Guidelines for Financial Analysis and Management of Your Project

Guidelines for Financial Analysis and Management of Your Project.

Projects are defined by three critical elements, the work or scope to be done, the timeframe or schedule in which to do it, and resources or budget needed to pay for it. Project Managers are often in control of planning and managing the first two, but the third one, the project budget is often controlled by the organization's Finance department. For this reason, project estimates, cost tracking, forecasting, and Return on Investment (ROI) are often a mystery to them. When the Project Manager does not understand as aspect of the project, they cannot manage and control it. This presentation will help Project Managers and team members understand the principles of project budgeting and financial tracking. This course will present tools and techniques of project estimating, tracking forecasting and ROI calculations will be illustrated. In addition, the unique challenges associated with project financial management will be presented and discussed. Projects, by their very nature, have an element of uncertainty, yet when it comes to financial matters, most businesses are averse to financial uncertainty. This information is critical for Project Managers so they can both manage and accurately communicate the financial status and impact of their projects with senior management.

Learning Objectives

• You will be able to define core project finance terms and differentiate between planned spending, actual costs, and reserved funds.
• You will be able to identify the different project cost estimating techniques and determine which is most appropriate given a task's level of scope/schedule certainty.
• You will be able to differentiate among the four ROI evaluation techniques and identify which business question each one answers.
• You will be able to identify the three causes of project cost variance and differentiate among the four project forecasting methods.