WEB-BASED COURSE SYLLABUS TEMPLATE. COURSE TITLE: Fundamentals of Corporate Budgeting

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1 WEB-BASED COURSE SYLLABUS TEMPLATE INSTRUCTOR: Daniel Feiman COURSE TITLE: Fundamentals of Corporate Budgeting Section 1: Course Description: Budgeting is a critical step in planning and controlling the day-to-day operations of any business. The budgeting process can also be a time-consuming, multi-layered, and complex. To streamline this process and ensure more timely and accurate budgets are created, companies place great value on a formalized process that produces detailed, yet flexible budgets that are fully aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. This is a major task that can easily go wrong. This course introduces students to the fundamental elements of budgeting practiced by businesses and its two main benefits to a firm: Planning and Control. Topics we are going to cover include an overview of budgeting and the budget process; various budget types; preparing, monitoring and controlling budgets; cost/ volume/profit analysis; and capital budgeting vs. operational budgeting. Instruction also includes exercises in budgeting using real-world applications Prerequisite: None. This 11 session, 36-hour-equivalent online course includes in-depth modules designed to help you understand and use a variety of budgeting tools to develop and implement your own budget. We will discuss various approaches to budgeting and why there is no one right way to budget. Further, we will explore the challenges that seem to cause so many companies to create budgets that never work yet repeat the cycle annually. You should anticipate, on average, to commitment 3-5 hours of you time per week to this course. You will have a chance to demonstrate your working understanding & knowledge of budgets when you build your own business as your final project for this course. Rationale for Offering/Taking/ This Course Online: This course is offered online to satisfy the demand of working professionals who asked for this course yet did not have the time or flexibility to come to campus. If the syllabus that follows fits your needs, this course is for you. Section 2: Expected Student Outcomes: a. By the end of this course every student should be able to develop, defend & build a basic business budget. You should be able to understand the major elements of that budget, how they are linked, how the variances are calculated, what to do with them, how to forecast before you finalize your budget and how to use various tools to optimize your decisions based on these skills. This will be a major part of your grade. b. During the course, you will participate in discussions with other students and the instructor.

2 Some of these will be guided by questions from the instructor; some will come from your, or other students, challenges or experience. These will be scored and a portion of your grade. c. You will be able to demonstrate your understanding of the concepts in two exams: a midterm and a final exam. Each will cover the major points you read about, we discuss and you research. This understanding will be converted to actions in the budgeting project referred to in a. above. By the conclusion of this course, students will be expected to: (1) Correctly identify 5 different types of Budgets. (2) Demonstrate a thorough understanding of cost behaviors and how they apply in budgeting (3) Meaningfully review and critique a generic budget presented for class review (4) Demonstrate through class discussions, tests, and homework assignments a thorough understanding of the aspects capital budgets (5) Demonstrate through class discussions, tests, and homework assignments a thorough understanding of the aspects operational budgets (6) Be able to identify the fixed, variable and mixed costs in a sample budget and calculate Breakeven quantities at the Cash, Accounting and Financial levels. (7) Engage in positive and meaningful dialogue with classmates concerning Variance Analysis, its proper use and design (8) Discuss more than one way to forecast sales and costs in a proposed budget (9) Be able to build a cash budget (10) Analyze a capital budget using NPV, IRR, PI & MIRR to recommend for or against the investment Section 3: Description of Content: This course is offered online in 11 weekly sessions. Students are able to access lectures, examples & templates via the online tool. You will also be able to complete assignments and interact with other students as well as the instructor asynchronously so you will not be limited by anyone s timeframe. Session 1: An introduction to the course will be given, previewing the subjects to be covered. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses & interaction. Course requirements will be delineated and the Project outline will be presented. Student self-introductions will occur.

