Capital Budgeting and Investment Analysis Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Financial Analysts, Finance Business Partners and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FM-103

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable reading income statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements, and should understand basic financial concepts such as depreciation, tax, interest, and present value.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Capital investment decisions commit funds for years, often before demand, costs, regulations, or technology are certain. Finance teams must distinguish accounting profit from decision-relevant cash flow, choose an appropriate discount rate, quantify uncertainty, and present recommendations that decision-makers can challenge. Weak appraisal can approve projects with attractive headline returns but poor cash generation, underestimate working-capital needs, or overlook risks that should change the investment structure.

This course develops the methods used to evaluate replacement, expansion, infrastructure, technology, lease-or-buy, and international investment proposals. Participants build incremental after-tax cash flows, calculate net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), payback, profitability index, and equivalent annual cost. They estimate weighted average cost of capital (WACC), address inflation and tax, model working capital and terminal value, and assess risk through scenarios, sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, decision trees, and real options.

Instructor-led briefings are combined with financial-model reviews, sector-based cases, group analysis, and structured challenge discussions. Participants work through investment proposals resembling those found in banking, manufacturing, public infrastructure, energy, healthcare, and technology programmes. They leave with a reusable capital-investment appraisal pack: an integrated cash-flow model structure, assumptions register, risk-analysis framework, investment memorandum outline, and post-investment review checklist. The five-day course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online. Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits finance professionals and managers who prepare, review, approve, or monitor material capital expenditure proposals. It is particularly relevant where investment decisions require clear financial evidence, documented assumptions, governance controls, and a defensible recommendation.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct incremental after-tax cash-flow forecasts for capital investment proposals
  • Calculate NPV, IRR, profitability index, payback, and equivalent annual cost
  • Estimate WACC and select project-appropriate discount rates
  • Build driver-based investment models linking operational assumptions to free cash flow
  • Perform sensitivity, scenario, Monte Carlo, and decision-tree risk analysis
  • Compare mutually exclusive, replacement, lease-or-buy, and capital-rationed alternatives
  • Evaluate investment governance, risk controls, benefits realisation, and post-investment performance
  • Prepare investment memoranda and executive dashboards for approval decisions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce investment proposals supported by defensible cash-flow assumptions and valuation evidence
  • Challenge IRR-only recommendations using NPV, value drivers, and risk analysis
  • Explain discount-rate choices clearly to finance and non-finance decision-makers
  • Identify forecast weaknesses before capital is committed
  • Build a stronger record of contribution to investment committees and business-case reviews

For your organisation

  • Improve capital allocation through consistent NPV-led investment appraisal
  • Reduce approval risk from omitted working capital, tax, and terminal cash flows
  • Expose critical investment assumptions through documented sensitivity and scenario analysis
  • Strengthen investment governance with stage gates, approval conditions, and accountable owners
  • Improve post-investment accountability through benefits tracking and variance review

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define capital investment decisions and identify the cash flows relevant to appraisal.

  • Capital expenditure decisions linked to corporate strategy and value creation
  • Investment proposals classified as replacement, expansion, compliance, or strategic options
  • Relevant cash-flow principle distinguishes incremental effects from accounting allocations
  • Sunk costs, opportunity costs, and cannibalisation identified before forecasting
  • Stakeholder roles defined through investment governance and delegated approval limits
  • Business cases tested against strategic fit, affordability, and risk appetite

Participants can construct incremental, after-tax project cash flows from operational assumptions.

  • Project cash flows separated from profit, depreciation, and financing entries
  • Incremental revenue forecasts adjusted for volume, price, mix, and timing
  • Working capital investment modelled through receivables, inventory, payables, and release
  • Taxable income calculated using capital allowances, losses, and tax timing
  • Terminal cash flows include disposal proceeds, tax effects, and recovery
  • Nominal and real cash flows matched consistently with discount rates

Participants can calculate and interpret core investment appraisal measures.

  • Time value of money calculated using discount factors and compounding periods
  • Net present value used as the primary shareholder-value decision criterion
  • Internal rate of return interpreted with reinvestment and multiple-rate limitations
  • Profitability index ranks capital-rationed projects using present-value investment efficiency
  • Payback and discounted payback assessed for liquidity and exposure control
  • Equivalent annual annuity compares assets with unequal operating lives

Participants can estimate discount rates and match them to project risk and cash-flow assumptions.

  • Weighted average cost of capital derived from target financing proportions
  • Cost of equity estimated using CAPM, beta, risk-free rate, and premium
  • After-tax cost of debt calculated from yields and tax shields
  • Project-specific discount rates adjusted for business, country, and currency risk
  • Nominal WACC reconciled with inflation assumptions and nominal cash flows
  • APV separates base-project value from financing side effects

Participants can build auditable investment models from operational and financial drivers.

  • Revenue drivers translated into unit volumes, prices, and contribution margins
  • Operating cost forecasts distinguish fixed, variable, stepped, and avoidable costs
  • Capital expenditure schedules align engineering estimates, timing, and commissioning
  • Assumption registers record owners, sources, rationale, and refresh dates
  • Integrated financial models link operating drivers to free cash flow
  • Model audit checks formulas, signs, units, circularity, and hardcodes

Participants can quantify uncertainty and assess management flexibility in investment decisions.

