Financial Planning and Performance Management certification

Explore scenario planning and what-if analyses to forecast revenue and manage risk, and learn pest analysis to assess political, economic, social, and technological factors.

perform scenario planning in Excel by linking the income statement to change assumptions, converting hard coding to formulas, and verifying constants and formulas through color coding and cross checks.

Explore how flexible budgeting adapts the master budget to actual sales activity, improving variance analysis, performance evaluation, and cost control by benchmarking against real quantity and price.

Apply swot analysis to map internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats. Leverage an excel action plan to compare industry, rivals, and design strategic responses.

Explore the BCG growth matrix, classifying products into star, cash cow, dog, and question mark by market share and growth. Use Ola and Zomato as examples.

Learn about three strategy plan levels—short-term, intermediate, and long-term—and special plans like single purpose, standing purpose, contingency and scenario planning, with tactic guiding action.

Align the company's vision and mission with strategy. Translate plans into quantifiable financial targets, optimize resources, and manage risk with flexible forecasts and performance metrics.

Learn how to build a lean minimum viable product, test it with a small market, and use feedback to pivot and refine product and marketing before scaling.

Explore budgeting concepts to plan, allocate, and control resources, manage cash inflows and outflows, and evaluate performance through forecasts, variances, and strategic budgeting.

Explore the purpose and differences between budgeting and forecasting, using time series, casual forecasting, regression, and expert opinion to anticipate future trends, manage risk, and guide resource allocation.

Coordinate budget development through a budget committee, setting revenue, expenses, and targets by responsibility centers. Consolidate budgets into balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow; negotiate controllable costs.

Learn causal forecasting by building and refining a regression model with historical data, assessing p-values, t-values, and R-square while examining relationships among sales, period, quantity, and marketing.

Navigate the budget cycle and rolling budgeting to develop master and detailed budgets, review through the budget committee, and perform performance and variance analysis to forecast quarterly outcomes.

Learn to use expected value and probability to convert multiple forecast scenarios into a single sales budget, guided by regression analysis, historical data, and scenario planning.

Learn budget methodology across participative, authoritative, and consultative approaches, including initial budgets, RC input, and tradeoffs to align with strategy and efficiency.

Discover how the master budget creates a five-to-ten year financial plan with pro forma income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow, plus scenario planning.

Explore the master budget structure, linking strategic plans to operating, marketing, and capital budgets, and trace inputs from sales to proforma income statement and balance sheet.

Master the master budget cash budget preparation by detailing cash inflows and outflows, direct material purchases, financing activities, and quarterly capital budgeting for project funding.

Explore activity based budgeting by allocating costs via activity based costing, using cost drivers and cost pools to allocate overhead, revealing product profitability and reducing budgetary slack.

Explore incremental budgeting, a simple method using historical data and growth rates to adjust last year's revenue and expenses, review line items, and apply to small, stable organizations.

Apply zero-based budgeting by starting from zero and justifying each cost based on quantity and revenue impact. Prioritize high-value activities, justify expenses, and monitor results to remove non-value-adding costs.

Explore how to create a project budget—from cost identification and cash-flow forecasting to evaluating return on investment with npv and irr—guided by discount and hurdle rates.

Explore rolling budgets and rolling forecasts, updating the master budget quarterly or monthly, while comparing budgeting methods such as ZBB, ABC, traditional, and project budgeting for different areas.

build a five-year financial model by combining historical data with strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting, weighing internal accuracy against external bias from buyers and investors.

Learn how to prepare a balance sheet within a leverage buyout scenario, linking assets, liabilities, equity, and interdependencies with the income statement and cash flow statement.

Analyze cash flow preparation by reconciling net income with depreciation and working capital changes, assess operating, investing, and financing activities, and explain goodwill's impact on company value.

Forecasting uses historical data, trends, and scenario planning to predict the future. It shows budgeting as static and forecasting as a flexible tool for planning, resource allocation, and risk management.

Explore time series analysis to forecast future sales from historical data, identifying trend lines, seasonality, and simple linear regression relationships.

Explore time series analysis by building trend lines in Excel, interpreting slope, intercept, and r-squared, and using time as the independent variable to forecast sales with regression.

Learn time series analysis and forecast in Excel using multiple methods, including forecast, forecast.st, trend, and simple linear regression on historical sales data to project future values.

Perform time series analysis and forecast sales using Excel's forecast sheet, exploring sales forecast, low confidence, and upper scenarios while considering seasonality and historical data for more accuracy.

Explore regression analysis for forecasting sales using simple and multiple regression, Excel's data analysis toolpak, R-square, and seasonality factors to predict future performance.

Learn how multiple regression analyzes sales drivers, interprets R-squared and p-values, and refines models by selecting marketing and R&D factors to improve forecasting accuracy.

Forecast sales with a multiple regression model using period, quantity, and marketing; interpret coefficients, significance, and how marketing may negatively impact forecasts, with standard error ranges.

Forecast sales using multiple regression analysis, evaluate p-values and R-squared metrics, and refine models by focusing on marketing and R&D as key drivers.

Explore causal forecasting by building and refining a regression model that links sales to period, quantity, and marketing, using data analysis to evaluate relationships via p-values, t-values, and R-squared.

Regression analysis, a key concept in causal forecasting theory, offers a quantitative method to forecast costs and outcomes by linking dependent and independent variables, supporting budgeting and cost accounting.

Explore the learning curve concept, including cumulative learning, 80% rate, and doubling effects, and its impact on labor cost, production time, standard cost, life cycle costing, and bidding decisions.

Apply expected value and probability to convert forecast scenarios into a single sales budget, guiding production and budgeting with regression analysis.

Review income statement and cash flow using year-on-year and horizontal analyses, and vertical analysis insights to examine revenue patterns, expenses, gross profit, and operating income for investment decisions.

Explore how to analyze a company's income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet using vertical and horizontal analyses, year-on-year bases, and base-year comparisons to assess revenue trends, expenses, and leverage.

Learn ratio analysis and cash flow statement analysis, including liquidity and profitability ratios, return on equity and assets, inventory turnover, and operating, investing, and financing cash flows.

Analyze performance by comparing budgeted, static, and flexible budgets with variance analysis in excel. Explore horizontal and vertical analyses and direct material and direct labor variances.

Explore vertical and horizontal analysis to assess a business's financial health, applying common-size metrics, variance analysis, and budget versus actual forecasts for actionable management insights.

Analyze financial statements from investor and management perspectives, learning profitability, asset utilization, ratios, trend and comparative analysis, and ebitda-based valuation.

Learn to spot red flags in financial analysis using ratio analysis, comparative analysis, and common size analysis, covering revenue trends, inventory, cash flow, debt, margins, and market share growth.

Explore liquidity and solvency indicators, including current, quick, and cash ratios, debt-to-equity and debt ratios, interest coverage, debt pyramid concepts, and how these drive the credit rating.

This lecture explains working capital as the funds used to run daily operations, covering inventory, accounts receivable, and payables, and shows how to measure and optimize the cash conversion cycle.

Master the transition from accounting to fpna with budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, and excel skills, plus practical MCQs and a framework to showcase real-world expertise.