49 Budgeting courses in Cardiff

About this training course This 3-day introductory-level course provides a comprehensive overview of Auditing in the Exploration & Production (E&P) industry. It is suitable for anyone who wants to gain a broader understanding of Upstream Oil & Gas Auditing - including joint venture, financial and contractual audits by government and regulatory authorities in the various granting regimes (Production Sharing Contracts, Risk Service Contracts, Concessionary). Training Objectives After the completion of this training course, participants will be able to: Gain knowledge of the unique features or key phases of the E&P Business Understand the general principles and objectives of the various different types of Upstream Oil & Gas audits Add value to your organisation by improving your audit techniques and auditing skills Review the importance of following process in order to avoid costly audit related findings. Utilize industry specific examples and exercises, develop your understanding of the most common E&P industry audit issues Target Audience This training course is suitable and will greatly benefit the following specific groups: Audit staff who are new or relatively new to the industry and who require a grounding in the various aspects of E&P Audit Finance or Accounting personnel involved in supporting audits Staff from a wide range of other business functions who are connected to / impacted by audit, such as, Supply Chain, Operations, Contracts Holders, IT, Tax and Treasury Topics will be covered from both the perspective of being part of an audit team plus that of the team being audited. Therefore, the course will appeal to staff from IOC's, NOC's and those from Government and/or Regulatory Authorities. Course Level Basic or Foundation Training Methods The training instructor relies on a highly interactive training method to enhance the learning process. This method ensures that all participants gain a complete understanding of all the topics covered. The training environment is highly stimulating, challenging, and effective because the participants will learn by case studies which will allow them to apply the material taught in their own organization. Course Duration: 3 days in total (21 hours). Training Schedule 0830 - Registration 0900 - Start of training 1030 - Morning Break 1045 - Training recommences 1230 - Lunch Break 1330 - Training recommences 1515 - Evening break 1530 - Training recommences 1700 - End of Training The maximum number of participants allowed for this training course is 25. This course is also available through our Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) format. Trainer Your expert course leader has more than 30 years of experience in the international oil and gas industry, covering all areas of Finance and Audit, including involvement in Commercial roles. During her 19 years with ENI she worked in Italy, Netherlands, Egypt and UK and was CFO for 2 major ENI subsidiaries. She has delivered training courses in Accounting, Audit, Economics and Commercial topics in many Countries. She has a Degree in Economics & Accounting and is a Certified Chartered Accountant. She is also a Chartered Auditor and an International Petroleum Negotiator. Outside of work, she is inspired by the beauty of nature and art, helping disadvantaged people, sports (football, golf) and her cat. Courses Delivered Internationally: E&P Accounting, Auditing in the Oil & Gas Industry Cost Control & Budgeting Introduction to the Oil & Gas Industry Petroleum Project Economics Contracts Strategy International O&G Exploitation Contracts POST TRAINING COACHING SUPPORT (OPTIONAL) To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized 'One to One' coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster. Request for further information post training support and fees applicable Accreditions And Affliations

About this Training Course Time is money in all industries. For the Oil & Gas industry, this is no exception and the ability to maximise return on investment is all related to where the Oil is and how easily and quickly we can get that product to the customer. Whether in a technical, managerial or supporting role, you are a valuable asset in ensuring that project delivery targets are met and profits are realised. As Petroleum Engineering (PE) activities continue to increase, professionals like you must grasp the language and technology of PE operations in order to maximise expenditures throughout the producing life of a well. Petroleum Engineering equipment and procedures have a unique language that must be conquered for maximum benefit. Clear and understandable explanations of rig equipment, completion equipment, operations procedures, and their complex interactions provide an excellent foundation for smooth communication and increased efficiency in inter-department project team efforts. A confident understanding of the technical jargon and a visual appreciation of the various pieces of equipment used provides for an overall 'big picture' of the industry value chain. This serves as an excellent foundation for smooth communication and increased efficiency in inter-department project team efforts. This course can also be offered through Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) format. Training Objectives By the end of this course, the