Advanced Planning, Budgeting and Cost Control

Budgetary control is the most widely used tool for planning and monitoring organizational activities. Importantly, the budgets are inextricably linked with both strategy formulation and cost analysis. For these reasons, it is crucial to interpret how costs behave so that realistic budgets and plans can be produced, and appropriate financial and non-financial resources can be made available to the business. Knowing some of the limitations of budgetary control, it is also imperative to complement and integrate the budgets with other organizational techniques, such as the balanced scorecard. Therefore, this course will allow you to explore the traditional tools of budgeting as well as new dynamic approaches that reflect and respond to the current complex and volatile business environment. This course enables participants to: Integrate the organization’s strategic planning with budgets and processes of cost control Identify the budgeting/financial skills required for better decision-making, whether for continuing business or project or a new business venture Identify sources of financial and business data that provide insights into business and financial strategies when converted to budgets Explore traditional versus innovative budgetary techniques Explore traditional versus innovative cost analysis techniques Get to know activity-based budgeting (and costing) Explore capital budgeting techniques Question the problems and limitations of budgetary control and look for alternative tools Understand the importance of balancing financial and non-financial aspect of the business Explore budgets and performance measurement as communication tools