Financial Forecasting: Tools and Applications

Course Description

Business and financial forecasting is of extreme importance to managers at practically all levels. It is required for top managers to make long-term strategic decisions. Middle management uses sales forecasts to develop their departmental budgets. Every other plan such as a production plan, purchasing plan, manpower plan, and financial plan follows from demand forecasting. The critical element in any supply chain plan is the demand forecast.

The goal of this course is to provide a working knowledge of the fundamentals of business forecasting that can be applied in the real world regardless of firm size. We walk you through basic forecasting methodology, and then practical applications. It encompasses a wide range of topics of major importance to practical managers in all functional areas, including cash flow forecasting, cost prediction, earnings forecasts, bankruptcy prediction, foreign exchange forecasting, interest rate forecasting, and technological forecasting.

Learning objectives

• a:4:{i:0;s:48:"Identify various aspects of forecasting methods.";i:1;s:42:"Identify the important steps to budgeting.";i:2;s:44:"Recognize the value of sensitivity analysis.";i:3;s:58:"Identify factors in the computation of business valuation.";}
• a:5:{i:0;s:51:"Recognize the features of naive forecasting models.";i:1;s:31:"Recognize smoothing techniques.";i:2;s:54:"Identify the basic components of the time series data.";i:3;s:60:"Recognize the steps to perform decomposition of time series.";i:4;s:45:"Recognize life cycle stages for new products.";}
• a:5:{i:0;s:65:"Identify assumptions use to forecast sales with the Markov model.";i:1;s:66:"Understand the value of performing market surveys for forecasting.";i:2;s:84:"Recognize methods of comparing a predicted forecast change with the observed change.";i:3;s:55:"Identify how to measure and rank accuracy of forecasts.";i:4;s:63:"Identify the value of a combination method of sale forecasting.";}
• a:6:{i:0;s:50:"Recognize the use of different econometric models.";i:1;s:77:"Identify some sources of economic data that can be used to improve forecasts.";i:2;s:62:"Identify the steps in projecting financial needs for the firm.";i:3;s:88:"Recognize the implication of earnings forecasts and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements.";i:4;s:84:"Identify different sources provided from security analysts for earnings projections.";i:5;s:73:"Identify benefits and methods of forecasting the cash collection pattern.";}
• a:3:{i:0;s:43:"Differentiate the costs found in a company.";i:1;s:49:"Recognize different methods for estimating costs.";i:2;s:80:"Identify bankruptcy prediction models and the limitations of some methodologies.";}
• a:4:{i:0;s:74:"Recognize the reasons for managers to forecast the foreign exchange rates.";i:1;s:58:"Identify the different aspects of interest rate forecasts.";i:2;s:67:"Identify characteristics and accuracy of technological forecasting.";i:3;s:58:"Identify the trends that affect the future of forecasting.";}

Final examination expiration date:

The program participant will have one year from the date of purchase to complete the course and final examination.