Financial Forecasting Tools - 2018 (Text Based)

Financial forecasting is an estimate of financial performance for a future period. Essentially, it's an educated guess of the composition of future financial statements. It's a guess as no one, no matter how good they are, can accurately predict the future. However, it's an educated guess because one can use historical factors and adjust them for known current events and future plans to arrive at the forecasts. There is a difference between forecasting and planning. Forecasting is much faster and involves significant uses of estimates whereas planning entails the aggregation of a much greater level of detail to support the end result and to use as a comparison to actual results. This course will not cover planning nor a detail "build" of data. The intent is to use overall data to create summary forecasts of financial performance so that lenders may be timely informed of covenant issues, cash and debt needs may be anticipated and other issues may be addressed on a timely basis. There will not be supporting detail. However, the results will be explainable to shareholders, owners, potential investors or lenders and, more importantly, will make sense from an overall standpoint.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

I. Identify historical trends and apply these trends to forecasts

II. Appreciate the need to discuss current events and future plans with other parties and apply the results of these discussions to a forecasted amount

III. Use the Forecast function in Excel

IV. Understand and use the Correlate function in Excel

V. Understand financial ratios and their use in forecasting

VI. Create a financial statement forecast

Instructional Method: Self-Study

Review Date: 02/01/2018

Required Components: Written Materials

CPE Final Exam Required Passage Grade: 70%

Please Note: This course must be completed within 1 year of date of receipt of this course for CPE Credit.

Field of Study:  Computer Software & Applications

Level of Knowledge:  Beginner

Prerequisite: None

Advanced Preparation: None

For more information regarding administrative policies such as refunds, cancellations and complaints, please contact FurtherEd at 866-273-0717.

FurtherEd is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of the individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.