Course details

Overview ?

The Course

Planning, Forecasting & Budgeting are 3 of the most important functions in business. Performed properly they can lead to exceptional success. Yet many people do not use the tools available to them to their best advantage. In this course we will leverage the power of Excel® to demonstrate how to improve your forecasting, planning and budgeting. By developing better spreadsheets & models, planning is more accurate, forecasting is more precise & budgeting is more attainable. And the time to develop these is dramatically reduced.

Forecasts, plans and budgets may be improved through extensive what-if analysis to find key factors for management to monitor. Furthermore, these tools can be easily transferred into business plans which provide the guide to the overall performance of the firm.

Techniques you will master include:

goal seek
scenario manager
sensitivity analysis
solver
decision models

The course's usefulness is enhanced by the fact that it is designed to apply to both Excel® ’03 & ‘07 - to enable you to use it more effectively.

The course demonstrates every technique discussed using Excel® templates that will be provided all delegates so bring your laptop to optimize the experience.

The Goals

On completion of this course delegates will be able to:

Fully understand the various Excel® tools available to perform planning, forecasting & budgeting
Perform sophisticated “what-if” scenarios to improve decision making
Know what Excel® techniques to use in a given situation
Properly use some of the most advanced spreadsheet techniques
Know when to take a chance & when not to
Learn to use & expand a range of Excel® models (provided)

The Process

The training comprises teaching sessions covering each topic area with the theory blended with practical application. Additionally, real world examples & case studies will be used so that the Delegates will be able to apply these techniques immediately. Delegates will use the provided Excel® templates to apply their new knowledge case studies to reinforce the concepts.

The Benefits

The organization will benefit by:

Having Experts in-house to develop advanced decision support models
Increased productivity of personnel involved in planning, forecasting & budgeting
Improved performance of plans developed into budgets
Better ways to plan & measure results of forecasts
Realizing better options when facing forecasting choices
Better integration between functional areas leading to better decisions

The Results

The delegate will benefit by:

Developing an improved understanding of how well prepared Excel® models benefit the corporate in today’s challenging world.
Really understanding the risks & rewards of various planning decisions
Being able to calculate the impact of alternative inputs on critical outputs
Understanding to cost/benefit of every decision
Enhancing their knowledge with the use of the models in the case studies
Significantly increasing their Excel® analysis skills

The Programme Content

Day One

Introduction to Spreadsheets using Excel®

Worksheet fundamentals
Using the F4 key for Relative & Absolute cell references
Expose ALL formulas in a worksheet using the built in function for faster review
Naming cells & ranges for quicker, more accurate work
Freeze panes, columns & rows for easier viewing while scrolling
Protecting cells & ranges to stabilize models
Function wizard benefits
Linking cells from various worksheets to reduce errors
Secret key board shortcuts
Case study: create, build & protect a reusable template

Day Two

Proper Planning

Introduction to planning
What-if analysis
- scenario analysis techniques
- sensitivity analysis using spinners & scroll bars
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)
Build out Data tables to see an entire range of options
1-way Data tables
2-way Data tables
Maximizing vs. optimizing techniques
Utilizing The Goal Seek command to calculate a reverse equation
Using Solver to calculate optimal product mix, distribution problems & capital budgeting
Case study & template for using Solver to plan the Optimal product mix

Day Three

Fantastic Forecasting

What is forecasting?
Qualitative techniques & their uses
Quantitative techniques & their uses
- Smoothing techniques
- Regression analysis
- Time series analysis
Forecasting growth rates for verification
Internal (IGR)
Sustainable (SGR)
MIN and MAX functions
MEDIAN, MODE & AVERAGE functions
GEOMEAN to calculate Average Growth Rate (AGR)
When to use RANK, QUARTILE & PERCENTILE
Case study & template: Use the GEOMEAN function to calculate your AGR

Day Four

Beyond Budgeting

What is a budget?
How to build a simple budget
Build a Flexible Budget Model
Build out a complete budget
- Operating budget elements
- Financial budget elements
- Linking them
What is the Variance Analysis report & why is it important to improve your budget
Calculating variance analysis to see what must be changed
Case study & template: Build a complete budget

Day Five

Putting it together – building the comprehensive model

Build your planning model
Build your forecasting model
Build your budgeting model
Link these together
Leverage optimization through capital structure (Case study Example)
Bond buybacks (Case study Example)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Training Methodology

Course name

Duration

City

Price