participants will be able to: Define the role of Petroleum Engineering and its interaction between other departments Describe terms used in the Oil & Gas industry such as Surface/Subsurface, Upstream, Midstream and Downstream Describe the Appraisal of Oil & Gas Discoveries, the Cost Estimations, Economics & Reserves Explain what is the Formation, how do we connect to it, and how do we ensure best value Describe how to construct a well, select the equipment & methods, understand the duration that the well is required to perform for Target Audience This course will benefit those in geology, reservoir engineering, equipment and maintenance, and non-petroleum engineering technical professionals as well as forward-looking executives in the following fields who are interested to enhance their knowledge and awareness of the drilling process for increased productivity and contribution to the team that they're supporting: Accounting Administration Business Development Commercial E & P IT Estimation & Proposal Finance & Administration Finance HSE General Management Joint Ventures Legal Logistics Materials Planning Planning & Budgeting Procurement Sourcing Supply Chain Tender Contract Training Drilling Fluids Course Level Basic or Foundation Trainer Your Expert Course Trainer has over 40 years of experience in the Oil & Gas industry. During that time, he has worked exclusively in well intervention and completions. After a number of years working for intervention service companies (completions, slickline & workovers), he joined Shell as a well service supervisor. He was responsible for the day-to-day supervision of all well intervention work on Shell's Persian/Arabian Gulf platforms. This included completion running, coil tubing, e-line, slickline, hydraulic workovers, well testing and stimulation operations. An office-based role as a senior well engineer followed. He was responsible for planning, programming and organising of all the well engineering and intervention work on a number of fields in the Middle East. He had a brief spell as a Site Representative for Santos in Australia before joining Petro-Canada as Completions Superintendent in Syria, then moved to Australia as Completions Operations Superintendent for Santos, before returning to Shell as Field Supervisor Completions and Well Interventions in Iraq where he carried out the first ever formal abandonment of a well in the Majnoon Field. While working on rotation, he regularly taught Completion Practices, Well Intervention, Well Integrity and Reporting & Planning courses all over the world. In 2014, he started to focus 100% on training and became the Technical Director for PetroEDGE. Since commencing delivering training courses in 2008, he has taught over 300 courses in 31 cities in 16 countries to in excess of 3,500 participants. POST TRAINING COACHING SUPPORT (OPTIONAL) To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized 'One to One' coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster. Request for further information post training support and fees applicable Accreditions And Affliations

In today's competitive business world firms are under unprecedented pressure to deliver value to their shareholders and other key stakeholders. Senior executives in all parts of the organisation are finding that they need some degree of financial know how to cope with the responsibility placed on them as business managers and key decision-makers; monitoring and improving business performance, investing in capital projects, mergers and acquisitions: all require some degree of financial knowledge. The key financial skills are not as difficult to learn as many people believe and in the hands of an experienced senior executive they can provide a formidable competitive advantage. After completing this course delegates will be able to: Understand fundamental business finance concepts; understand, analyse and interpret financial statements: Profit Statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement Understand the vital difference between profit and cashflow; identify the key components of working capital and how they can be managed to generate strong cashflow Evaluate pricing decisions based on an understanding of the nature of business costs and their impact on gross margin and break-even sales; managing pricing, discounts and costs to generate strong business profits; understand how lean manufacturing methods improve profit Use powerful analytical tools to measure and improve the performance of their own company and assess the effectiveness of their competitors Apply and interpret techniques for assessing and comparing investment opportunities in capital projects, business acquisitions and other ventures; understand and apply common methods of business valuation Understand the role of business finance in formulating and implementing competitive business strategy; the role of budgeting as part of the planning process and the various approaches to budgeting and performance measurement 1 Basic principles Delivering value to key stakeholders Accounting concepts, GAAP, IFRS and common terms Understanding and using the balance sheet Understanding and using the profit statement Recognising the vital difference between profit and cashflow Understanding and using the cashflow statement What financial statements can and cannot tell us 2 Managing