Keeping the Numbers Honest: A Project Cost Control and Financial Performance Training Course (Online / Remote)
1Summary
Plenty of projects look financially fine right up until the moment the cost reports catch up with reality — and by then the gap is too large to close quietly. Project Cost Control exists to prevent that moment: catching variances early, tracing them to a cause, and correcting course before a manageable overrun becomes an unmanageable one.
The Project Cost Analysis, Control & Financial Performance training course, delivered by Arab British Fellowship Training Academy as part of its Project Management Training Courses, builds that discipline through budgeting, earned value management, cost forecasting, and financial reporting practices that keep project finances under control from kickoff to closeout.
2Objectives and target group
Who Should Attend?
- Project Managers, Coordinators, and Project Management Professionals
- Project Cost Controllers, Cost Engineers, and Quantity Surveyors
- Project Finance Managers and Financial Controllers
- Budget and Planning Professionals, Programme and Portfolio Managers
- Engineering and Construction Professionals
- Anyone accountable for project budgets and financial performance
What You'll Gain
- Build realistic budgets and cost baselines that hold up under scrutiny
- Apply cost analysis techniques to catch expenditure problems early
- Use earned value management to measure cost and schedule performance together
- Monitor cash flow, commitments, and expenditure through structured financial control
- Forecast final project costs and identify financial risks before they materialise
- Investigate variances, apply corrective action, and maintain financial discipline
- Build financial reports and dashboards that support real decisions
3Course Content
Module 1: The Budget That Looked Fine Until It Didn't
- Why financially healthy-looking projects still run into trouble
- Principles, objectives, and lifecycle of project cost control
- Cost control responsibilities and governance
- Cost categories, structures, and building a control framework
Module 2: Setting a Budget You Can Actually Defend
- Developing project budgets and cost estimation techniques
- Budget allocation and resource costing
- Establishing cost baselines
- Budget approval procedures and managing changes
Module 3: Reading Cost Data: Analysis That Catches Problems Early
- Direct, indirect, fixed, and variable project costs
- Cost variance analysis and performance indicators
- Root-cause analysis of cost deviations
- Analysing cost trends and patterns
Module 4: Earned Value Management: Measuring Real Progress, Not Just Spend
- Principles of earned value management
- Planned Value, Earned Value, and Actual Cost
- Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index
- Applying EVM to project decision-making
Module 5: Keeping Financial Control Through the Life of the Project
- Establishing financial control systems
- Monitoring expenditure, commitments, and cash flow
- Financial reporting procedures and cost tracking
- Internal controls and accountability
Module 6: Forecasting What's Coming, Not Just Reporting What Happened
- Forecasting project costs and final expenditure
- Estimate at Completion and Estimate to Complete
- Trend analysis, forecasting models, and cash-flow forecasting
- Developing reliable financial projections
Module 7: When Costs Go Off Track: Variances, Risk, and Corrective Action
- Identifying budget overruns and investigating cost variances
- Developing and implementing corrective action plans
- Identifying financial and cost risks, contingency and management reserves
- Scenario and sensitivity analysis for managing uncertainty
Module 8: Telling the Financial Story: Performance Reporting That Gets Read
- Project financial performance reports and key indicators
- Cost dashboards and management information
- Communicating financial results effectively
- Management reporting and decision support
Module 9: Raising the Bar: Advanced Cost Control and Continuous Improvement
- Integrating budgeting, cost analysis, and forecasting
- Advanced cost-control strategies and performance benchmarking
- Optimising project resources and expenditure
- Developing sustainable financial control practices