EFFECTIVE BUDGETING & OPERATIONAL COST CONTROL

TRAINING OVERVIEW

The Budgeting and Operational Cost Control training course places a crucial emphasis on managing financial performance, providing an essential focal point for organizations. Effectively implementing budgeting and operational cost control practices is instrumental in sustaining competitiveness by embracing best practices and utilizing appropriate planning and control tools to enhance value for both customers and shareholders. The course addresses key activities, including budget preparation, analysis, and the management and control of costs, ensuring the fulfilment of long-term strategies. Individuals involved in the budgeting process and cost management, at various levels such as departmental, business unit, project, or organizational, will find the comprehensive coverage of these areas highly beneficial.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

• Practical management accounting applications
• The budget process and best practice
• Traditional and alternative methods of budgeting and cost control
• Purposes and benefits of cost analysis
• KPIs and the balanced scorecard

By the end of this training course, delegates will be able to:

• Implement the budgeting process.
• Identify the diverse types of cost behaviour.
• Consider traditional and innovative approaches to budgeting and cost control.
• Conduct cost analysis.
• Use a balanced scorecard.

TRAINING IS TAILORED TO

This DixonTech training course caters to a diverse range of professionals, offering significant benefits to individuals with both direct and indirect budget responsibilities, whether within a team, department, division, or at the corporate level. It is particularly well-suited for early career professionals engaged in fast-track development programs, as well as individuals from various business disciplines and departments involved in the budgeting process. This encompasses professionals in roles such as:

• Project management
• Financial planning, costing and control.
• Departmental planning and management
• Cost centre, revenue centre, profit centre, investment centre management
• Manufacturing, production, engineering, human resources, marketing, and sales

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

DixonTech's training course seamlessly integrates theoretical concepts with practical application, employing a multifaceted approach that includes presentations, discussions, team exercises, and case studies. The instructional sessions draw on real-life illustrations and examples derived from the instructors' extensive industrial and commercial backgrounds. This comprehensive blend of proven learning techniques is meticulously designed to ensure a stimulating, enjoyable, and highly effective learning experience.

DAY ONE:

INTRODUCTION: BUILDING A COMMON FINANCIAL LANGUAGE

• The key role of budgeting and cost control in contemporary organizations
• Budgetary planning and control
• The importance of value – for customers and shareholders
• Financial and management accounting
• Integrating the financial and non-financial aspects of budgeting
• Financial planning and the budgeting process

DAY TWO:

THE BUDGETING PROCESS

• The key features of budgeting
• Advantages and disadvantages of budgeting
• Divisionalisation and responsibility accounting
• Operating budgets: zero-based, incremental, and activity-based
• Capital budgets.
• Cash budgets

DAY THREE:

COST ANALYSIS

• Different costs for different purposes
• Fixed costs and variable costs
• Cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis
• Contribution and marginal costing
• Absorption costing
• Decision-making

DAY FOUR:

TRADITIONAL AND ADVANCED TECHNIQUES OF COST CONTROL

• Indirect costs (overheads) and direct costs
• Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability
• Traditional cost allocation systems and activity-based costing (ABC)
• Refinement of the costing system
• Activity based budgeting (ABB)
• Standard costing, flexed budgets, and variance analysis

DAY FIVE:

BEYOND THE BUDGETS, THE BALANCED SCORECARD AND SIX SIGMA

• Broadening performance measurement systems
• Innovative approaches to costing
• Integrating financial and non-financial performance measures
• The balanced scorecard
• Strategy maps
• Six sigma