Budgeting and Cash Flow Management

Like it or not, financial planning and cash flow are essential to business accounts. Understand how cash flow forecasts and budgets are created and how to use them to manage your business in Budgeting and Cash Flow Management, a one-day MIT Business Course.

You’ll learn techniques for better budgeting, how to align budgets with goals and business strategy, how to build an accurate forecast and how to better manage the cash-conversion cycle. These are essential skills for any business owner or manager – learn them here at MIT.

Who should attend?
SME owner/managers, managers in Not-For-Profits and business managers, who are required to make use of budgets and forecasts in managing their business.

Outcomes:
At the end of this MIT Business Course for SMEs you will:
- Confidently distinguish between budgets and forecasts
- Readily compare budgets with forecast and actual results
- Understand the impact of budgets on organisational performance
- Understand the difference between cash and accrual accounting
- Have learned techniques for creating accurate cash flow forecasts
- Have looked at the components used for managing the cash conversion cycle
- Understand budget and forecast alignment

Training style:
- Presented by industry expert
- Real-life case studies
- Group discussion
- Action planning for your business with in-class feedback
- Post-course follow-up

Core content:
Introduction to budgeting:
- Budgets vs. forecasts
- Sources of information
- Budgeting tools
- Budget formats and layouts

Techniques for better budgeting:
- Incremental vs. zero based budgets
- Fantasy factor – identify unrealistic targets
- Budget comparison with forecast and actual results
- Variance analysis

Impact of budgets on the organisation:
- Budget targets
- Motivating and de-motivating factors
- Budget-aligned incentive programs
- Alignment with goals and strategies

Introduction to cash flow:
- Cash vs. accrual accounting
- Elements of a cash flow statement
- Confirm forecast period
- Formats and layouts

Building accurate cash flow forecasts:
- Revenue and expenditure patterns
- Impact of capex and investment activities
- Confirm acceptable debt level

Managing the cash conversion cycle:
- Receivable collection terms
- Payable credit terms
- Inventory optimisation
- Exchange rate management

Aligning budgets and cash forecasts:
- Use of budgets as a start point
- Ensuring that cash flow forecasts align with budgets
- Use of rolling forecasts

Phone 0800 SKILL UP (754 5587) or email businesstraining@manukau.ac.nz