Excel Budgeting and Forecasting Tools and Techniques
Full Day Course
Are your budgeting and forecasting processes working as well for you as they should? Probably not, as many organizations report that budgeting and forecasting activities consume tremendous amounts of time and yield only marginal benefits. In this course, you will learn how to achieve a greater return on your budgeting and forecasting activities by taking advantage of various tools and techniques available in today’s market.
In addition to learning about how to utilize Excel more effectively for budgeting and forecasting activities, you will also learn about other tools, such as Budget Maestro, PROPHIX, and Host Analytics, and how reducing your dependency on Excel can lead to better results. Additionally, you will learn how to account for risk and uncertainty in your budgeting and forecasting models and why doing so is a best practice for more meaningful budgets and forecasts. If you are involved in budgeting and forecasting activities, you will not want to miss this opportunity to learn how to reduce the amount of time you spend on these tasks, while simultaneously increasing their value.
In addition to learning about how to utilize Excel more effectively for budgeting and forecasting activities, you will also learn about other tools, such as Budget Maestro, PROPHIX, and Host Analytics, and how reducing your dependency on Excel can lead to better results. Additionally, you will learn how to account for risk and uncertainty in your budgeting and forecasting models and why doing so is a best practice for more meaningful budgets and forecasts. If you are involved in budgeting and forecasting activities, you will not want to miss this opportunity to learn how to reduce the amount of time you spend on these tasks, while simultaneously increasing their value.
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course, you should be able to:
- Utilize processes for obtaining budget data and collaborating with others when using Excel including Shared and Merged Workbooks, Excel’s Audit Trail, controlling and validating data input, and collaborating with others
- Apply various Excel techniques for interacting with the accounting system, such as Office Data Connections, Open Database Connectivity, importing text files, and linking Internet-based data into budgeting and forecasting models
- Identify situations in which various Excel techniques are appropriately implemented, such as using Data Tables for sensitivity analysis, working with Excel’s Goal Seek feature, using Solver to maximize scarce resources, working with Scenario Manager, forecasting with Regression Analysis, and analyzing risk with Monte Carlo simulations
- Implement various Excel functions – including NPV, IRR, XNPV, and XIRR – in capital budgeting situations, and identify the various methods by which Excel computes depreciation
- Compare and contrast Excel with other applications used for budgeting and forecasting activities and describe situations in which other solutions should be used to reduce the dependency on Excel as a budgeting and forecasting solution
Course Information
- CPE credit: Recommended for 7 hours
- Instructional delivery method: This course will be taught in Excel for Office 365 with reference to the differences to Excel 2010 and subsequent. The program focuses on Excel for Windows and we encourage you to bring your windows laptop equipped with Excel 2010 or newer to follow along with the instructor.
- Prerequisites: Fundamental knowledge of Microsoft Office Excel 2010 or newer
- Program level: Intermediate
- Advance preparation: None
- Who should participate: Business professionals involved in budgeting and forecasting activities. The focus of this session is on Excel for Windows; however, many of the Excel features discussed are also available in Excel for Mac.