Course objectives
This course has been designed to introduce participants to the techniques used by accountants for financial planning and financial management. The main focus of the course is on how these techniques can be used by anyone to improve their personal financial management and to appreciate the impact of their decisions on the overall performance of the organisation they work for.
Typical content
- Introduction to budgeting and costing, the behavioural aspects and the relationship with strategic planning
- Cost control – understanding the different types of cost and how to control them.
- Fixed costs, variable costs, sunk costs and stepped costs
- The concept of activity-based costing
- Identifying efficiency savings and other opportunities
- Cost control techniques including the use of management accounts and variance analysis
- Introduction to budgeting – for a single project and for a team or department
- Types of budget including zero based and flexible budgets
- Relationship between budgeting and cost control including standard costing systems
Typical practical work and case studies
- Understanding the types of costs relevant to decision making and how these costs can be controlled
- Case study assessment of typical management accounts looking at profitability and working capital management. The case study will also include comparison of actual to budgeted performance
- Short practical examples of all the different techniques introduced – setting a simple budget for a department
- Case study – assessment of performance of three separate departments operating within the same organisation.
Duration and guideline fee
3 hour course – £850
6 hour course – £1,700
Recommended maximum group size – 30
Potts Financial Training 