Financial Analysis, Planning and Control Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Finance Directors, Financial Controllers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FM-061

Before you join: Participants should have several years of experience in finance, accounting, budgeting, reporting, treasury or commercial analysis.

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

Senior finance professionals are expected to explain performance, challenge plans, protect cash, test investment proposals and maintain financial discipline under pressure. This requires more than producing reports or annual budgets. It requires a connected view of strategy, value drivers, financial statements, cash conversion, capital allocation, risk and control. Weak links between these areas lead to optimistic forecasts, late corrective action, poor investment choices and unreliable management information.

This masterclass develops the analytical and planning judgement needed to lead finance performance management. Participants build driver-based planning models, interpret profitability and return measures, construct rolling cash forecasts, analyse working capital, assess capital expenditure, evaluate funding choices and design effective financial controls. The course also addresses forecast challenge, variance investigation, scenario analysis, dashboard design and executive-level financial communication. IFRS or GAAP reporting measures are reconciled with management measures so that operational decisions remain grounded in reported results.

Teaching combines focused briefings with realistic cases from corporate, public-sector, banking and project-based settings. Participants work through linked financial data, review alternative assumptions, debate control failures and prepare finance recommendations for senior decision-makers. They leave with a practical Financial Analysis, Planning and Control Toolkit containing reusable models, checklists and reporting structures that can be adapted to their own organisation.

The course is best suited to experienced finance managers, controllers, business partners and senior analysts who already work with budgets, management accounts or investment decisions and now need stronger command of the full financial management cycle.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose financial performance using ratio analysis, DuPont analysis and value-driver trees
  • Build driver-based budgets and rolling forecasts linked to operational assumptions
  • Construct 13-week cash forecasts and working-capital improvement plans
  • Evaluate capital investments using NPV, IRR, sensitivity analysis and post-investment review
  • Assess financing choices using WACC, debt capacity and covenant analysis
  • Investigate budget variances using price, volume, mix and efficiency bridges
  • Design management dashboards with KPIs, thresholds and escalation rules
  • Strengthen financial control using COSO principles, reconciliations and segregation of duties

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Challenge assumptions behind budgets and forecasts with greater authority
  • Present financially grounded recommendations to executive and operational leaders
  • Identify cash, margin and capital-efficiency issues earlier
  • Apply consistent tests to investment and funding decisions
  • Build a reusable toolkit for senior finance leadership assignments

For your organisation

  • More credible forecasts linked to operational drivers and accountable owners
  • Earlier detection of margin erosion, liquidity pressure and adverse variances
  • Better capital allocation through disciplined investment appraisal and review
  • Stronger financial controls over close, payments and management reporting
  • Clearer performance reporting that supports timely management action

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can connect strategic choices to financial value drivers and reported performance.

  • Link strategy maps to value drivers, financial targets and accountabilities
  • Separate operating, investing and financing decisions within an integrated planning model
  • Build a driver tree from volume, price, mix and productivity
  • Apply DuPont analysis to isolate margin, turnover and financing effects
  • Reconcile management measures with IFRS or GAAP reported performance
  • Set materiality thresholds for management attention and variance escalation

Participants can interpret financial statements to identify performance, liquidity and solvency issues.

  • Analyse income statement trends using common-size and indexed financial statements
  • Calculate liquidity ratios from current assets, liabilities and operating cash flows
  • Assess solvency through debt ratios, interest cover and cash conversion
  • Trace working-capital movements through balance-sheet and cash-flow statement changes
  • Distinguish recurring earnings from one-off items and accounting adjustments
  • Compare peer performance using sector benchmarks and normalised ratio analysis

Participants can build integrated plans that convert operating assumptions into financial forecasts.

  • Define planning assumptions for demand, capacity, inflation and exchange rates
  • Construct driver-based revenue forecasts using volume, price and customer mix
  • Model cost behaviour through fixed, variable, stepped and discretionary costs
  • Integrate profit, balance-sheet and cash-flow forecasts through accounting relationships
  • Use rolling forecasts to replace static annual budget assumptions
  • Assign forecast ownership, submission dates and challenge-review responsibilities

Participants can challenge forecast credibility and turn variances into corrective management actions.

  • Test forecast assumptions against historical run-rates, capacity and external indicators
  • Develop base, upside and downside scenarios with defined trigger points
  • Apply sensitivity analysis to price, volume, cost and exchange-rate changes
  • Build price, volume, mix and efficiency variance bridges
  • Investigate root causes using five-whys analysis and accountable action owners
  • Escalate material forecast changes through documented governance and decision thresholds

Participants can manage short-term liquidity through disciplined cash forecasting and working-capital analysis.

  • Build 13-week rolling cash forecasts from receipts, payroll and supplier data
  • Forecast customer collections using ageing profiles, payment terms and dispute patterns
  • Analyse cash conversion cycle through receivables, inventory and payables days
  • Prioritise working-capital actions using cash impact, feasibility and control risks
  • Reconcile indirect cash-flow forecasts with operating profit and balance-sheet movements
  • Establish liquidity early-warning indicators, funding triggers and escalation actions

Participants can evaluate investment proposals and monitor whether approved benefits are realised.

