• Kaplan logo

Introduction to Business Budgeting

Gain a solid understanding of budgeting and learn key budgeting skills and techniques to take into the workplace.

Confident young businesswoman using a laptop with a coffee. She is sat at a shared desk in front of large windows.
  • Duration

    3 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Understand the benefits of budgeting

Using a budget helps businesses make informed decisions. It gives you a greater understanding of your revenue and provides a plan for the future.

On this three-week course, you’ll delve into the benefits of budgeting as you explore why and how you should budget.

You’ll explore different approaches to budgeting, including top-down, bottom up, and periodic to understand which approach works best for your context.

Explore sources of information

To help you start to prepare a budget, it’s important to first know your sources of information.

You’ll learn which sources of information you’ll need to use in your budget as you explore the difference between data and information.

Delve into costing

You’ll gain an understanding of management accounting and costing, and how to use it in business.

This knowledge will help you categorise costs to ensure you know how to estimate all cost elements of work within your business.

Learn from the experts at Kaplan

Throughout the course, you’ll be guided by the finance specialists at Kaplan.

Learning from their expertise, you’ll finish the course with the knowledge and skills to start creating insightful and accurate budgets.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    The benefits of budgeting

    • A sunrise, symbolising the start of something new.

      Welcome

      An overview of the topics you'll be covering this week.

    • A person with a calculator

      Introduction to budgets

      This activity looks at how organisations benefit from using budgets.

    • Image of a coin with a pen

      Participation in budget setting

      The following steps will walk you through participation in budget setting.

    • Image of two documents

      Approaches to budgeting

      The following steps will look at various different approaches to budgeting.

  • Week 2

    Sources of information

    • A sunrise, symbolising the start of something new.

      Welcome

      Do you know the difference between data and information? What does the term 'information' even mean? Over this next week, you'll explore both of these questions and more.

    • A laptop with several images sprouting off it: a folder, a telephone, a mobile device, two people.

      Sources of information

      We all need information to make decisions. In this activity, we’ll look at where you can find information.

    • Diagram showing Big Data movement.

      Big data

      Big data refers to the fact that there are huge volumes of data, it changes all the time and there are lots of different places that data can come from. Here, we'll explain the principles of big data.

  • Week 3

    Costing

    • A sunrise, symbolising the start of something new.

      Welcome

      This week, we'll be exploring how costing fits within budgeting and accounting.

    • An image of three eggs, a carton of milk and a loaf of bread

      Using Costing in Business

      Businesses need to understand their costs in a lot of detail. In this activity you will look at how we can classify and break down these costs in a range of different ways.

    • A coin in a hand.

      Behaviour of Costs

      This activity is going to explain costs in detail and how they change or stay the same in line with activity.

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Explain the seven benefits of budgeting for an organisation
  • Summarise the need for data when budgeting
  • Identify sources of information when budgeting
  • Classify costs in different ways
  • Produce a standard cost card
  • Assess different approaches to budgeting

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about budgeting within business.

It will be particularly useful for those considering a career change into an accountancy profession, or those who wish to know more about finance.

Who developed the course?

Kaplan logo

Kaplan

Kaplan UK is a leading international provider of educational and career services. Building on a rich heritage of more than 50 years of training accountants and financial professionals, Kaplan UK serves more than 48,000 students a year, both based in the UK and from overseas, who train for AAT, CIMA, ACCA and ICAEW qualifications.

  • Established

    1971
  • Location

    London, UK

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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