Project Economics for Non-Finance Managers Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Programme Managers 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-168

Before you join: Participants should have experience contributing to projects, budgets, procurement decisions, operational planning or business cases.

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

Projects consume capital, management time and operational capacity long before their benefits are certain. Non-finance managers are often asked to recommend investments, approve budgets, assess supplier proposals or explain why a project is exceeding its funding envelope. Sound decisions require more than a spreadsheet total: they require clear assumptions, relevant cash flows, realistic timing, risk analysis and a defensible recommendation. This course equips managers to assess project economics without needing to become accountants or economists.

Participants build the financial logic behind a project from scope, cost and benefit assumptions through to discounted cash flow, Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), payback, funding requirements and post-approval controls. They learn to distinguish profit from cash flow, fixed from variable costs, sunk from incremental costs, and nominal from real values. The course also covers cost estimation, working capital, tax effects, contingencies, sensitivity analysis, scenarios, break-even analysis, financing choices, earned value management and life-cycle costing. Participants gain confidence in challenging assumptions and interpreting financial models prepared by finance teams, consultants or suppliers.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with worked project cases, spreadsheet-based analysis, group discussions and decision simulations. Cases reflect capital investments, service improvement programmes, technology implementations, infrastructure works and operational expansion proposals. Participants leave with a reusable project economic model structure, an investment appraisal checklist, a cash-flow forecasting template and a practical application plan for improving a current project proposal or business case.

The course is suited to managers who own projects, sponsor investment decisions, manage budgets, prepare business cases or contribute technical assumptions to finance-led appraisal processes. It is particularly relevant where project choices involve significant capital expenditure, multi-year costs, uncertain benefits or external funding conditions.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct project cash-flow models using incremental costs, benefits, working capital and terminal values
  • Apply discounted cash-flow methods to calculate NPV, IRR, payback and profitability index
  • Estimate project costs using work breakdown structures, unit rates, contingencies and escalation assumptions
  • Distinguish accounting profit, taxable profit and cash flow in investment decisions
  • Test project viability through sensitivity analysis, scenarios, break-even analysis and decision trees
  • Assess funding requirements, debt-service capacity and financing effects on project economics
  • Monitor approved projects using earned value metrics, forecast-at-completion and variance analysis
  • Prepare evidence-based investment recommendations with transparent assumptions, risks and approval conditions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging project assumptions, supplier estimates and financial recommendations
  • Ability to build a credible investment case for a proposed project
  • Improved ability to explain NPV, cash flow and payback to senior stakeholders
  • Stronger control of project funding, cost variance and forecast completion costs
  • Transferable financial appraisal skills for capital, technology and operational projects

For your organisation

  • More consistent financial appraisal across project proposals and investment requests
  • Earlier identification of weak assumptions, cash shortfalls and cost escalation risks
  • Better capital allocation through comparable NPV, risk and funding analyses
  • Clearer project approval papers with explicit conditions, owners and monitoring triggers
  • Improved post-approval control of budgets, benefits and forecast final costs

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame a project decision around value, cash, risk and approval criteria.

  • Project business cases distinguish value creation, affordability, liquidity and profitability
  • Strategic objectives translated into measurable economic drivers and decision criteria
  • Scope, assumptions, constraints and dependencies recorded in an investment charter
  • Stakeholder value maps separate sponsor, customer, taxpayer and supplier interests
  • Opportunity cost identified when scarce capital, capacity or land is committed
  • Stage-gate decisions connect estimates, evidence thresholds and approval authority

Participants can estimate project costs and document the basis for reliable budget assumptions.

  • Work breakdown structures convert scope into cost-estimating packages
  • Bottom-up estimates combine quantities, unit rates, productivity and contingencies
  • Analogous and parametric estimating selected according to data maturity
  • Fixed, variable, direct and indirect costs classified consistently
  • Learning curves and escalation indices adjust multi-year resource estimates
  • Contingency allowances separated from management reserve using quantified uncertainty
  • Estimate basis documents sources, exclusions, pricing dates and confidence ranges

Participants can apply time-value-of-money principles to multi-year project costs and benefits.

  • Nominal and real cash flows aligned with inflation assumptions
  • Present value calculations discount future receipts and payments to decision dates
  • Annuities, perpetuities and loan amortisation model recurring project obligations
  • Effective annual rates compare loans with different compounding conventions
  • Cash timing distinguishes committed expenditure, accrued cost and actual cash
  • Inflation, escalation and discount rates treated without double counting
  • Spreadsheet functions calculate discount factors, present values and payment schedules

Participants can build a project cash-flow model that reflects timing, taxes and funding needs.

  • Incremental cash flows isolate project consequences from accounting allocations
  • Working capital schedules capture inventory, receivables, payables and recovery
  • Taxable profit reconciles depreciation, capital allowances and tax payments
  • Depreciation affects reported profit but not operating cash flow
  • Terminal value includes disposal proceeds, restoration costs and working-capital release
  • Cash-flow timing identifies advance payments, retention and milestone receipts
  • Integrated project cash-flow models reconcile sources, uses and cumulative funding

Participants can compare project alternatives using appropriate investment appraisal metrics.

  • Net present value ranks mutually exclusive investments using value creation
  • Internal rate of return interpreted alongside reinvestment and scale limitations
  • Payback and discounted payback test liquidity exposure and recovery timing
  • Profitability index supports capital rationing where investment funds are limited
  • Equivalent annual cost compares assets with unequal economic lives
  • NPV profiles reveal crossover rates between competing project alternatives
  • Decision recommendations distinguish financial attractiveness from strategic necessity

Participants can test how uncertainty affects project value, funding and approval decisions.