and improving cashflow Sources of finance and their advantages and disadvantages What is working capital and why is it so important? Managing stocks, debtors and creditors Understanding how working capital drives business growth Understanding and avoiding the over-trading trap Unlocking the funds tied up in fixed assets: asset backed loans and leasing 3 Managing and improving profit Understanding how profits generate cashflow The fundamental nature of costs: fixed and variable business costs Understanding gross margin and break-even How common pricing methods affect gross margin and profit Effective strategies to improve gross margin Using value chain analysis to reduce costs Lean manufacturing methodsUnderstanding Just-in-time, 6 Sigma and Kaizen methods Improving profitEffective and defective strategies 4 Measuring and managing business performance Measures of financial performance and strength Investor behaviour: the risk and reward relationship Return on investment (ROI): the ultimate measure of business performance How profit margin and net asset turnover drive return on net assets Why some companies are more profitable that others Understanding competitive advantage: cost and differentiation advantage Why great companies failWhat happened to Kodak? Using a 'Pyramid of Ratios' to improve business performance Using Critical Success Factors to develop Key Performance Indicators 5 Budgeting and forecasting methods Using budgets to support strategy Objectives and methods for effective budgets Using budgets to monitor and manage business performance Alternative approaches to budgeting Developing and implementing Balanced Scorecards Beyond Budgeting Forecasting methods and techniques Identifying key business drivers Using rolling forecasts and 'what-if' models to aid decision-making

About this Training Course This 5 full-day training course looks at the setup of economic analysis cases, including the estimation of recoverable reserves, production profiles, commodity prices, and project costs - CAPEX, OPEX, taxes, royalties, transportation, depreciation, before-tax (BTAX) cash-flow, after-tax (ATAX) cash-flow and international fiscal regimes (production sharing agreement and concessionary system). The course begins from the basic required parameters of inflation, interest and time value of money. These concepts are then transformed into profitability indicators. Last but not the least, the profitability indicators are then used to make investment decisions. The emphasis of this course is to bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and their practical limitations. The participants will be able to appreciate the amount of information that they never thought of. Another emphasis of this course is also on the use of Excel's financial functions. This understanding is very critical when it comes to building economic cash-flow models. Over the years, we have seen that participants really struggle with using the Excel functions correctly and this leads to mistakes that can be easily avoided. In each session, multiple choice problems are provided to participants to reinforce their understanding of the concepts covered in the course. Many quick or tips not widely known, are also shared with the participants. The concepts covered in this course are not restricted to downstream, upstream or petrochemical projects. These concepts can be used to evaluate any type of investment under consideration. Participants will require access to computers/laptops with Excel to solve problems during the course. Training Objectives Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to fully understand the gas market dynamics and Investment Evaluation. They will be able to: Learn how to reduce exposure and mitigate risks in projects by handling uncertainty Clarify concepts such as time value of money, cash-flow models, capital budgeting, IRR, NPV, income producing investments Maximise the return on investments through good decision-making processes based on the commercial viability of projects Improve their decision process, investment and opportunity analysis Acquire the hands-on experience in building their own economic evaluation models and solving case study-based examples   Target Audience The following oil & gas company personnel will benefit from the knowledge shared in this course: Facilities and Planning engineers Project and procurement personnel Oil & gas engineers Geologists Financial Analysts Commercial managers Economists Government officials Business advisors Asset managers E&P managers Product and business development personnel   Course Level Basic or Foundation Training Methods     Organisational Impact     Trainer Your expert course leader is a globally recognised subject matter expert in petroleum/project economics and international gas market analysis. He is a recipient of the 2021 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) International Management Award, an award that recognises individuals who make significant technical and professional contributions to the petroleum engineering profession and to the worldwide oil and gas industry. He has 40 years of diversified experience in petroleum engineering, reservoir engineering, project economics and decision analysis. He had been involved in evaluating multi-billion-dollar oil and gas field development, NGL, LNG, GTL, Aluminum