COURSE OVERVIEW:

Welcome to the Plan & Prepare a Financial Case course. This program provides you with the analytical, strategic, and communication skills necessary to justify organisational decisions through clear financial evidence. You will explore what a financial case is, why it matters, and how organisations use financial cases to evaluate opportunities, assess risks, and allocate resources effectively. This course also examines how ideas evolve into viable projects, how change triggers financial evaluation, and how financial and non-financial information is gathered, analysed, and presented to decision-makers.

This course begins by examining what a financial case is, the importance of making one, and the core purpose behind developing structured financial documentation. You will explore what a financial case involves, including how ideas arise from organisational changes and how those ideas become viable projects. This section also covers how to identify changes occurring within an organisation, the forces that drive the need to create a financial case, and how SWOT and PESTLE analyses help assess readiness and strategic alignment. You will examine how to identify the right time for change and how change relates to the stages of the product or service life cycle.

The next learning area focuses on project identification, evaluation, and risks. You will explore how projects are selected, what commonly goes wrong in project development, the stages of project evolution, and the typical problems that arise. This section also explains how to analyse costs and benefits, including understanding committed and discretionary costs, differentiating capital and revenue costs, and identifying savings that may reduce future revenue expenditure. You will learn how to apply key financial techniques such as the payback period, return on investment, and profit-based measures to evaluate project viability.

A further part of the program examines information gathering and non-financial considerations. You will explore how to gather information for financial analysis, how to structure the information-gathering process, and how to conduct a non-financial cost-benefit analysis. This section also explores externalities, including how they represent unintended costs or benefits, and how they may create positive social impacts that strengthen the broader business case.

The final learning area focuses on presenting and submitting the financial case. You will examine how to select the right information for the right project, how to design a strong presentation, and how to organise your documentation to support clarity and decision-making. This section concludes with the stages involved in getting a project up and running and the formal submission process required to gain approval for the financial case.

By the end of this course you will be able to plan, prepare, analyse, and present a financial case that is logically structured, financially sound, strategically aligned, and persuasive—supporting informed decisions and successful project implementation.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of this course, you will be able to understand:

·       What is a financial case?

·       The importance of making a financial case

·       The purpose of the financial case

·       What the financial case involves?

·       How ideas arise from changes?

·       How ideas turn into viable projects?

·       How to identify changes in the organisation?

·       The need to make a financial case for change

·       The forces for change

·       The SWOT analysis

·       The PESTLE analysis

·       How to identify the time for change?

·       Change within the stages of product or service life cycle

·       How are projects selected?

·       What can go wrong in projects?

·       The process of project evolution

·       The typical problems which arise with projects

·       The analysis of costs and benefits

·       The committed and discretionary costs

·       The capital and revenue costs

·       How savings can be made on future revenue costs?

·       The payback period technique

·       How to gather information for analysis?

·       The return on investment

·       The profit-based measures

·       The information gathering process

·       The non-financial cost-benefit analysis

·       What are externalities?

·       How externalities can also be social benefits?

·       How to present a financial case?

·       The right presentation

·       How to select information for the right project?

·       The stages of getting a project up and running

·       How to submit the financial case?

COURSE DURATION:

The typical duration of this course is approximately 2-3 hours to complete. Your enrolment is Valid for 12 Months. Start anytime and study at your own pace.

ASSESSMENT:

A simple 10-question true or false quiz with Unlimited Submission Attempts.

CERTIFICATION:

Upon course completion, you will receive a customised digital “Certificate of Completion”.