Online Class: Business Budgeting 101 — How to Plan, Save, and Manage

This course is designed to get you up to speed on the basics of business budgeting and cost cutting. You will be introduced to the different aspects of business financial tools and will have an essential primer to current business trends in cost cutting and increasing profits.

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$120.00 (with CEU Certificate)

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11

Lessons
13

Exams &
Assignments
3,950

Students
have taken this course
4

Hours
average time
0.4

CEUs

Course Description

Comprehensive Course on Business Finance: From Budgeting to Profit Maximization

In today's rapidly changing business environment, mastering the art of business finance is more important than ever. If you're looking to equip yourself with cutting-edge financial skills, our comprehensive course is tailor-made for you. Dive deep into business budgeting, understand profit trends, identify areas of cost-cutting, and navigate the complexities of cash flow, all while learning to maximize profitability.

Course Overview:

Business Budgeting:
- Introduction to key components of a business budget.
- Learn how to instill fiscal discipline without overburdening your team.
- Example: A case study on how Company X transformed its financial standing by revamping its budgeting approach.
Cash Flow Dynamics:
- Delve into the nuances of short-term and long-term cash flows.
- Understand their impact on Profit & Loss statements.
- Example: A real-world analysis of a company's cash flow adjustments and its ramifications on their profit sheets.
Effective Cost-cutting & Business Savings:
- Identify conventional and innovative areas for potential savings.
- Engage and motivate employees in cost-saving initiatives.
- Example: How Company Y boosted its profits by involving employees in innovative cost-cutting solutions.
Navigating Payroll Budgeting:
- Get acquainted with payroll budgeting fundamentals.
- Discover both mainstream and innovative payroll management techniques.
- Example: A comparative analysis of traditional vs. contemporary payroll budgeting practices.
Strategizing Tax Management:
- Key tactics to optimize your company's tax budget.
- Example: A deep dive into how renowned firms save millions in taxes through effective planning.
Crafting a Stellar Business Plan:
- Importance and components of a compelling business plan.
- Techniques to ensure your business plan is persuasive and actionable.
- Example: An examination of a start-up's business plan that secured massive funding.
Deciphering Profit & Loss Reports:
- Unpack the essentials of Profit & Loss reports.
- Crucial insights every business manager should grasp.
- Example: A detailed walkthrough of a P&L statement, highlighting key takeaways for managers.
Maximizing Profit Margins:
- Explore popular theories and practices to ensure consistent profitability.
- Tips on maintaining positive financial health.
- Example: Strategies employed by Fortune 500 companies to guarantee their profit margins.
Balance Sheets & Business Cycles:
- Grasp the significance of balance sheets in decision-making.
- A brief introduction to the business cycle and its influence on businesses.
Avoiding Financial Pitfalls:

Learn to foresee and rectify common financial missteps.
Example: An analysis of financial blunders made by big corporations and lessons learned.

Optimizing Company Savings:

Harness the collective intelligence of your team for company-wide savings.
Incentivize sales and staff members effectively without negating savings.
Example: Innovative reward systems that promote savings without compromising on employee morale.

Course Breakdown:

Each lesson in the course is meticulously designed, offering a balanced mix of theoretical knowledge, real-world examples, and practical applications:

Assignments: Engaging tasks that reinforce learning.
Exams: Assessments to gauge understanding and retention.
Netlinks: Relevant links that provide additional resources and reading.
Polls & Surveys: Interactive tools to gather opinions and feedback.
Documents: Supplementary materials to enhance comprehension.

With this course, you're not just learning; you're preparing to make informed financial decisions that can propel your business to new heights. Join us on this enlightening journey and redefine your financial acumen.

Courses Frequently Bought Together:

Fundraising 101

Investing 101: Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

Understanding and Managing Your Personal Credit

Course Motivation

To begin a business or start managing an established business, a budget must be created for the manager in charge of the company or department. In many ways, a business budget is similar to a personal household budget; in other ways, it is not.

If you are entering into a position as a department manager in a large corporation, there may be corporate politics connected to your new management position that will inevitably affect your departmental budget.

In the corporate world, such things will appear and may become issues in your business budget. Common sense, good public relations, and excellent salesmanship will help you the most when dealing with the politics of such situations. If you are not in the corporate world, and this is for your own business, then you have the personal advantage of being more brutally honest with yourself concerning your business budget. Brutal honesty always benefits the business owner in the long run.