  • Base-case models document assumptions, sources, timing and ownership
  • One-way sensitivity analysis tests variables against NPV and funding headroom
  • Scenario analysis combines coherent changes in demand, costs and schedules
  • Break-even analysis calculates volume, price or duration thresholds
  • Monte Carlo simulation interprets probability distributions, correlations and percentile outcomes
  • Risk registers assign owners, responses, residual exposure and contingency actions
  • Decision trees value staged commitments, abandonment options and contingent outcomes

Participants can assess how financing structures affect project affordability and economic evaluation.

  • Weighted average cost of capital links financing mix to discount rates
  • Cost of debt incorporates interest, fees, tax effects and covenants
  • Equity returns distinguish dividends, capital gains and investor risk premiums
  • Debt-service schedules test interest coverage, repayment capacity and covenant headroom
  • Public-private funding structures allocate construction, demand and operating risks
  • Grant conditions, subsidies and tax incentives alter project cash flows
  • Financing choices separated from operating economics for transparent approvals

Participants can monitor approved projects using cost, schedule and forecast performance indicators.

  • Baseline budgets connect authorised scope, schedule milestones and cost accounts
  • Earned value management calculates planned value, earned value and actual cost
  • Cost and schedule performance indices diagnose emerging delivery variances
  • Estimate at completion forecasts final cost from performance trends
  • Change-control logs quantify scope changes, approvals and economic consequences
  • Management dashboards separate leading indicators from lagging financial results
  • Variance narratives connect causes, corrective actions, owners and decision dates

Participants can assess commercial choices over the full life of a project investment.

  • Make-or-buy analysis compares relevant costs, capacity effects and supplier risk
  • Total cost of ownership includes acquisition, operations, maintenance and disposal
  • Life-cycle costing evaluates alternatives over acquisition, operation and end-of-life
  • Contract payment mechanisms align incentives, risk allocation and cash timing
  • Supplier bids normalised for exclusions, escalation, payment terms and warranties
  • Benefits realisation plans define owners, measures, timing and evidence
  • Post-investment reviews compare approved forecasts with realised economic outcomes

Participants can present a transparent project recommendation and improve a current economic model.

  • Model audit checks formula integrity, signs, units, links and version control
  • Assumption registers identify evidence, owners, review dates and dependencies
  • Executive investment papers state recommendation, value drivers, risks and decisions
  • Waterfall charts explain cash-flow movements between baseline and revised forecasts
  • Board discussions distinguish approval conditions, monitoring triggers and escalation routes
  • Personal application plans prioritise one live project model improvement
  • Peer review criteria test clarity, traceability and decision usefulness

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

What you take back to work

  1. Project investment appraisal model template
  2. Cash-flow forecasting and funding schedule
  3. Cost estimate basis checklist
  4. NPV and sensitivity analysis worksheet
  5. Investment paper structure
  6. Project economics application plan

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — need to justify budgets, forecast funding and control economic performance
  • Programme Managers — need consistent appraisal methods across multiple initiatives and investment choices
  • Operations Managers — need to assess expansion, replacement and service-improvement project proposals
  • Technical Managers — need to translate engineering, technology or delivery assumptions into financial cases
  • Procurement Managers — need to compare supplier offers, payment terms and total ownership costs
  • Project Sponsors — need to challenge investment cases and approve projects with clear conditions

Skills and tools covered

Investment appraisalCash flow modellingCost estimationFinancial risk analysisProject performance controlBusiness case evaluation

Tools and standards

Discounted cash flow, Net Present Value, Weighted Average Cost of Capital, Earned Value Management

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods, followed by worked calculations, project cases, group analysis and spreadsheet-based decision tasks. Participants examine the economics of realistic capital, technology, service and operational projects, identifying relevant costs, cash flows, risks and funding implications. Simulations require participants to compare alternatives, respond to changing assumptions and present recommendations to an approval panel. Structured application planning helps each participant identify where to improve a live business case, budget forecast or project review process.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience contributing to projects, budgets, procurement decisions, operational planning or business cases. They should be comfortable working with percentages, basic arithmetic and tables, and should understand their organisation's project approval process where one exists. Familiarity with spreadsheets is useful because financial models and calculations are discussed throughout the course. Prior accounting, corporate finance, economics or advanced Excel training is not required. The course explains financial terms and methods from a project decision-maker's perspective rather than assuming specialist finance knowledge.

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

No formal finance or accounting qualification is required. Participants should be comfortable with basic arithmetic, percentages and spreadsheet tables, and should have some exposure to project or budget decisions.

Participants should bring a laptop if attending in person, as spreadsheet-based calculations are used during the course. Bringing a non-confidential example of a current project, budget or business case will help with application planning.

The course is designed for project, programme, operations, technical, procurement and business managers who make or influence investment decisions. It is also suitable for project sponsors who need to review financial cases prepared by others.

General financial management courses focus on financial statements, budgeting, reporting and organisational finance. This course concentrates on project-specific decisions: estimating costs, modelling cash flows, appraising investments, testing risks and monitoring project economics.

Participants can use the model structures and checklists to improve business cases, compare project alternatives, test supplier proposals and forecast funding requirements. They can also apply earned value and forecast-at-completion methods to approved projects.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from cost and cash-flow fundamentals to appraisal, risk, financing, project control and investment recommendations.

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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