Budgeting and Forecasting with Excel

Learn how to use Excel for financial modelling, budgeting and forecasting.

During this course you will learn how to use Excel for the three business areas that are forward looking i.e.

  • budgeting (generally 1 year forward),
  • forecasting (2 to 3 years) and
  • financial modelling (anything from 3 to 30 years).

Is this the correct course for your needs? Use this quick ‘Which Excel Course should I do‘ questionnaire to establish which course is correct for you.

In order to do this course we also recommend a skill level of >3.5 (we offer a free Skills Assessment to make sure you get the correct level of training)

Related: Have you looked at the online training we provide? Instant answers to your questions!

Course Outline

  • Financial Modelling, Budgeting and forecasting theory
  • Budget and Financial Model Types
  • Looking into the future with Microsoft Excel
  • Building up financial statements from the income statement or cash flows
  • Incorporating a balance sheet in your models
  • How to avoid the typical errors
  • Good Spreadsheet Design Principals for financial modelling
  • Setting up useful headers with commonly used information
  • Budget and Forecasting tips and tricks
  • Handling Dates
  • Using OFFSET for Working Capital and Depreciation calculations
  • Consolidating Budget information across divisions and departments
  • Set-up a budget template
  • Create Custom formats for easy understanding
  • Making last minute changes to your spreadsheets
  • Protecting Cells in a Spreadsheet
  • (Easily) Creating Annual, Quarterly or any other time period reports from monthly data
  • Changing the style of your reports to accommodate uploads into accounting packages
  • Addressing Error messages
  • Comparing a budget/ forecast to Actuals
  • Handling fixed and semi fixed costs in a financial model
  • Visualise the results of your spreadsheet or compare actuals to planned outcomes via Conditional Formatting, graphing, sparklines and more
  • Variance Analysis
  • Running Sensitivities on your forecasts and financial model

Feedback & Who Should Attend

  • The remarkable thing about Adrian’s presentation is his ability to further change and adapt the focus of the course as issues arose.  He was also able to keep the more skilled delegates challenged, while assisting the less experienced to come to grips with the more basic tools.-Alexander Proudfoot Consultants

Typical Attendees

Business owners, managers, financial managers, directors, bookkeepers, marketers, HR managers and anyone who deals with budgets in their work related tasks.

Pre Requisite (s)

Excel knowledge required:

  1. Basic Excel skills
  • Opening & closing files
  • Moving around the spreadsheet
  • Inserting & deleting rows and columns
  • Inserting text & formulas
  • Deleting cells
  • Copying formulas
  • Printing
  1. Basic formulas (+-*/) e.g. =C5+C7+sum(C9:C12), and =D5*D6/12 3. Formatting
  2. Formatting