How to Create a Budget

Creating a basic business budget is the first step in effective management, whether you manage a small business or a department inside a large corporation. Without a budget, there is no sense of company controls, goals, or financial direction.

For your company, you want to identify:

1. fixed expenses/overhead;

2. sales expenses;

3. variable and miscellaneous expenses.

You also will want to identify:

1. projected sales;

2. consulting revenue;

3. revenue from services offered;

4. miscellaneous sources of revenue.

You then will lay these items out in a monthly, quarterly, or annual format, and preferably in a table or spreadsheet program such as Excel. It is wise to format them in all three time increments so that you can closely track your adherence to your budget.

What to Include and Exclude

Include the following items in your budget:

Fixed expenses:

· Rent or mortgage payment

· Utilities such as phone, Internet, and electric

· Staff salaries

· Staff benefits expenses, including retirement, health care, etc.

· Contractor's fees (workers with 1099 tax forms)

· General advertising costs

· Printing and postage costs

· Equipment costs

· Car or truck payments for company vehicles

· Insurance costs

· Professional fees, such as legal or accounting services

· Tax responsibilities

Sales-related Expenses:

· Commissions due to salesmen

· Materials cost

· Production costs

· Subcontractors' fees

· Direct sales advertising costs; i.e., direct mail marketing, flyers, etc.

Variable and Miscellaneous Expenses:

· Overtime pay

· Raw materials

· Unpredicted and unanticipated necessary costs

You will want to exclude anything that reasonably could fall into the personal expenses category of any individual of the company. Examples include loan payments and insurance for any vehicle that is not designated as a company vehicle, groceries or personal grooming for members of the company, personal dry cleaning expenses, maid services, baby-sitting services, and any other personal services for individuals in the company.

This is always true with one caveat: If any of these expenses is part of a staff contract with an executive employee, then it can be included under the fixed expenses category of "staff benefits expenses."

Business Budget Visuals

Your business budget will look like a spreadsheet and include a budget figure for each category in that budget period, along with an "actual" category that will be blank until you fill it in with the actual dollars for that period. At the end of each budget period, you should be able to fill in the "actual" categories with real expenditure figures, and these will come in handy for other needed statements and reports. For instance, you will be better prepared for the details of your profit and loss (P&L) report if your budget's actual categories are filled in each month or quarter.

Discipline with Your Budget

A budget without discipline is not a budget. In the same way that an unreconciled checkbook checks nothing at all, so too a budget that is not adhered to with discipline is nothing more than a nice-looking collection of papers. Discipline with your budget is a matter of diligence, dedication, and determination. A successful manager sets into place tools to help him or her regularly check on the diligence with which the budget is being adhered to by all. A regular check system is vital to discipline. The more regularly you check your system, the tighter the ship you will run and the more successful you will be with the goals and directives of your planned budget.

When all parties are accountable and required to report daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, then the manager need only read the statistics to determine whether the crew is on course. A budget that is managed by a daily report system, a weekly reconciling, and a monthly management scrutiny is the most likely to succeed in its goals of keeping the company within its spending parameters.

In many ways, discipline with your company's budget is like getting to work on time, balancing your checkbook, or rotating the tires on your car: If you do not do it regularly and religiously, then you will not have the results you want. Think of checking on your budget or reconciling budget issues as you would think of having your afternoon coffee. It is necessary so you do not fall asleep just before wrapping up the profits.

The best asset any company can have for discipline in its budget is a proactive, diligent staff accountant or Certified Public Accountant; one who will ask questions of management daily, repeatedly, and without ceasing until issues that she or he raises are resolved. All company employees should understand that they must answer the accountant's questions when asked.

Completely Online
Self-Paced
Printable Lessons
Full HD Video
6 Months to Complete
24/7 Availability
Start Anytime
PC & Mac Compatible
Android & iOS Friendly
Accredited CEUs

Universal Class is an IACET Accredited Provider

Course Lessons

Average Lesson Rating:

"Extraordinarily Helpful"

(1,545 votes)

Lesson 1: Business Budget

This lesson will cover the basics of creating your business budget. We will discuss the different aspects of a business budget and how to implement a discipline for your budget that will be reasonable for your staff. 81 Total Points

Lesson 1 Video
Lesson discussions: Budget Smudget; Reasons for Taking this Course
Complete Assignment: Why this Course?
Assessment: Lesson 1 Exam: Business Budget

Lesson 2: Cash Flow and Related Issues

In this lesson, we will cover the basics of cash flow, short-term and long-term, and how it affects your profit and loss statement and profit sheets. 100 Total Points

