Effective Budgeting and Operational Cost Control

Overview:

Introduction:

The effective management of budgets and operational costs is a key aspect of leading and managing organizations. Nowadays, if contemporary organizations want to stay competitive, they are urged to think, plan and act in terms of value-added to customers and shareholders. Along this line, budgeting, as well as tracking, controlling & reducing cost represent essential activities to be performed and monitored as strategies get executed.

In addressing these issues, this conference is relevant for those professionals and analysts facing the difficult challenge of improving performance while reducing the costs of those processes for which there are accountable.

Conference Objectives:

At the end of this conference the participants will be able to:

• Master the budgeting process
• Understand costs behavior
• Explore traditional & innovative approaches to Budgeting & Cost Control
• Analyze process costing
• Manage balanced scorecard

Targeted Audience:

• Financial Planning & Control Staff
• Those with Direct or Indirect Financial Responsibilities
• Those From Every Business Discipline and Department Who Have to Run Departments and Budgetary Plans, and Who is Responsible for Cost and Strategic Analysis
• Those From All Sectors of Industry, Irrespective of Functional Responsibilities, But Particularly Those Involved in Manufacturing, Production, Engineering, or Sales
• Those Working in a Project Management Environment

Conference Outlines:

Unit 1: Introduction: Building a Common Financial Language

• The key role of budgeting and cost control in contemporary organizations
• The 21st-century business imperative: delivering value-added (but to whom?)
• Financial vs. Managerial accounting (for decision making)
• Understand your processes: integrating financial and non-financial aspects
• The budgeting process
• Examples & Discussion

Unit 2: The Budgeting Process

• The key features of budgeting
• Advantages and concerns with budgeting
• Accountability and centers of responsibility
• Zero-based budgeting
• Budgeting and cost control
• Examples & Discussion

Unit 3: Cost Analysis

• Different costs for different purposes
• Fixed vs. Variable costs
• The Cost-Volume-Profit analysis model
• Contribution Margin analysis
• Examples & Discussion

Unit 4: Traditional vs. Advanced Techniques in Cost-Control

• Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability
• Indirect (OH) vs. Direct costs:
• Traditional Cost Allocations systems vs. Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
• Linking resources, activities, and management
• Variance analysis
• Video, Case Study, and Examples

Unit 5: Beyond the Budgets: Balanced scorecards and Six-sigma

• Broadening performance measurement systems
• Beyond budgeting: integrating financial and non-financial issues
• Introducing the Balanced Scorecard
• Introducing the Strategy maps
• Introducing Six-sigma
• Video, Case Study and examples