Understanding Costs & Budgets

Overview

Working within budgets and having a basic understanding of cost control is essential for many local government employees.

This course allows delegates to expand their knowledge and understanding of costs and budgets in your organisation so that they can actively and effectively manage them.

Course Outline – Agenda

• The purpose of budgets.
• The advantages of budgetary control.
• Monitoring the variance between actual performance against budget.
• Causes of variance, their significance and ways of reducing the effects.
• The information used in determining and/or revising budgets.
• Definitions of fixed and variable costs.
• The concept of breaking even.
• The purpose and nature of basic cost statements; use of standard costs.

This course will enable you to

• Explain the importance of agreeing to a budget and operating within it.
• Describe the process by which a budget is agreed in an organisation.
• Explain the process of gathering information to be used for the determination and/or revision of budgets.
• Describe how to monitor variance between actual and budgeted performance.
• Explain fixed and variable costs.
• Explain the concept of break-even.
• Explain the purpose and nature of basic cost statements.
• Explain the value of standard costing and its role as a control mechanism.
• Describe mechanisms in the organisation to maintain control of costs.

Who is the Course aimed at

This course is well suited to any employee who potentially has responsibility for setting or working within a budget. This is an introductory level course suitable for staff with no previous training in this area.