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Description

Finance for Non-Financial Managers – Advanced: Analyse, Prioritise and Defend a Budget

Move from reading the accounts to arguing your case financially in corporate trade-offs

  • 2 days — 14 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Intermediate
  • Up to 6 participants

Managers who have mastered financial vocabulary often stall at the next step. They can read an income statement but cannot quantify the effect of a decision taken within their own scope. Their budget or investment requests are assessed against financial criteria they do not handle with confidence, and the trade-off is lost for want of a costed argument.

These two days build on an initial exposure to corporate finance. Participants learn to analyse the performance of their activity and then to build a credible investment case. They work on the cash impact of their decisions and rehearse defending a budget request in front of a finance function.

Learning objectives

  • Analyse the financial performance of your scope beyond revenue
  • Quantify the financial effect of an operational decision
  • Build an investment case with its assumptions and risks
  • Measure the impact of your decisions on working capital requirements
  • Defend a budget request against financial objections

What makes this programme different

Each participant builds the investment case for a real project within their own scope
Budget trade-offs are role-played against a finance function that challenges the assumptions
Everyday operational decisions are translated into a costed effect on profit and cash

Programme

1Analysing the performance of your activity

Looking beyond revenue and headline margin

  • Breaking down margin by product
  • customer or activity
  • Distinguishing variable costs
  • fixed costs and structural costs
  • Calculating a break-even point and the margin of safety
  • Reading the true contribution of an activity

2Translating a decision into dirhams

Cost it before you propose it

  • Effect of a commercial discount on the volume required
  • Real cost of insourcing or outsourcing
  • Consequence of granting extended payment terms
  • Distinguishing announced savings from realised savings

3Building an investment case

Giving leadership what it needs to decide

  • Formalising assumptions and stating where they come from
  • Forecast cash flows and the selection criteria used by the finance function
  • Identifying risks and downside scenarios
  • Presenting the alternatives that were ruled out

4Budget and trade-offs

Standing behind your request in the financial discussion

  • Building a reasoned budget request
  • Anticipating the standard objections of the finance function
  • Effect of decisions on cash and working capital requirements
  • Negotiating a trade-off between several competing requests

Who is it for

Managers · operational leaders · project managers and executives who have already completed an introduction to corporate finance.

Prerequisites

Familiarity with the structure of the balance sheet and income statement | or prior completion of an introductory finance programme.

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.