3 Session 2: The link between forecasting and budgeting will be established. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 3: Forecasting & planning will be continued along with the specific mathematical tools will be demonstrated. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 4: Our forecasting discussion will get specific then we will move into financial modeling & differentiate this from pro formas. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 5: Calculating various types of costs will be discussed. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 6: Mid-term exam will start the week. Administering & evaluating the budget will be our focus. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 7: What other costs are there to be concerned with? Break even inputs & models will be explored along with General & Administrative (G&A) costs. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 8: What costs are actually discretionary? We will review Marketing and Research & Development costs and why they are frequently viewed as discretionary. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 9: What is a Capital budget & how is it different from an Operational budget? How do we research, plan & evaluate capital budgets. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 10: We will start a discussion of various budgeting software packages and products in the marketplace & wrap up our budgeting discussion with Zero-based budgets. Weekly Discussion questions will be posted for student responses. Homework assignment from previous week will be due. Session 11: Final exams and final budgeting Project due. Section 4: Course Requirements: Listed below is what you will be spending your time on when you take this course: (1) Reading textbook chapters

4 (2) Reviewing the PowerPoint slides for these chapters prepared by the instructor (2) Responding online to discussion questions and answers regarding session topics (3) Completing 10 homework assignments (4) Completing 2 tests (5) Completing a budgeting project Section 5: Course Evaluation: Grades will be based on the following: 15% = Participation in course sessions, (i.e., reading assigned online lectures & slides and textbook chapters, participating in class discussions, reporting progress to instructor, asking questions in the Discussion board) 85% = Evidence of progress during course on: 25 % = Homework assignments (10 total, 2.5 % each) 20 % = Midterm examination 20 % = Final examination or project 20 % = Budgeting project Section 6: Required Resources: Course Text: Budgeting Basics & Beyond; Shim, Jae K. and Siegel, Joel G.; Third Edition; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2009 Hoboken, NJ; ISBN System requirements: Internet access via a web browser (e.g., Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer). Optional Reading: CFO magazine; your local library or for a free subscription go to to register. Optional Website Reading: (Chief Financial Officer magazine) (Middle market business magazine) (Financial Executives International) (The American Finance Association)

5 Section 7: Course Schedule: Session Date Day Content 1 30-Jun Wednesday Introduction to budgeting (1) Reading: Chapters 1 - The what & why of budgeting (1) Reading: Chapters 2 - Strategic planning & budgeting (3) Begin homework assignment 2 7-Jul Wednesday The link forecasting & budgeting (1) Reading: Chapter 5 - Profit planning (1) Reading: Chapter 6 - Master budget 3 14-Jul Wednesday Forecasting & planning (1) Reading: Chapter Forecasting & planning (1) Reading: Chapter Moving averages 4 21-Jul Wednesday Forecasting & modeling (1) Reading: Chapter 17 - Cash budgeting & forecasting cash flow (1) Reading: Chapter 18 - Financial modeling 5 28-Jul Wednesday Cost behavior (1) Reading: Chapter 7 - Cost behavior (1) Reading: Chapters 9 - Manufacturing costs 6 4-Aug Wednesday (1) Each student takes their own midterm exam. Evaluating performance (2) Reading: Chapter 3 - Administering the budget (2) Reading: Chapter 8 - Evaluating performance (3) Answer weekly discussion questions. (4) Homework assignment from previous week is due.

6 7 11-Aug Wednesday Other cost considerations (1) Reading: Chapter 4 - Break even & contribution margin (1) Reading: Chapter 12 - General & administration costs 8 18-Aug Wednesday Discretionary costs (1) Reading: Chapter 10 - Marketing (1) Reading: Chapter 11 - Research & development 9 25-Aug Wednesday Capital budgeting (1) Reading: Chapter 13 - Capital expenditures (1) Reading: Chapter 20 - Capital budgeting 10 1-Sep Wednesday Budgeting & software (1) Reading: Chapter 21 - Zero-based budgeting (1) Reading: Chapter 19 - Software 11 8-Sep Wednesday (1) Final exams (2) Final budgeting project due