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2023
PD Pathways - December 2023/January 2024

Strategic Budgeting for Finance Professionals: Enhancing Efficiency and Performance

Budgeting is a cornerstone of financial management, and for finance professionals, aligning the budgeting process with corporate strategy is crucial for organizational success. This article explores key strategies for finance professionals to enhance budgeting practices, including aligning budgets with corporate goals, resource allocation, leveraging Excel techniques, and effectively analyzing financial data to monitor performance.

Aligning Budgeting with Corporate Strategy

Finance professionals play a pivotal role in ensuring that budgeting aligns with the broader corporate strategy. Start by understanding the company's strategic objectives and incorporating them into the budgeting process. This alignment ensures that financial resources are allocated to initiatives that directly contribute to organizational goals.

Effective Resource Allocation

Resource allocation is a fundamental aspect of budgeting. Finance professionals should focus on optimizing the allocation of resources to maximize their impact on strategic objectives. This involves identifying key priorities, assessing project feasibility, and allocating funds accordingly. A robust budgeting process allows for flexibility, enabling adjustments in response to changing business dynamics.

Leveraging Excel Techniques

Excel remains a powerful tool for finance professionals, offering a range of techniques to enhance budgeting processes. Utilize features like scenario analysis, goal seek, and data validation to create dynamic and flexible budgets. Excel's pivot tables and charts are invaluable for presenting complex financial data in a clear and understandable format, aiding decision-making processes.

Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Data

Analyzing financial data is essential for monitoring budget performance. Finance professionals should establish key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with budgetary goals. Regularly assess and interpret financial data to identify variances, trends, and potential areas for improvement. This proactive approach allows for timely adjustments to ensure budget adherence.

Implementing Rolling Forecasts

Instead of relying solely on static annual budgets, finance professionals can implement rolling forecasts. This dynamic approach involves regularly updating budgets based on actual performance and changing market conditions. Rolling forecasts provide a more accurate reflection of the business environment and allow for agile decision-making.

Incorporating Zero-Based Budgeting

Consider integrating zero-based budgeting (ZBB) principles into the budgeting process. ZBB requires justifying all expenses from scratch, ensuring that each budget item contributes directly to organizational objectives. This method promotes cost efficiency and resource optimization, aligning with strategic goals.

For finance professionals, strategic budgeting is more than a routine task; it's a dynamic process that aligns financial resources with corporate strategy. By effectively allocating resources, leveraging Excel techniques, and analyzing financial data, professionals can enhance budget performance and contribute significantly to the overall success of the organization. Embracing flexibility and incorporating innovative approaches like rolling forecasts and zero-based budgeting ensures adaptability in an ever-changing business landscape.

Upcoming New Titles for Winter

Here are some new titles to watch out for in our Winter Program. Click here for a comprehensive list of new titles.

Best Practices in File Management, File Reviews, Documentation, and Self-Review

This session will provide participants a checklist of items to continually monitor and complete for success. Moreover, participants will learn how each item on the checklist will impact firm profitability and overall well-being of the firm and team members.

Live Virtual (Jan 10)

Practical Considerations of the New Bare Trust Reporting Requirements

This session will discuss the new reporting issues in respect to bare trusts used for real property, investments and bank accounts and other estate planning.

Live Virtual (Jan 17)

Selected BC PST and GST/HST Issues: Construction and Manufacturing in BC & Application to Cross-border Supplies

This session will focus on the indirect tax issues associated with obtaining and using cross-border supplies. Both domestic and cross-border supplies will be discussed, and key interpretive issues highlighted.

Live Virtual (Jan 16)

On-Demand Options

Our on-demand learning comprises both archived recordings from live CPABC PD seminars, and titles that are specifically developed and produced for the e-learning audience. Check all titles available on our website.

CPABC PD Video On-Demand

CPABC has video recorded live offerings and made these seminars available as on-demand videos online, along with the corresponding course materials. Dates published with the on-demand titles reflect when the videos were recorded – information presented was up-to-date at the time of recording. Each title qualifies for verifiable CPD hours upon successful completion of a quiz at the end of the seminar.

ProDio Audio Learning

From Accounting, Ethics to Business and Power Skills, ProDio partners with expert instructors and guests to create engaging story-style scenario learning in an audio format that can be listened to on-demand while commuting, exercising etc. All ProDio courses are eligible for CPD credits and include learning outcomes, quizzes, handouts and a completion certificate.

Executive Finance

Executive Finance’s online courses focus on developing financial professionals to become financial executives; they also offer courses for newer financial professionals in areas such as ethics, financial analysis, and corporate finance.

Upcoming In-person Seminars

Here are some in-person seminars scheduled for Winter. View the complete list on our website.

Income Tax - Planning for Business Succession

This seminar provides knowledge and tools necessary to identify, plan and manage business succession considerations for owner-managers of private companies through various phases of a business life cycle.

Vancouver (Jan 25)

Income Tax - Update 2023

This seminar will be beneficial to those who need current information to advise clients, deal with the CRA, and who want to update their existing knowledge of income tax issues to incorporate developments in the past year. As the course focuses only on recent developments, it is best suited for members who take the course annually.

Vancouver (Jan 27)

Advanced Strategic Management Certificate Program: Maps

In this session, participants will gain experience in strategy mapping and integration. Using strategy mapping, participants will be able to understand how to assess and consider limited resources in strategic planning and how to best make hard choices between strategic alternatives, priorities and resources.

