Financial Forecasting
& Budgeting
Eight structured sessions covering the mechanics of building financial forecasts and operating budgets that hold up under scrutiny. The program addresses where most budget cycles break down — data assumptions, scenario gaps, and the disconnect between finance teams and operational managers.
Reserve a Seat About Domain
Eight Sessions, One Complete Skill Set
Each session targets a specific stage of the forecasting and budgeting cycle — from reading historical data correctly to presenting variance analysis to non-finance stakeholders. The sequence is deliberate: later sessions build directly on techniques introduced earlier.
Reading Historical Financials Without Bias
Identifying which periods are genuinely representative and which are distorted by one-off events. Covers normalisation techniques applied to income statements and cash flow data before any projection work begins.
Assumption Architecture in Revenue Forecasts
Structuring revenue drivers so each assumption is traceable and auditable. Distinguishes between volume, price, mix, and timing assumptions using retail and B2B service examples.
Cost Behaviour and Expense Modelling
Fixed versus variable cost separation, semi-variable cost treatment, and step-cost handling across production volume changes. Applied to a manufacturing dataset with multiple cost centres.
The Operating Budget: Structure and Mechanics
Connecting the revenue forecast to headcount planning, departmental expense budgets, and capital allocation. How inconsistencies between departmental submissions typically surface and how to resolve them.
Scenario Planning That Is Actually Useful
Moving beyond base/upside/downside labels to build scenarios tied to specific business conditions. Participants work through a three-scenario model for a regional services company facing variable demand.
Cash Flow Forecasting and Working Capital
Translating an accrual-based budget into a cash flow forecast. Accounts receivable timing, inventory cycle effects, and payable management — the variables that determine whether a profitable business runs out of cash.
Monthly Variance Analysis and Reforecasting
Isolating price, volume, and mix variances from a single total variance number. How to decide when a variance warrants a reforecast versus when it is noise within acceptable range.
Presenting Forecasts to Non-Finance Audiences
Structuring financial narratives for operations managers, board members, and department heads. Which numbers to lead with, how to handle uncertainty in written commentary, and when tables outperform charts.
Session Instructors
Olivier Brandt
Senior Financial AnalystOlivier has spent fourteen years building forecast models for mid-market manufacturers and logistics companies. His sessions focus on the structural side of modelling — how assumptions connect and where models typically fail under pressure.
Renata Kowalczyk
Corporate Budgeting ConsultantRenata works with finance teams on budget process redesign, primarily in professional services and retail. She leads the sessions on operating budgets, variance analysis, and stakeholder communication.
Common Questions
What Past Participants Said
Tadej Horvath
Finance Manager, DistributionThe variance analysis session was the most directly applicable thing I've encountered in a structured course. I had a reforecast due the week after and used the price/volume/mix breakdown on the spot. The dataset in session 7 closely matched what we actually see in our monthly reporting cycle.
Sigrid Laubach
Operations Director, Professional ServicesI joined mainly to improve how I read the budget numbers our finance team sends me. The session on presenting forecasts to non-finance audiences was unexpectedly valuable — it made clear how much context finance teams assume their audience already has. I left with questions I hadn't known to ask.