  • Calculate net present value using forecast cash flows and discount rates
  • Compare NPV, IRR, payback period and profitability index decisions
  • Estimate weighted average cost of capital from debt and equity inputs
  • Model investment risk through sensitivity, scenario and break-even analysis
  • Identify sunk costs, opportunity costs and relevant incremental cash flows
  • Conduct post-investment reviews against approved benefits, costs and milestones

Participants can assess funding capacity, financing trade-offs and key financial risk exposures.

  • Assess debt capacity using cash flow, gearing and interest-cover measures
  • Compare revolving credit, term debt, leasing and internal funding options
  • Interpret loan covenants, headroom tests and covenant breach consequences
  • Model refinancing risk through maturity profiles and liquidity stress scenarios
  • Evaluate foreign-exchange exposure using transaction, translation and economic risk categories
  • Match hedging decisions to approved risk appetite and policy limits

Participants can produce management reporting that directs attention to decisions and actions.

  • Select KPIs using strategic objectives, controllability and decision-usefulness criteria
  • Design balanced scorecards linking financial, customer, process and capability measures
  • Create management dashboards with targets, trends, thresholds and commentary
  • Write variance narratives that distinguish facts, causes, risks and actions
  • Present forecast uncertainty using ranges, scenarios and confidence judgements
  • Tailor executive packs for board, business-unit and operational audiences

Participants can strengthen financial control design while maintaining efficient business processes.

  • Apply COSO principles to financial reporting, payment and close-process controls
  • Map key risks, control objectives, activities, evidence and control owners
  • Separate authorisation, custody, recording and reconciliation duties appropriately
  • Design account reconciliations with ageing, review evidence and exception follow-up
  • Use close calendars to coordinate accruals, reviews and reporting sign-offs
  • Investigate control failures through root-cause analysis and remediation tracking

Participants can prioritise practical improvements to analysis, planning and financial control processes.

  • Diagnose planning-process maturity across data, governance, models and decision routines
  • Prioritise improvements using impact, effort, risk and dependency assessments
  • Define finance-business partnering routines for challenge and accountability
  • Create implementation roadmaps with milestones, owners, measures and review dates
  • Anticipate resistance to forecast discipline, controls and performance transparency
  • Document a personal action plan for immediate workplace application

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

What you take back to work

  1. Driver-based planning model template
  2. 13-week cash forecast template
  3. Variance bridge analysis worksheet
  4. Capital investment appraisal model
  5. Financial control self-assessment checklist
  6. Finance improvement action plan

Who should attend

  • Finance Directors — need stronger challenge of plans, investments and performance reporting
  • Financial Controllers — need integrated analysis, forecasting and control disciplines
  • Senior Finance Business Partners — need to translate operational drivers into financial actions
  • FP&A Managers — need better models, forecast governance and variance insight
  • Treasury and Cash Managers — need closer links between liquidity forecasts and operating plans
  • Senior Accountants and Analysts — need preparation for broader finance leadership responsibilities

Skills and tools covered

Financial performance analysisDriver-based planningCash flow forecastingInvestment appraisalManagement control designExecutive financial communication

Tools and standards

DuPont analysis, COSO Internal Control Framework, Balanced Scorecard, Weighted Average Cost of Capital

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods, followed by financial case work, group analysis and decision simulations. Participants interpret management accounts, challenge forecast assumptions, build planning logic, assess investment proposals and diagnose control weaknesses. Cases reflect situations such as declining margins, cash pressure, contested capital requests and reporting errors. Facilitated discussions focus on the judgement behind the numbers. Each participant completes an application plan that identifies priority improvements for their own planning, reporting or control process.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of experience in finance, accounting, budgeting, reporting, treasury or commercial analysis. They should be comfortable reading an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement, calculating common ratios, and working with spreadsheet-based financial data. Prior exposure to budgets, forecasts or management accounts is expected. The course does not require advanced corporate finance qualifications, programming skills, prior use of specialist planning software or detailed knowledge of a particular industry. Participants should bring awareness of their own planning and reporting cycle.

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

Participants should be experienced users of financial reports, budgets or forecasts and comfortable with core accounting statements. The course builds from that foundation and does not reteach introductory bookkeeping or spreadsheet basics.

Bring a laptop if possible, along with examples of current planning, reporting or control challenges. Confidential figures are not required; participants can use anonymised assumptions when applying course methods.

It is designed for senior finance practitioners who influence planning, performance management, cash, investment or financial control decisions. It also suits experienced operational leaders with substantial financial accountability.

Financial accounting courses focus primarily on external reporting rules, while budgeting courses often focus on annual plan production. This masterclass connects analysis, rolling forecasts, cash, investment, funding, management reporting and control decisions.

Participants leave with templates for driver-based planning, cash forecasting, variance analysis, investment appraisal and control assessment. The application plan identifies a defined improvement to implement after the course.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group discussions, financial modelling tasks, simulations 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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