Integrated Planning, Forecasting, and Budgeting for Organizational Success (PLF4)

Overview

Planning may be one of the most important assignments of the finance professional; however, it is often accomplished in a way that can harm the organization. In many cases, huge sums are spent only to have a planning document developed that does not serve to bring the company together, but rather causes internal division. In some situations the budget can actually harm both productivity and alignment. This course is designed to bring planning, budgeting, and forecasting together into one fully aligned process that is easier, more efficient, and fully engages all parts of the organization. Rather than the plan being owned by the finance department, it is owned and followed by everyone from the CEO to the entry-level employee.

Major Topics:

• Differences between planning and budgeting
• The business model
• Strategic plan, marketing plan, and technology plan
• Financial forecasting and financial risk analysis
• Five-year operating plan and the sales/income plan
• Intermediate planning and capital equipment planning
• One-year operating plan and monthly planning
• Cash plan and risk plan

Learning Objectives:

• Implement an integrated approach to planning, budgeting and forecasting for a more uniform process throughout the organization
• Avoid the political pitfalls that often come with the planning process
• Maximize the usefulness of the different plans developed for the organization
• Identify the differences between strategic and incremental planning
• Perform a financial risk analysis
• Perform an EVA analysis (PV, ROI and Modified ROI)
• Be familiar with the results of the case studies and exercises that reinforce key learning points throughout the course