Lesson 2 Video
Assessment: Lesson 2 Exam: Cash Flow & Related Issues

Lesson 3: Business Savings and Cost-cutting

Lesson 3: Business Savings and Cost-cutting 100 Total Points

Lesson 3 Video
Lesson discussions: What Say You?
Assessment: Lesson 3: Business Savings and Cost Cutting

Lesson 4: Payroll Budgeting

In this lesson, we will cover the basics of payroll budgeting, essentials to keep in mind, and both the trend in handling them and some non-traditional methods. 100 Total Points

Lesson 4 Video
Assessment: Lesson 4 Exam: Payroll Budgeting

Lesson 5: Tax Concerns

Tax Concerns: One of the most effective strategies for managing taxes is to establish a budget for your company's tax obligations. 100 Total Points

Lesson 5 Video
Assessment: Lesson 5 Exam: Tax Concerns

Lesson 6: Business Plan

In this lesson, we will cover the importance of creating a business plan, how to create one, and how to make it a strong presentation. 90 Total Points

Lesson 6 Video
Assessment: Lesson 6 Exam: Business Plan

Lesson 7: Business Profit and Loss Reports

In this lesson, we will take an overview of your profit and loss reports, what goes where, how to read them, and the essentials for a successful business manager to know. 100 Total Points

Lesson 7 Video
Assessment: Lesson 7 Exam: Business P&L Reports

Lesson 8: Profit Margin Guarantees and Staying in the Black

While we could hypothesize together about the many ways to create a profit in any given business, this lesson will cover basic and popular theories and practices in the business world. 90 Total Points

Lesson 8 Video
Lesson discussions: Rewards and Perks
Assessment: Lesson 8 Exam: Profit Margin Guarantees & Staying in the Black

Lesson 9: Balance Sheets and the Business Cycle

In this lesson, we will cover the importance and uses of the company's balance sheet and briefly visit the concepts of the business cycle. 80 Total Points

Lesson 9 Video
Assessment: Lesson 9 Exam: Balance Sheets and the Business Cycle

Lesson 10: Traps and Mishaps

This lesson will address the dilemma of overcoming our inevitable errors in business and management. 100 Total Points

Lesson 10 Video
Assessment: Lesson 10 Exam: Traps and Mishaps

Lesson 11: Company Savings

This lesson will focus on savings and how to make the most progress toward savings by utilizing the goodwill and brain power of your staff. You will have an overview of how to continue to increase your company's savings and how to encourage sales and sta 600 Total Points

Lesson 11 Video
Lesson discussions: How would you rate this course?; Program Evaluation Follow-up Survey (End of Course); Course Comments
Assessment: Lesson 11 Exam: Company Savings
Assessment: The Final Exam

1541

Total Course Points

Learning Outcomes

By successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

Summarize the need and purpose of a business budget.
Define cash flow.
Describe procedures involved in business savings and cost cutting.
Describe the purpose and processes involved in payroll budgeting.
Summarize common tax concerns.
Describe a business plan.
Describe the purpose and importance business P&L Reports.
Define Profit Margin Guarantees
Evaluate Balance Sheets and the Business Cycle.
Demonstrate mastery of lesson content at levels of 70% or higher.

Additional Course Information

Document Your Lifelong Learning Achievements
Earn an Official Certificate Documenting Course Hours and CEUs
Verify Your Certificate with a Unique Serial Number Online

View and Share Your Certificate Online or Download/Print as PDF
Display Your Certificate on Your Resume and Promote Your Achievements Using Social Media

Course Title: Business Budgeting 101: How to Plan, Save, and Manage

Course Number: 8900051

Lessons Rating: 4.4 / 5 Stars (1,545 votes)

Languages: English - United States, Canada and other English speaking countries

Category:

UniversalClass.com > Accounting and Bookkeeping > Basic Finance Certificates

Availability: This course is online and available in all 50 states including: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and Washington.

Last Updated: March 2024

Course Type: Self-Paced, Online Class

CEU Value: 0.4 IACET CEUs (Continuing Education Units)

CE Accreditation: Universal Class, Inc. has been accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

Grading Policy: Earn a final grade of 70% or higher to receive an online/downloadable CEU Certification documenting CEUs earned.

Assessment Method: Lesson assignments and review exams

Instructor: John Chouinard

Syllabus: View Syllabus

Course Fee: $120.00 U.S. dollars