American Strategic Management Institute

Budgeting, Planning & ForecastingOrganizational budgeting is a necessary but often cumbersome and unreliable process. Financial managers are under increasing pressure from internal decision makers to improve and streamline their budgeting process"to provide greater alignment between resources and results, improved forecasting and tracking of resource allocation, and improved control over resource management. This training course will provide attendees with a variety of budgeting techniques that will streamline and improve their internal budgeting and forecasting processes"resulting in improved resource management at all levels.

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Budgeting, Planning & Forecasting
DAY ONE: Streaming and Aligning Your Measures to Improve Budgeting & Planning Processes

Module 1: Aligning Budgets & Plans with Strategic Vision
• Formulating business plans and budgets in terms of overall objectives and mission
• Setting forecasts that match objectives rather than past performance
• Applying the BSC and strategy maps to budgeting and planning processes

Module 2: Identifying and Leveraging Value Drivers for Improved Budgeting and Planning
• Recognize the right Value Drivers for effective score carding, planning, budgeting and forecasting
• Plan, identify and implement the few vital measures that truly drive the success of the business
• Understand the keys to sustainability to continue flourishing after implementation

Module 3: Transitioning from Traditional Budgeting to Rolling Forecasts
• Realizing that traditional budgeting approaches and processes are burdensome to rapid response
• Establish a top-down-bottom-up process to budgeting through rolling forecasts
• Understand the cost benefit analysis of transitioning and the essential elements of a budgeting process by utilizing rolling forecasts

DAY TWO: Forecasting & Monitoring Financial Performance

Module 4: Complying with Sarbanes-Oxley and Developing Predictive Transparency
• Execute effective measures for complying with the myriad of Sarbanes-Oxley requirement
• Apply Sarbanes-Oxley strategies as effective tools for financial performance
• Execute predictive transparency methods for sharper compliance and better decision making

Module 5: Monitoring for Performance Improving Decision Making for Budgeting and Planning through Utilizing Real Time Data
• Guiding the budget process through identifying risk
• Simplifying features to base forecasts on imperative statistical analysis
• Adopting a system that is right for your organization

Module 6 Streamlining Your Budgeting Process
• Identifying non-value-added steps to the budget process for streamlining
• Harnessing new technologies and approaches to providing budget information faster and in more user-friendly formats