Budgeting and Forecasting

Date:  21 April 2026 

Modality:  In-person 

Duration:  One day, 9.00am – 4.00pm 

Price:  $1,260.00 (incl. GST).  If you are eligible for the UoA Staff or Auckland Council Training Member discount, please email shortcourses@auckland.ac.nz before you register.  

This practical short course is designed for professionals involved in financial planning within their organisation.  You’ll learn the essentials of budgeting and forecasting, with a strong emphasis on real-world application.  Through hands-on exercises, you’ll sharpen your spreadsheet skills and gain practical tools to build and manage budgets, develop reliable forecasts, and present financial results in clear, visual formats that support better decision-making.

The course is ideal for those already working with basic financial documents, such as profit and loss statements or balance sheets, and want to take their skills to the next level.

Short course structure and topics covered: 

• Purpose of financial planning.
• The budgeting process.
• Building a budget.
• Financial forecasting techniques.
• Practical application (case study).
• Deriving insights and visualisations.

Learning outcomes: 

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Analyse the purpose of financial planning and evaluate its impact on organisational performance.
• Design and construct integrated budgets that incorporate income, expenditure, and cash flow.
• Apply forecasting techniques to calculate and project future financial performance.
• Create and present spreadsheets and visualisations that interpret and communicate financial results effectively.
• Grow your network and learn from peers across a range of sectors.

Benefits for your organisation:

• Strengthen decision-making through structured budgeting, planning, and forecasting processes.
• Improve forward planning for future requirements, including labour, inventory, and other key inputs.
• Anticipate and manage potential issues such as resource constraints, cash shortages, and profitability risks.
• Enhance financial reporting with professional visualisations, stronger spreadsheet skills, and more efficient, error-reduced analysis.

Who should attend? / any entry requirements? 

Professionals involved in their organisation’s financial planning will benefit from attending this course. The course is designed for:

• Those responsible for budget management at a departmental or project level.Those who have some profit and loss exposure but need to strengthen their forecasting and planning capability.
• Professionals outside core finance teams (e.g. in operations, HR, marketing, IT) who increasingly need to interpret financials and contribute to planning.
• Analysts, assistant accountants, or management accountants who want to move beyond reporting into financial planning and analysis (FP&A).
• People managing initiatives where tracking costs, income, and future spend is essential.
• Those with a foundational grasp of financial statements but who need stronger tools and methods for cash flow planning, forecasting, and communicating performance.
• Senior specialists (e.g. in engineering, research, or professional services) who now need to own a budget and forecast effectively.

Participants should have a basic level of proficiency with financial information (e.g. understanding of profit and loss statement and balance sheet) and spreadsheet tools.

Prior completion of the Finance for Non-Financial Managers short course is recommended.

If you would like to inquire about this course being run inhouse, please email shortcourses@auckland.ac.nz

Payment for short courses is normally by credit card. If you need to pay by invoice or require assistance, please email shortcourses@auckland.ac.nz. Please note that the University does not issue individual invoices for amounts less than $500 New Zealand dollars.