Budgeting Bootcamp - Annual Operating Plan

Most companies do an annual operating plan to set their operating budget.  This is a very important process, but it can also be very painful.  It doesn’t have to be!  Learn to create a meaningful budget without unnecessary strain.

Course objectives

The Annual Operating Plan Course is for finance & accounting professionals.  We will start with the basics of why companies do an annual planning process but we will also dive into the details of how you actually set-up templates, how to collect data, what information is needed for all the pieces of the budget (sales planning, cost budget, cap-ex, etc).  We will finish up with how to convert the plan into financial statements and a C-suite level presentation and some budgeting best practices.

At completion, you’ll know how to build an annual budget and will be able to facilitate your company’s annual planning process.

Some key things you’ll learn:

  • Why companies do an annual budgeting / planning process and what it is used for
  • An understanding of the different elements of a budgeting process
  • How and why to set a planning calendar
  • How to set-up and run the pieces of an annual operating plan: sales budget, production budget, cost of goods sold (COGS) budget, Capital Expenditures (Cap Ex), R&D, SG&A budgets
  • How to use all the pieces of the budgeting process to create a full income statement, cash flow and balance sheet.
  • Review what the final deliverable of financials and a presentation of the annual operating plan should look like
  • Some helpful tips, tricks, and considerations for a world class budget

Additional Info

Format: 3-9 minute videos, quizzes, and a final exam

CPEs: 4.5

Field of study: Finance – Technical

PrerequisitesYou should have a basic knowledge of the financial statements and a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel (vlookup, pivot tables, sum, sumif).  If you do not, we recommend taking our Financial Statement Analysis course and/or our Microsoft Excel Bootcamp