Budgeting and Financial Analysis for Small Businesses

Many small business owners find creating a budget to be an intimidating process. However, creating and maintaining a budget for your business is a crucial component of success. Budgets assist in maintaining control of your business activities, and provide a road map to ensure you are spending money in the right places at the right time. Similarly, tracking performance and analyzing financial data provides insight into what is working, and what isn't, in terms of your business. Knowing how to interpret the information found in your business's financial statements is an important skill to develop. Financial analysis allows you to understand your business's financial position better and can help you make better financial decisions. This course will introduce you to the budgeting process and financial analysis. In module one, you will develop your ability to prepare budgets, generate pro forma financial statements, and analyze budget variances. Module two will focus on analyzing the financial position of your business through financial ratio analysis, benchmarking, and break-even analysis. Learning Outcomes Understand the importance of budgeting and financial planning Demonstrate an understanding of the role that budgets play in measuring performance against established goals Differentiate between strategic and tactical budgeting Analyze the master budget through variance analysis Prepare and analyze pro forma financial statements Explain the importance of the cash budget and describe how it is created Define financial (ratio) analysis and explain its objectives Identify the various categories of financial ratios typically used in small business environments Explain the factors and assumptions involved in break-even analysis Compute the break-even point and break-even revenue for a given product