smelter, refinery, petrochemical, power and production sharing projects. He has worked with major oil companies such as Saudi Aramco, ZADCO, Qatar Petroleum and companies in USA. He is a registered professional Engineer in the state of Colorado, USA. He is the author of six books: Petroleum Engineering Handbook for the Practicing Engineer, Vol. I and Vol. II, published by PennWell Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. Project Economics and Decision Analysis, Vol. I and Vol. II, published by PennWell Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. These books are used as textbooks in universities worldwide to teach petroleum economics to undergraduates and graduate students. Tip & Tricks in Excel based Financial Modeling, Vol. 1 & 2, published by Business Expert Press, New York, USA. He has also authored several papers in the Oil & Gas Journal, The Log Analyst, World Oil, SPE Journals, and Oil & Gas Financial Journal. He has delivered lectures in more than 25 countries around the globe. He has always received excellent feedback, as an expert presenter, from the participants of his courses. Daily daily_agenda     POST TRAINING COACHING SUPPORT (OPTIONAL) To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized 'One to One' coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster. Request for further information post training support and fees applicable Accreditions And Affliations

An insightful, enjoyable and experiential programme to help you analyse data and information and make a balanced decision based upon sound commercial reasoning. It will enable you to identify options, make decisions and take actions based on a thorough analysis combined with instinct and intuition to make a positive effect on profitability. This programme will help you: Identify ways to analyse data and sort relevant from irrelevant information Develop analytical and numerate thinking, and consider the financial implications of a decision Make decisions based on sound commercial reasoning - a mix of intuition and analysis Select from a range of tools to analyse a situation and apply these effectively Understand how costs and profits are calculated Use tried-and-tested techniques to manage and control your budgets Appreciate the fundamentals of financial analysis Focus on the bottom line Identify the basics of capital investment appraisal for your business Evaluate results and seek opportunities for improvement to your business 1 The commercial environment What do shareholders and investors want? What do managers want? Profit v non-profit organisations Investor expectations 2 Financial and non-financial information Risk and reward considerations Drivers of commercial decisions 3 Running a business A practical exercise to bring financial statements to life Different stakeholder interests in a business The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements 4 Where do I make a difference to the organisation? How can I contribute to an improved business performance? Key performance indicators - measuring the right things A 'balanced scorecard' approach - it's not all about money! 5 A 'balanced scorecard' approach Analysing and reviewing my contribution to the business direction What is the current focus of my commercial decisions? Developing the business in the right way - getting the balance right! Where should/could it be in the future? Do my decisions support the overall vision and strategy? 6 Making commercial decisions Left-brain and right-brain thinking Convergent and divergent thinking Analysis and instinct Interactive case study exercise - emotional and rational decisions Reflection - what is my style of making decisions 7 Let's consider the customer! Identifying target markets Differentiating propositions and products Customer service considerations Marketing considerations and initiatives Pricing strategies and considerations 8 Strategic analysis The external environment The internal environment LEPEST analysis SWOT analysis Forecasting Group activity - analysing markets and the competition How do these improve your decisions? 9 Comparing performance Analysing key financial ratios Ways to compare performance and results Break-even analysis 10 Profit and loss accounts and budgeting Managing income and expenditure The budgeting process How does this link to the profit and loss account? Managing and controlling a cost centre/budget The role of the finance department Different ways of budgeting Incremental budgeting Zero-based budgeting 11 Understanding the balance sheet Purpose of balance sheets Understanding and navigating the content What does a balance sheet tell you? How do you affect your balance sheet? Links to the profit and loss account A practical team exercise that brings financial statements to life 12 Business decisions exercise How does this improve your decisions? A practical exercise to apply new knowledge and bring commercial thinking to to life The impact and consequences of decisions on financial statements 13 Working capital Why is this important? The importance of keeping cash flowing Business decisions that affect cash Calculating profit 14 Capital investment appraisal Capex v Opex Payback Return on investment The future value of money The concept of hurdle rate 15 Lessons learned and action planning So what? Recap and consolidation of learning The decisions that I need to consider Actions to achieve my plan

