Analyzing the company and its environment
- Analyzing the economic context.
- Analyzing global demand.
- Analysis of trends.
- Distinction between general and cost accounting.
Analyzing its costs
- Introduction to cost accounting.
- Analyzing items to incorporate into costs.
- Hierarchy of costs and determining profit/loss.
- Handling indirect expenses: The cost center model.
- Variable expenses/fixed expenses.
- Cascading costs method and ABC method.
Hands-on work
Case study Determine the sales price of products by properly managing their costs.
Optimizing your margins and profitability
- Calculating costs, margins, and break-even point.
- Breaking even: How to calculate and optimize it.
Hands-on work
Define the break-even points of products or services. Categorize the expenses as fixed or variable.
Monitoring your business: The scorecard
- The scorecard as a key decision factor.
- Action variables. Alert thresholds.
- Result indicators and performance indicators.
- Questioning whether the indicators are meaningful.
- Making an impactful comment using the scoring method.
Hands-on work
Monitor the company using multiple scoring methods. Assess the company's profitability and solvency.
Identifying growth opportunities
- Studying internal and external variables.
- Spotting market trends.
- Analyzing activity.
- Defining a capital project.
- Evaluating its actual cost.
- Studying economic profitability.
- Determining selection criteria.
Hands-on work
Comparing the net present values and internal rates of return of several capital projects.
Budget tools
- Creating and linking budgets: Sales, production, procurement, corporate services.
- Case studyAnticipate changes in cash flow using budget forecasts.
Budget control
- Deviation analysis: Identification, measures, corrective actions.
Hands-on work
Case study Creating new 3-, 6-, and 9-month budget pictures.
