Budget Monitoring Essentials

Humentum

Learning Opportunities

eLearning

Budget Monitoring Essentials

May 21, 2018 - 9:00am to June 22, 2018 - 5:00pm

On Demand

Offering Organization: Mango

Language: English

Register

Overview

This online course introduces the key skills you need to prepare and analyze project budget monitoring and forecast reports, including donor financial reports. The course is run online over five weeks and is fully supported by expert trainers. There are no ‘real time’ sessions; all of our ‘conversations’ take place through discussion forums so you can complete the weekly readings, individual tasks, and group activities at your own pace. The eWorkshop format is great for fitting training around work and home commitments, but you do need to make time every day to successfully complete the course. The coursework will take not less than 4 hours and up to 7 hours each week, depending on your pace of learning and previous knowledge. 

Who Should Attend

This course is suitable for staff in the not-for-profit sector with responsibility for:

  • Implementing and managing project, program or organization-wide budgets
  • Reporting to donors and other stakeholders on project performance
  • Reviewing implementing partners’ project performance

This is an introductory-level course and is the follow-up to the Budgeting Essentials eWorkshop. Previous experience in writing budgets is useful.

What You Will Learn

You will discover:

  • How to create budget monitoring and forecast reports for internal use and donor reporting
  • What to look for on a budget monitoring report to track and manage project performance
  • How to analyze and manage budget variances
  • How to use a budget monitoring report to detect fraud or abuse

*SEE EVENT POLICIES

Week 1

Getting to know you and the course

  • Introductions
  • What you already know
  • The Four Building Blocks of financial management
  • Overview of financial reporting and budget monitoring
  • The Plan-Do-Review process

Week 2 

The budget monitoring report

  • Budget monitoring reports: layout and content
  • Where the figures come from
  • About accounting codes
  • Funder reporting formats
  • Practical assignment

Week 3

Variance analysis

  • What causes variances
  • Classifying variances
  • The variance analysis table
  • Options for managing variances
  • Practical assignment

Week 4

 Budget forecasting

  • Layout of the budget forecast report
  • How to create a forecast report
  • Forecast reports and funder reporting
  • Practical assignment

Week 5

  • Budget management: bonus tools
  • Reflections and key messages
  • Action planning
  • Evaluation​