Finance doesn't have to be a puzzle. And if you want to get anywhere with your career, it had better not be! Whatever your role, you have an impact on the financial wellbeing of the organisation you work for, whether you've got specific financial responsibilities or not. This thoroughly practical, fun and enjoyable one-day workshop will help unpuzzle finance for you. It's an ideal opportunity to master the terminology, get to grips with the concepts, learn how 'the finance department' works and understand the part you play. This course will help participants: Appreciate the role and importance of Finance within organisations Be able to recognise and describe some of the common items and jargon used Identify the elements of the Profit & Loss and the Balance Sheet Understand cashflow Make better decisions Manage budgets 1 Introduction Expectations Terminology Key financial principlesAccrualsConsistencyPrudenceGoing concern 2 The three main financial statements Profit & Loss accountIncomeCost of salesGross profitAdministrative expenses ('overheads')Net profit/(loss) for the financial year (the 'bottom line')P&L format Balance SheetTerminologyFixed AssetsCurrent AssetsCurrent LiabilitiesLong-term LiabilitiesCapitalB/S format Cashflow Statement Financial and management information systems 3 Budgets and forecasts Why budget? Types of budget - incremental or zero-based Budgeting for costs - fixed and variable Budgeting for income An eight point plan for budgeting for your department Case study: Small Brother Ltd Problems and solutions 4 Accruals Accruals - what and why? Prepayments 5 Open forum

Overview This course is an essential for those wanting to understand the language used by accountants and how financial statements fit together. No prior knowledge or experience is required.

About this Training Course Whether you are maintaining an oil rig or processing plant, good quality maintenance is critical to delivering a safe reliable product to your customers. Whatever your level of maintenance experience, this course will equip you with the valuable skills and understanding that will enhance your maintenance career. Too often the maintenance department is seen as the cause of why assets are unavailable, in poor condition yet are costing too much to maintain. By comparison, pace setting companies see maintenance as adding value to their assets and employ an integrated, holistic approach to their maintenance activities. This course will help you move towards that pace setting performance. This course is based on an integrated maintenance model that has been used by leading companies and consultants with success and recognised as best practice. Participants will learn the total impact that maintenance can have on a business, identify key elements (and value) of effective maintenance for their own plants to not only reduce costs but also improve performance. The critical types of maintenance will be covered from day-to-day activities to shutdowns and reliability improvement. The course will break down traditional functional boundaries and encourage a holistic approach to maintenance. With an organisation's maintenance process only as good as its weakest link, this course will guide participants through all the key steps of a maintenance process and its supply chain. Participants will understand what is considered a good standard for each step in the maintenance process, how to identify the weakest links and subsequently how they can accelerate their performance improvement. Participants will have the option of gaining a Bronze Level qualification from the Academy of Turnarounds Operations of Maintenance. For those who obtain a pass, they will receive a Pass certificate and for those who achieve the top quartile score, they will receive a Distinction level pass. This course can also be offered through Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) format. Training Objectives By the end of the course, participants will be able to: Explain the challenges and objectives facing maintenance organisations today Demonstrate the importance of work order systems and use techniques for time estimations and priority assignments Prepare a preventive maintenance program Apply project management techniques to effectively manage major maintenance activities and shut downs Use capital budgeting techniques to evaluate maintenance capital expenditures Demonstrate understanding of how to maintain the optimal stock levels of spare parts to ensure operational continuity Prepare the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate and improve performance in maintenance Target Audience This course is not just for maintenance professionals. Maintenance teams cannot perform without effective integration with operations and supply chain functions. Availability losses are often caused by operations or design issues and pace setting companies have generated significant benefits by integrating operation and maintenance strategies and working more collaboratively. This course will help all members of the operations and maintenance teams and their supply chain better understand their respective roles in ensuring that maintenance is benefitting and not inhibiting their business. Course Level Basic or Foundation Trainer Your expert course leader is a highly