Vancouver (Feb 7)

Advanced Strategic Management Certificate Program: Links

This case-based, interactive session takes participants through a process of analysis and review, allowing a big picture perspective, balanced with emphasis of key details and the importance of making hard choices throughout the process.

Vancouver (Feb 8)

Personal Development for Professional Growth

Here are some upcoming courses that will enable you to further enhance your professional growth – end the year with some great personal development, or plan on starting 2024 with courses that will prepare you for an upcoming year of success.

How to transition from an expert to a leader

Transitioning from a technical accounting expert to leading a team of accounting and other professionals is one of the most significant milestones in a person’s career. It can however be a challenging transition. Leading teams means taking on new responsibilities and requires a broad portfolio of skills, and also an understanding of human psychology. Explore what it really takes to lead teams effectively, and discover the tripping points for many aspiring leaders.

Learn more at the live webinar Leading Professional Teams - Successfully Transitioning from Professional Expert to Team Leader on Dec 15.

When nothing stays the same – managing change

We live and work in a continually changing environment, which provides both challenges and opportunities for ourselves and our organizations. Learn how to respond to the process of business change and transformation, and how to be the champion of change efforts. Discover how you can manage the transformation process through leadership, perseverance, risk-taking, and the involvement of others.

Learn more at the live webinar Managing Change and Transformation on Dec 13.

Spend your time wisely by increasing your personal effectiveness

Successful people have one thing in common – they learn by doing and by applying their experience to day-to-day activities. Through understanding themselves, their values and motivators, and by continuously examining their taken-for-granted assumptions, they are able to adapt and improve their communication and management styles, their approach to decision-making and relationships.

Learn more at the live webinar Personal Effectiveness: Self Awareness and Balanced Thinking on Dec 14.

Have you procrastinated on planning and saving for retirement?

Let’s face it, planning and saving for retirement is not easy. We are told that the earlier we start the better, and that the “magic of compounding” will make our dreams come true. But for most people it’s simply not possible. In our twenties through our forties, we are busy paying for our housing, our cars, our kids and all the other costs of living. Out of necessity many of us become procrastinators when it comes to saving for retirement. Explore a step-by-step approach to planning for retirement in an easy-to-follow plan that can be done in ten years or less.

Learn more at the live webinar The Procrastinator's Guide to Retirement on Dec 18. Also available on-demand.

Income tax updates and refreshers

Do you need some income tax refreshers and updates? Don’t miss these upcoming live webinars. Income Tax – Update 2023 (multiple offerings in December and January), Income Tax: Employees – Update on Dec 13, Income Tax – Employee vs. Contractor on Dec 18, Corporate Tax – Compliance and Planning in T2 Preparation on Jan 26.

You can also browse our on-demand inventory of Tax courses.

Building your C-suite skills

Developed with aspiring and new Controllers in mind, The Controller’s Operational Skills Program focuses on the core technical processes and procedures of the financial role, while The Controller’s Management Program focuses on honing your personal and interpersonal effectiveness. You can choose to complete only one of these programs, but if you complete both components you will receive the CPABC Controllership Program Certificate.

Learn more about the Controller’s Operational Skills Program and the Controller’s Management Program – 2024 dates now available!

Empowering Minds for a Sustainable Future: Nurturing Tomorrow’s Leaders through the Principles of Sustainability Accounting

Meet Caren Lombard, CFA, CPA, CA, MCom, a lecturer at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.

She is a CPA and CFA and has worked in post-secondary education since 2012. Caren started her career at Deloitte in South Africa. In 2000, Caren moved to Vancouver where she structured mezzanine and other debt financing transactions at BDC's Growth Capital group and at Export Development Canada. She joined UBC in 2017, where she has played a key role in the coordination of Sauder's large undergraduate finance courses.

Caren’s focus area of interest, within finance and accounting, is sustainability. She developed a new course for Sauder – Climate-focused ESG reporting and analysis. Caren is pursuing the Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) credential and she is part of the 2023/2024 cohort of the Accounting4Sustainability Academy.

Learn from Caren in-person at her session on ESG Reporting Developments in 2023 at the PD Nexus: Business & Innovation Insights on December 13 at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver.

Free On-Demand Ethics Seminars

These titles are eligible for verifiable CPD hours – in order to claim these hours as verifiable, you will be required to successfully complete a short quiz.

Critical Thinking and Managing Bias for Objective Decision-Making

This session will focus on a key skill set that all CPAs need to hone as part of professional judgement – that of critical thinking, including the ability to identify and mitigate biases. These essential skills support our ability to maintain objectivity and apply appropriate levels of skepticism while making well-informed and well-reasoned decisions, particularly in today’s era of misinformation.

Ethical Dilemmas: The Thick Grey Line

This course provides participants with opportunities to evaluate ethical scenarios in a variety of contexts that are realistic and representative of the CPA demographic (including industry, not-for-profit, public sector and public practice).

Starting a Dialogue around Unconscious Bias

In this session, you will consider the drivers of unconscious bias and the impact on organizational decision making. You will consider how best to identify and mitigate the risks of unconscious bias in the workplace, to build more innovative, inclusive, and ultimately successful organizations.