Fundamentals of Corporate Budgeting
Management X 430.15
4.00 units
COURSE MEETINGS:
Wednesday, 6:30-9:30 pm
March 30 – June 15th, 2011 (12 meetings)
UCLA: Bunche Hall 3211
INSTRUCTOR: Derek D’Sa
derekdsa@ucla.edu
SECTION 1: Course Description:
With corporate budgeting, a company or business unit can successful execute a strategy to achieve
financial targets. However, this process is often inefficient, inaccurate or poorly conceived. When
this happens, there can be a misallocation of resources, which can harm a company’s growth and
provide the wrong incentives.
In this class, we will look at the best-practices for corporate budgeting. This involves looking
at:
Common budget approaches
The preparation, monitoring and control of budgets
Cost, volume and profit analysis
Capital budgeting
Operational budgeting
Throughout the course, the instructor will use spreadsheets as well as real-life examples to
understand the concepts. A student should expect to spend three to five hours of work per
week.
From the knowledge of this course, the student will be able to construct a corporate
budget for a business. This will be the final project.
SECTION 2: Expected Student Outcomes:
Accurately identify the main types of budgets
How to apply cost behaviors to corporate budgets
Identify fixed, variable and mixed costs in a sample budget
Calculate breakeven quantities at the cash, accounting and financial levels
Apply variance analysis
Forecast sales and costs in a proposed budget
Build a cash budget
Analyze a budget with NPV, IRR, PI, and MIRR methods
Identify weaknesses in a budget
With the above, the students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of these
concepts through class discussion, homework and three exams.
SECTION 3: Course Requirements
Here are the key areas you will spend your time on for this course:
Reading the textbook
Review PowerPoints
Answer questions in class
Complete homework assignments
Complete two mid-terms and a final
Complete a budgeting project
SECTION 4: Course Evaluation:
The grading will be as follows:
5 % = Homework assignments
15% = First Mid-term
20% = Second Mid-term
25% = Final
25% = Final budgeting project
10% = Class participation
SECTION 5: Course Resources
Course Text: Budgeting Basics & Beyond (Shim, Jae K. and Siegel, Joel G.), Third Edition, John
Wiley & Sons, 2009 Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 978-0-470-38968-3
Financial Calculator: A financial calculator is required. Texas Instruments BA II Plus is
recommended. Any Hewlett Packard or other financial calculator will also work fine.
96-100 = A
80 - 81 = B68 - 69 = D+
90-95 = A78-79 = C+
62-67 = D
88-89 = B+
72-77 = C
60-61 = D-
82-87 = B
70-71 = C0 - 59 = F
SECTION 6: Course Schedule
Session
1
Date
March 30
Content
2
April 6
Read Ch. 3 – Administering Budget
Read Ch. 4 – Break Even & CM
3
April 13
4
April 20
Read Ch. 5 – Profit planning
Read Ch. 6 – Master Budget
Mid Term # 1 (Ch 1, 2, 3 and 4)
Read Ch. 7 – Cost Behavior
Read Ch. 8 – Evaluation
5
April 27
6
May 4
7
May 11
Read Ch. 13 – Capital Expenditures
Read Ch. 20 – Capital Budgeting
8
May 18
9
May 25
Read Ch. 14 – Forecasting
Read Ch. 17 – Cash Budgeting
Mid Term # 2 (Ch 5 thru’ 12)
Read Ch. 18 – Financial Modeling
10
June 1
11
June 8
12
June 15
Read Ch. 1 – The what & why of
budgeting
Read Ch. 2 – Strategic planning &
budgeting
Read Ch. 9 – Manufacturing Costs
Read Ch. 10 – Marketing
Read Ch. 11 – R & D
Read Ch. 12 – G &A
Read Ch. 21 – Zero-based
budgeting
Review for the Final
Final exam and final project
Comprehensive