experienced facilitator in maintenance improvement, change management, continuous improvement and capability development as a management coach and trainer. He has a strong focus on people with an emphasis on developing people and the practicalities of improving maintenance performance rather than just the theory. He has worked internationally across Europe, America, the Middle East and Africa with extensive experience in Oil and Gas, the Chemicals sector and manufacturing as well as working with clients in Steel and Power Generation. As a result, he can bring best practice from a wide variety of sources. He spent the first fifteen years of his career as a specialist trainer working for companies such as Lloyds British Training Services and Rolls Royce. He then went on to work as a Principal consultant for ABB consulting for 15 years. During this time, he refined some of the established improvement tools including how and when to apply them for maximum impact whilst still continuing to develop and deliver training in support of this. Recent work has included improvements to the Work Order to Work Execution processes of Engineering departments and focused on Reliability, Planning and Scheduling. This ongoing field experience has helped him test and refine specialist training in a number of areas. He has been able to use his own experience to contribute with other maintenance specialists to the Carcharodon models of excellence. Its methodologies are recognised as 'Best of the Best' standards providing the inspiration for two books, projects that have won awards such as the prodigious UK Chemical Industries annual Excellence in Engineering award and form the basis of this training. He was recently awarded a national award as coach of the year. He uses the same skills to ensure that he does not just preach maintenance best practice, he discusses it, explains it and ensures that delegates have a much more personal and flexible experience. POST TRAINING COACHING SUPPORT (OPTIONAL) To further optimise your learning experience from our courses, we also offer individualized 'One to One' coaching support for 2 hours post training. We can help improve your competence in your chosen area of interest, based on your learning needs and available hours. This is a great opportunity to improve your capability and confidence in a particular area of expertise. It will be delivered over a secure video conference call by one of our senior trainers. They will work with you to create a tailor-made coaching program that will help you achieve your goals faster. Request for further information post training support and fees applicable Accreditions And Affliations

What do engineers and project managers need to know of finance? 'Nothing - leave it to the accountants!' No, no, no! Engineers must be conversant with the terminology and statements that accountants use. Technical expertise in projects, service delivery, production or other areas can only really be harnessed if the managers understand the accounting and reporting that drives businesses. This course gives the necessary understanding to project, production and technical managers. It develops their skills in understanding financial and management accounting. Accountants may not always like it but a major part of their work is to be the 'servants of business' and to gather, compile and present your figures. So you must understand the figures - they belong to you, your processes or projects. There are many reasons for maintaining accurate accounts. This course focuses on the strategic issues (those over-used words) - what figures reveal about the drivers of business and what they reveal about the day-to-day issues that accountants bother you with. The course will enhance your understanding of finance and of the accounting issues which affect your projects, production and technical areas of business. This course will help you: Understand the business world in figures - make sense of what the accountants are telling you Appreciate what drives business - and how this affects your role in your part of the business Relate your activities to the success of the business - through figures Gain the skills to advance in management - financial awareness is a 'must have' if you are to progress in your career 1 What do accountants do? The finance function, types of accountant, financial v management accounting and the treasury function Understanding the role of the finance function and how the information you provide may be used 2 The basic financial statements Balance sheets and income statements (P&L accounts) What they are, what they contain and above all what they can reveal - how to read them The accounting process - from transactions to financial statements What underpins the statements - accounting systems and internal controls 3 Why be in business - from a financial perspective The driving forces behind financial information Performance measures - profitability, asset utilisation, sales and throughput, managing capital expenditure 4 Accounting rules - accounting standards Accounting concepts and the accounting rules: accruals, 'going concern' - substance over form and other 'desirable qualities' Accruals - why the timing of a transaction is so important to the finance function Depreciation and amortisation - the concepts and practice Accounting standards - the