Advanced budgeting, planning and forecasting

Master modern planning and forecasting techniques to make faster, smarter decisions in an unpredictable business environment.

Overview

Economic and business uncertainty, rapid rates of change in technology, shifts in trends and needs and fierce competition all conspire to create an ever more challenging business environment. Traditional planning, budgetary and forecasting processes struggle to cope well in this environment often evidenced by the effort expended on (and frequency of) re forecasting and planning revisions. This course examines the underlying causes of budgetary and forecast difficulties and considers more advanced planning and forecasting techniques and alternative budgetary processes and methodologies more fit for today’s challenges.

What will I get out of the session?

An understanding of the key (and sometimes hidden) pressures on planning, budgeting and forecasting; gaining an understanding of alternative processes and techniques that bring more transparency and predictive capability and are management-friendly and involving, all to address the limitations of traditional approaches; binding the budget, the business plan and our strategy more tightly and in alignment.

Who should attend?

Finance Directors, senior finance and management personnel and any staff involved in business planning processes

Key features
Speaker
Additional information

Key features:

Planning for uncertainties and instabilities in the business environment
Taking account of what’s not in our control: external macroeconomic and political impacts and competition
Development of robust planning frameworks
Substituting science for guesswork - statistical and non-statistical techniques to improve forecast and planning accuracy
Difficulties we encounter in budgeting: management disaffection, lack of transparency, constant reforecasting and forecast error.
Alternatives approaches – Scenario Planning, Rolling forecasts, Driver-based, Activity-based and Output budgets

John McKenzie

John has held a variety of roles in F&A, manufacturing, sales, marketing & business development, with 21 years in the automotive sector with Ford & Unipart, then 12 years in the IT sector with Armstrong Laing & SAS.

He now pursues freelance lecturing, consulting and writing. In 2008, his first book, ABC/M to the Max, was published and he has spoken at over 500 public conferences and seminars worldwide.

He has lectured for the Management Centre of Europe and currently lectures, as an acknowledged subject matter expert, for major accounting bodies both the UK and abroad, on business planning, budgeting and forecasting, strategic accounting, strategic planning, ABC/M, margin management, change management, cost management, shareholder value and performance measurement.

Among the many clients he has worked for are the World Bank, DHL, Barclays, Oracle, Cisco, British Airways, UBM, Mercer HR, Tetrapak and Pfizer.

The webinar handout material will be available on the webinar platform when you log in to view, 15 minutes before the live webinar start.

If you wish to view or download handout materials, before the day of the webinar, they will also be available through your document library on https://events.accaglobal.com.

Price

Price (excluding VAT) 275 GBP

Location

United Kingdom

Date & time

15 October 2026, 09:30 - 16:00

Enquiries

Email enquiries UKCL@accaglobal.com

Book on ACCA

Advanced budgeting, planning and forecasting

Overview

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