Training on Cost Estimation, Budgeting and Cost Control

About the Course 

Projects and/or businesses cannot be successful without accurate and timely project cost estimating. Estimating is a practice that occurs throughout the project/ business management lifecycle, and so it must be done effectively and efficiently. In today's firms, cost analysis and budgeting are essential components of management. Companies nowadays are recommended to align their strategies with precise systems of resource allocation and performance evaluation if they desire to remain competitive. In keeping with this, planning, cost tracking, control, and reduction are crucial tasks that businesses must carry out and keep an eye on while they undertake their most crucial aspects. 

This training program is important for professionals and analysts who must improve performance while lowering costs for the processes they are responsible for. In an era of intensifying global competitiveness, where budgets are intrinsically tied to both the accomplishment of strategic objectives and the assessment of upcoming plans and initiatives, this training course equips participants with key cost awareness and budgeting skills. 

Target Participants 

This course is ideal for finance professionals, project staff, sales/marketing professionals, accounting professionals, procurement staff, all those responsible for making significant decisions concerning costs, plans and budgets for projects and anyone who wants to refine and advance their budgeting and costing knowledge 

Course Duration 

Online 

7 Days 

Classroom-based   

5 Days 

What You Will Learn 

By the end of this course the participants will be able to: 

• Understand the importance of a well-defined costing and budgeting process 

• Determine full costs of outputs for the goods and services provided 

• Apply traditional techniques and recent best practices on budgeting / cost management 

• Link finance and operation for budgeting purposes and strategy execution 

• Learn how to build a comprehensive performance measurement system 

Course Outline 

Introduction to Budgeting and Cost Management 

• The link between strategy, planning, budgeting and cost management 

• Key concepts and terminologies of budgeting/costing  

• The role of budgeting within management accounting 

• Financial vs. managerial accounting 

• Overview on the financial statements - balance sheet, income statement and cash-flow 

• Understand the processes: integrating financial and non-financial aspects 

The Budgeting Framework 

• Common budgeting approaches/models 

• Process flow of an organization 

• Budgeting in small/large companies 

• Top down vs. bottom-up involvement 

• Sources of information 

• Revenue and cost drivers 

• Relationship between activities, resources, costs, and cost drivers 

• Building the budget 

Cost Management for Budgeting Purposes   

• Cost concepts and terminology 

• Different costs for different purposes 

• Fixed vs. variable costs: the Cost-Volume-Profit analysis model 

• Contribution margin analysis 

• Period vs. product costs: inventory evaluation and control 

• Variance analysis: budget vs. actual 

Traditional vs. Advanced Techniques in Cost-control   

• Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability 

• How to refine a costing system 

• Indirect vs. direct costs: traditional cost allocations systems vs. activity-based costing 

• Cost drivers: linking resources, activities and management 

• Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) and Management (ABM) 

 Performance Measurement Systems   

• Shortcomings of traditional approaches to budgeting and performance measurement 

• Need to linking financial to operational issues 

• Recent best practices: the Balanced Scorecard and Six-sigma 

• Financial perspective, customer perspective 

• Internal business process perspective  

• Learning and growth perspective 

• Developing and adapting the scorecard 

Training Approach 

This course is delivered by our seasoned trainers who have vast experience as expert professionals in their respective fields of practice. The course is taught through a mix of practical activities, presentations, group works and case studies. 

Training manuals and additional reference materials are provided to the participants. 

Certification 

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be issued a certificate. 

Tailor-Made Course 

We can also do this as a tailor-made course to meet organization-wide training needs. A training needs assessment will be done on the training participants to collect data on the existing skills, knowledge gaps, training expectations and tailor-made needs.