  • Base, upside, and downside cases structured around decision-relevant uncertainties
  • One-way sensitivity analysis identifies value drivers and break-even assumptions
  • Two-way data tables test combined price, volume, and cost movements
  • Scenario analysis preserves internally consistent assumptions across correlated variables
  • Monte Carlo simulation interprets probability distributions, correlations, and percentile outcomes
  • Decision trees value staged commitments, abandonment, and expansion flexibility
  • Real options frame management flexibility under irreversible investment conditions

Participants can establish controls for investment approval, delivery, and performance monitoring.

  • Risk registers connect uncertainties, controls, owners, triggers, and residual exposure
  • Expected monetary value prioritises risks using probability and impact estimates
  • Contingency provisions distinguished from optimism bias and unallocated management reserve
  • Stage-gate governance links funding releases to evidence and decision criteria
  • Post-investment reviews compare approved forecasts, actual outcomes, and corrective actions
  • Benefits realisation plans assign measures, owners, baselines, and reporting cadence

Participants can evaluate competing asset, sourcing, and funding alternatives using relevant appraisal methods.

  • Replacement decisions compare defender and challenger cash flows over common horizons
  • Equivalent annual cost selects lowest-cost alternatives with unequal asset lives
  • Lease-versus-buy analysis incorporates tax, maintenance, residual value, and financing
  • Make-or-buy decisions isolate avoidable costs, capacity effects, and supplier terms
  • Mutually exclusive projects ranked by incremental net present value
  • Capital rationing allocates constrained funds using value, dependencies, and timing

Participants can adapt investment appraisal to cross-border, public-sector, and ESG-related considerations.

  • Foreign-currency cash flows converted using forecast exchange rates and parity assumptions
  • Country risk assessed through political, convertibility, transfer, and regulatory factors
  • Inflation differentials reconciled with nominal discount rates and local pricing
  • Public-sector appraisal distinguishes financial viability from economic cost-benefit analysis
  • Social discount rates and externalities considered in public infrastructure decisions
  • ESG impacts incorporated through cash flows, constraints, and risk assessments

Participants can communicate investment analysis in decision-ready approval materials.

  • Investment memoranda present assumptions, valuation, risks, and clear recommendations
  • Executive dashboards communicate NPV, IRR, payback, sensitivities, and decision points
  • Approval papers distinguish evidence, judgement, conditions, and accountable owners
  • Portfolio views compare projects by value, risk, funding, and strategic contribution
  • Challenge questions test forecast credibility, downside resilience, and implementation readiness
  • Personal application plans identify an upcoming proposal, stakeholders, and next actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Capital investment cash-flow model template
  2. Investment assumptions register
  3. WACC and discount-rate decision guide
  4. Sensitivity and scenario analysis framework
  5. Investment memorandum template
  6. Post-investment review checklist

Who should attend

  • Financial Analysts — prepare cash-flow models and investment recommendations
  • Finance Business Partners — challenge assumptions and support investment decisions
  • FP&A Managers — assess capital plans, funding priorities, and forecast implications
  • Treasury Managers — advise on discount rates, financing effects, and risk
  • Project and Programme Managers — develop financially credible business cases
  • Operational Directors — evaluate proposals requiring capital approval

Skills and tools covered

Capital investment appraisalDiscounted cash flowWACC estimationFinancial modellingInvestment risk analysisInvestment governance

Tools and standards

Net Present Value, Weighted Average Cost of Capital, Monte Carlo simulation, Capital Asset Pricing Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course combines short instructor briefings with worked financial examples, spreadsheet-based case analysis, group exercises, and facilitated investment-committee discussions. Participants analyse project proposals, construct cash-flow logic, select valuation methods, and test uncertain assumptions using sensitivity, scenario, and simulation methods. Cases reflect common decisions such as asset replacement, capacity expansion, technology investment, leasing, and public infrastructure. Structured challenge sessions examine how assumptions, discount rates, risks, and strategic constraints affect approval recommendations. Participants finish by preparing an application plan for an upcoming investment decision.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable reading income statements, balance sheets, and cash-flow statements, and should understand basic financial concepts such as depreciation, tax, interest, and present value. Experience preparing budgets, forecasts, business cases, project proposals, or management reports is useful. Participants should be able to use spreadsheet formulas at a basic level, including percentages and simple references. Prior experience building discounted cash-flow models, estimating WACC, using Monte Carlo simulation, or approving capital expenditure is not required. Advanced accounting qualifications, corporate-finance credentials, and programming skills are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic financial statements, depreciation, tax, and the time value of money. You do not need prior experience with NPV models, WACC calculations, simulation tools, or investment committee processes.

Bring a laptop with spreadsheet software if attending in person, plus an anonymised example of an investment proposal if your employer permits it. Course materials and case data are provided.

It is designed for finance analysts, FP&A staff, finance business partners, treasury professionals, project managers, and operational leaders involved in capital decisions. It is suitable for those preparing proposals and those reviewing them.

This course focuses specifically on capital expenditure decisions, investment business cases, approval governance, and post-investment review. Financial modelling is taught as a means of making and challenging investment decisions rather than as a spreadsheet-only subject.

You can use the cash-flow structure, assumptions register, discount-rate guide, risk framework, and investment memorandum template on an upcoming proposal. The methods also help you review existing business cases and identify missing assumptions or valuation errors.

The programme contains ten modules taught in sequence, covering approximately 30 contact hours plus breaks and daily review time. Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30, with about 6.5 contact hours devoted to instruction, case work, discussion, and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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