Financial planning compact

The Planning Landscape — Clarity Instead of Chaos

• What types of financial planning are there, and what are they for?
  Business plan, 3-year plan, budget, rolling forecast, cash planning, ...: What sets them apart, who needs what, and when? And how are they all connected?
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  Trends and Outlook: The Renaissance of Zero-Based Budgeting, the Introduction of Rolling Planning, and AI in the Planning Process. An overview of current trends within the company.
• Approaches and methods that can be introduced in stages
  The right balance between the depth and quality of planning; integrated planning to avoid silos.

Setting Up the Planning Process

• Planning the Planning
  Who provides what, when, and in what level of detail? How much planning is enough? When does it become bureaucracy?
• Forecasting Techniques
  When do we roll forward—and when do we delve into driver-based planning?
• Revenue and Expense Planning
  From Strategy to Numbers: Top-Down or Bottom-Up? How Both Perspectives Come Together to Form a Robust Plan. Plan fixed and variable costs in a structured way. Understand one-time and recurring costs and report them separately.
• Investments and Scenario Planning
  What investment decisions mean in the plan. Impact on the income statement and cash flow. Setting up base, best, and worst-case scenarios to account for different possibilities and make decisions based on the situation.

 Understanding and Actively Managing Liquidity

• Cash Flow Planning and Liquidity Forecasting
  : Methods, Level of Detail, and Common Pitfalls.
• Working Capital as a Management Tool
  Accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory. Where the money really is—and how to involve operational teams in setting goals.
• Establish an early warning system
  Identify funding needs early on, and define critical thresholds and signals to respond in a timely manner to potential bottlenecks.

From Planning to Management to Communication

• The Right Metrics
  Which KPIs Are Relevant for Management and How They Are Used as Management Tools.
• Plan-Actual Variances
  : Understand the causes, draw conclusions, and communicate the results clearly and in a manner appropriate to the audience.
• Stakeholder Communication
  Why banks, investors, and management need different types of planning, and how to properly present planning results to each target audience.