Benefits/ Learning Outcomes

·         Gain insight into the business planning process necessary for effective financial planning and budgeting

·         Understand how longer-term business planning is done

·         Apply a practical framework to structure a Business Plan that is easy to read and understand, be it a business development or process improvement plan

·         Know the key points and pitfalls to watch for when assessing or approving Business Plans

·         Know how to quantify and calculate payoffs, and determine funding needs

·         Know how to build in risks into the plans

·         Distinguish between corporate and department budgeting, and appreciate their interdependent roles

·         Know the prerequisites and foundations of effective budgeting 

Target Audience:

This two-day course will benefit members of budget committees, budget approvers and holders, heads of business units and departments, financial controllers and managers.

·         Financial controllers and managers who review business plans and/or budgets

·         Business managers who develop business plans and/or providing inputs into budgets

·         Entrepreneurs who need to know how to do business planning and financial planning 

·         Financiers who need to assess the feasibility of business plans furnished by clients

Course Content

Course Outline

PART I: Business Planning

1)   Business Planning Framework

·         In context of Strategic Planning

·         Relationship between Business Plans, Financial Plans & Budgets

2)  Strategic Planning Process

·         Analysis of External and Internal Environment

·         Choosing Strategies – Relevance of Business Plans (Expanded in Sessions 3-8)

·         Implementation – Relevance of Budgets (Expanded in Sessions 9-11)

3)  Structuring an Effective Business Plan

·         Why Business Plans Fail to Get Attention

·         Key Components of a Business Plan

·         Use of the Executive Summary

4)   Identifying Key Action Strategy

·         Key Pointers in Marketing Plan, Operations Plan, Management Plan, Financial Plan

·         Interdependency of the Various Plans

5)   Financial Plan: The Payoff

·         Payback Period

·         Net Present Value

·         Internal Rate of Return

6)   Financial Plan: Funding Requirements

·         Identifying the Amount of Funds Needed

·         Deciding on Level of Buffer Cash Reserve

7)   Identifying & Quantifying Risks

·         Identifying Risks

·         Building Risks into Business Plan

·         Use of Breakeven and Sensitivity Analysis

8)   Mapping Out Implementation of Business Plan

·         Setting Milestones

·         Importance of Change Management

PART II: Budgeting

9)   Budgeting at Corporate Level

·         Quantifying Corporate Objective

·         Use of Budgets

·         Interdependency of Budgets

·         Roles of Finance and Non-Finance Managers in Budgeting

·         Differing Budgeting Methods and their Pros & Cons

·         Selecting Suitable Methods for Different Types of Budgets

10) Budgeting at Department or Team Level

·         Identifying & Quantifying Costs

o    Building or Questioning Assumptions

o    Relevance of Cost Behavior

·         Identifying & Quantifying Revenue

·         Essentials of Effective Budgeting

·         Laying the Groundwork for Budgeting

11) Impact on Cash Flow Management

·         Relevance of Cash Flow Forecast 

·         Impact of Budgets on Cash Flow Management

Trainer's Profile

Mr Chow Chan Kwan has more than 15 years of industrial experience as General Manager of various manufacturing and retail subsidiaries of a multinational company in Singapore and China.

He has also delivered accounting and finance lectures to students pursuing the Certificate in Management (CIM) at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), and conducted in-house financial training during the initial stage of his career as a statistics and research officer at a Malaysian bank.