financial issues and financial professionals.
• Understand how financial considerations help to support an organization's strategic decisions.
• Appreciate how such decisions may affect their departments, business units, and companies.
• Acquire the ability, when involved in decisions about investment, operations, or financing, to choose the most appropriate tools from the wide variety of financial techniques available to provide a quantitative analysis.
• Understand strategic planning and budgeting.
• Link finance and operations for budgeting purposes and strategy execution.
• Learn how to build a comprehensive performance measurement system.
• Learn costing and budgeting terminology used in business.
• Understand the importance of a well-defined costing and budgeting process.
• Understand cost behavior more accurately.
• Be able to perform and interpret variance analysis.

Targeted Competencies:

At the end of this financial analysis, planning, and control conference, the target competencies will:

• Interpret financial statements and financial statement analysis.
• Plan and budget with a hold on financial planning analysis.
• Cost control methodologies and approaches.
• Capital budgeting techniques.
• Apply cost-volume-profit analysis for decision-making.
• Utilization of breakeven analysis.
• Strategic financial decision-making.
• Manage business performance through financial planning & analysis and performance management.

Conference Content:

Unit 1: The Challenge of Financial Economic Decision-Making:

• The practice of financial-economic analysis.
• Corporate Value and Shareholder Value.
• A dynamic perspective of business Benchmarking your own strategic position/competitor analysis.
• The Agency Problem and Corporate Governance.
• What information and data to use?
• The nature of financial statements.
• Understand the context of financial analysis and decision-making.

Unit 2: 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.
• Understand the integration of financial performance analysis using the Dupont system.
• Economic Value Added (EVA).
• Predict financial distress.

Unit 3: 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.

Unit 4: Analysis of Investment Decisions:

• Apply 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).
• Learn about sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, simulation, and NPV breakeven.
• Deal with risk and changing circumstances.

Unit 5: Valuation and Business Performance:

• Manage shareholder value.
• Shareholder value creation in perspective.
• Evolution of value-based methodologies.
• Create value in restructuring and combinations.
• Financial strategy in acquisitions.
• Business valuation.
• Business restructuring and reorganizations.
• Management Buyouts (MBOs) and Management Buy-ins (MBIs).

Unit 6: Strategic and Financial Planning:

• Financial vs. Managerial Accounting.
• Explore the linkages between strategy, budgeting, costing, and performance measurement.
• Understanding what strategic planning is and why it is important
• Mission, Vision, Strategy, Goals, and Objectives.
• The outside environment and the internal context: SWOT and PESTEL analysis.
• What is happening in your company?
• Look for the drivers of value creation.

Unit 7: The Framework for Budgeting:

• What is a budget, and why create a budget?
• The budgeting framework.
• Various types of budgets.
• Understand the budgeting process and the human side of budgeting.
• Sales Forecasting and Budgeting Schedules.
• What is your company's budgeting process?
• Top-down vs. bottom-up budget.
• Incremental vs. Zero-Based.

Unit 8: Cost Analysis for Budgeting:

• What is the cost? Define costs.
• Cost behavior - Fixed and variable.
• Breakeven models - The Equation Method.
• The contribution margin concept.
• Direct and indirect costs.
• Traditional VS Activity Based Costing.
• Product VS period costs.

Unit 9: Budgeting - Controlling The Budget Variances:

• What is the situation in your organization?
• Do departments and projects organize budgeting?
• Budget variance analysis.
• Describe the difference between a static budget and a flexible budget.
• Compute flexible-budget variances and sales-volume variances.
• Explain why standard costs are often used in variance analysis.
• Integrate continuous improvement into variance analysis.

Unit 10: Beyond Budgeting: Broadening Performance Measurement Systems:

• Advantages and disadvantages of budgeting.
• How do you improve budgeting in your organization?
• What next? Beyond the Budget.
• The Balanced Scorecard: Linking strategy to budgeting to Performance Measurement.
• Financial Perspective and Customer Perspective.
• Internal Business Process Perspective, Learning and Growth Perspective.
• Develop and adapt the scorecard.