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Keeping the budget honest
Avanti Academy / Managing well / Finance for Non Finance Professionals / Bitesize
Bitesize

Keeping the budget honest

Budget monitoring, capital and borrowing.

Level
Bitesize
Learning time
1 hour 15 minutes
Where
Finance for Non Finance Professionals
Price
£39

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms

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Certificate of Completion

About this course

Overview and Outcomes.

Overview

This module develops the skills to read budget monitoring reports with confidence. It explains why forecast outturn matters more than year to date, the five elements of a report, and how to split variances into price, volume and timing, one-off or recurring. It examines the RAG rating trap and savings delivery confidence, and uses Birmingham City Council's Oracle programme to show why reliable information matters. This module examines capital decisions, which commit organisations for decades. It covers payback, net present value and whole-life cost, why every capital pound becomes a revenue promise, and the prudential framework for council borrowing: CIPFA's Prudential Code, Minimum Revenue Provision and the 2021 rule against borrowing for yield. Through the Woking, Thurrock and Luton cases and a risk and purpose matrix, it sets out how boards should govern commercial investment and owned companies.

What you'll develop

In this Bitesize, you will develop the ability to:

  1. Use the forecast outturn, profiled budget and commentary to read a monitoring report and identify where the board can still act.
  2. Analyse a variance into price, volume and timing, and decide which adverse or favourable variances deserve board time.
  3. Assess how far RAG ratings, savings trackers and the underlying systems can be relied on, drawing on the Birmingham Oracle case.
  4. Compare payback, net present value and whole-life cost, and use them to test a capital business case.
  5. Explain how borrowing becomes a revenue commitment, and how the Prudential Code and Minimum Revenue Provision keep it affordable.
What it covers

The Modules.

1 hour 15 minutes of learning.

  1. 14Budget Monitoring and VarianceThis module develops the skills to read budget monitoring reports with confidence. It explains why forecast outturn matters more than year to date, the five elements of a report, and how to split variances into price, volume and timing, one-off or recurring. It examines the RAG rating trap and savings delivery confidence, and uses Birmingham City Council's Oracle programme to show why reliable information matters.40 min
  2. 15Capital, Borrowing and Commercial InvestmentThis module examines capital decisions, which commit organisations for decades. It covers payback, net present value and whole-life cost, why every capital pound becomes a revenue promise, and the prudential framework for council borrowing: CIPFA's Prudential Code, Minimum Revenue Provision and the 2021 rule against borrowing for yield. Through the Woking, Thurrock and Luton cases and a risk and purpose matrix, it sets out how boards should govern commercial investment and owned companies.40 min
Where it fits

Keep going.

Part of the Finance for Non Finance Professionals topic, also sold whole as Follow the money.

How credit works

Go deeper, and pay only the difference

  1. You are hereBitesize, 1 hour 15 minutes, £39
  2. Next stepFocus, Budgets, borrowing and resilience, 4 hours, £69. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £30.
  3. Explore, Managing the money, 5 hours 30 minutes, £129. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £90.
  4. The whole topicImmerse, Follow the money, 11 hours, £249. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £210.

When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms

Other Bitesize in the Finance for Non Finance Professionals topic

See all in Finance for Non Finance Professionals