role of International Financial Reporting Standards 5 Cash The importance of cash flow - working capital management Cash flow statements - monitoring overall cash flows Raising cash - levels of borrowing, gearing Spending cash - an outline of capital expenditure appraisal 6 Budgeting Why budget? - good and bad practice Determining why budgets play a key role and should not be simply an annual ritual Justifying your budgets - the link between the strategic plan and day-to-day budgeting - alignment of company culture Budgets as motivators - the importance of the right culture Techniques to improve budgeting - whether day-to-day or capital budgeting 7 Costing The type and detail of costing very much depends on your business - eg, manufacturing piston rings is quite different from the construction of a power plant Issues with overhead allocation Accounting for R&D 8 Reading financial statements Annual financial statements - why they are produced, what's in them and what you should look for Learning what a set of accounts reveals about a company's current situation, profitability and future prospects 9 Performance measurement - analytical reviews and ratio analysis ROI/ROCE Profitability, margins and cost control Sales - asset turnover Efficiency (asset / stock turnover, debtor / creditor days) 'City' measures Investment (interest / dividend cover, earnings per share, dividend yield)

Businesses that don't control their costs don't stay in business. How well are you doing? Is everyone in your organisation sufficiently aware of costs, managing them effectively and maximising opportunities to reduce them? If there is scope for improvement, this course will help get you back on track. It will demonstrate that cost reduction is so much more than cost control and cost cutting. True cost management is about being aware of costs, seeking to reduce them through good design and efficient operating practices whilst taking continuing action on overspending. This course will develop the participants' skills in: Being aware of costs at all times Seeking cost reduction from the start (including life-cycle costing) Appraising projects / production to identify and take out risk Understanding real budgeting Using techniques such as ZBB and ABC where appropriate Ensuring cost reports lead to action Managing a cost reduction process that delivers Benefits to the organisation will include: Identification of cost reduction and business improvement opportunities Better reporting and ownership of costs Greater awareness and control of everyday costs 1 Introduction - the cost management process The risks of poor cost control Capital and revenue costs The importance of cost awareness The importance of cost reduction Cost management - the key aspects How to build a cost management and control process checklist for your areas of responsibility 2 Cost removal - taking out costs Cost awareness Costs of poor design / poor processes Value engineering Removing redundant costs 3 The need for commercial, technical and financial appraisals Understand the problems before cash is committed and costs incurred Making the effort to identify commercial and technical risk The time value of money - DCF techniques for long term projects Cost models for production processes and projects Costing models - project appraisals The use of spreadsheets to identify sensitivity and risk How to focus on risk management 4 Budgeting - proper budgeting challenges costs The philosophy of the business - are costs an issue? The importance of having the right culture The need for detailed business objectives Budgetary control measures Designing budget reports - for action 5 Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) - the principles Much more than starting with a clean sheet of paper What ZBB can achieve The concept of decision packages - to challenge business methods and costs Only necessary costs should be incurred A review of an operating budget - demonstrating what ZBB challenges and the costs it may lead to being taken out 6 Awareness of overheads and other costs Definitions of cost - direct and indirect Dealing with overheads - what is meant by allocation, absorption or apportionment? The apparent and real problems with overheads Different ways of dealing with overheads Review of overhead allocation methods and accounting and reporting issues 7 Overheads and product costing Activity-based costing (ABC) - the principles Where and how the ABC approach may be helpful Know the 'true' cost of a product or a project Should you be in business? Will you stay in business? Identifying weaknesses in a traditional overhead allocation How ABC will help improve product or service costing Identifying which products and activities should be developed and which abandoned 8 Cost reduction culture The need for cost reports What measures can be used to identify over-spends as early as possible Cost control performance measures and ratios 9 Design of cost control reports Reports should lead to action and deliver Selecting cost control measures which can be acted upon Practice in designing action reports 10 Course summary - developing your own cost action plan Group and individual action plans will be prepared with a view to participants identifying their cost risks areas and the techniques which can be immediately applied to improve costing and reduce costs