Question for finance guru’s

wizzywig27

My partner has a job interview coming up in an education setting where one of the requirements of the role is budget management. Although she currently manages a million pound premises budget she acknowledges that her weakness is financial management (as she doesn’t oversee finance in her current role) - she was open about this on her application but they obviously see her as a strong candidate. 

There is financial planning task which she has to do, however she isn’t sure what this would entail. I know every job is different and no one can say what the task would be, but if anyone has any guesses, suggestions or tips it would be greatly appreciated so she could at least research it beforehand. 

Thanks everyone 

Sandtree

As you say, it could be a massive range of things so can only say what I've been asked to do in the past and that should be taken in the context of a project environment.

In my case I was given a budget, some actuals and then some text talking about whats happened. I  was asked to provide a tracker and projection... in my case I plotted out the budget based on what they gave and assumptions where it wasnt (so the £1,200 mobile phone bill budget I put at £100 per month as had no reason to think there would be any seasonality to the spend)

Then enter the actuals against it, from this you can calculate the budget remaining and the burn rate and what the original budget rate was to forecast if the remainder is sufficient. In my case much of it didnt have sufficient information to really say if the burn rate would continue or if it'd return to budget... personally I noted this but gave the pessimistic view in the results so if burn rate was above budget then assume it continued whereas if it was below then assume it went back to budget... obv assumes no info in the exercise to explain any deviations

So with the mobile phone line there was monthly bills around £200 each month for 6 months to date so could show the budget was almost used up, no text to explain and so assumed the spend would continue and so forcast a £1.2k overrun. There was only 4 months of contractor costs so put in an accrual for the latest 2 months and could show how much was left and it was on track etc.

wizzywig27

Thank you that is very helpful. She went for one last week and was given a budget spreadsheet and basically interpret it. No idea how she done on that one, however she knows she didn’t do very well. 

This job is a £25k increase per year so not to be sniffed at. 

She has pretty much every area covers bar finance

Sandtree

As long as you are comfortable with excel basic finance is not that difficult and particularly if you stick to operational expense... it can get a bit more complex when you look to capitalise costs, fair market value on intragroup costs or an economic/time/value view  etc but then thats when you call the professionals in to either do it or guide your hand.

Good luck on the outcome!

kimwp

Might be worth her going on a course if all the jobs she is applying to have this element. There may even be a free and/or short online course from one of the universities that would give her enough to talk around.

kimwp

Coursera budgeting essentials and development. Won't complete in time for the interview, but may be worth taking a look at.

The Budgeting Essentials and Development course focus on an integrative and practical view of concepts, methods, and techniques to develop a budget.

After finishing this course, learners will be able to:

- Develop the budget with a broad view of the corporate functions;

- Integrate the strategic guidelines into the discussions of budgeting process;

- Structure the budget planning and development in a logical sequence

- Coordinate the project of budget planning with the different areas of the company

- Actively promote assumptions discussions to improve the process of developing the budget

- Apply financial concepts to support the budget planning process

- Design a budget monitoring and control model to support the performance management

- Evaluate the performance of the company by managing the results and the budget

wizzywig27

Thanks guys, just an update, she didn't get the job, feedback was great for every aspect of the interview, however she wasn't very strong on the finance task (which she knew would be be the case). He explained that had she of not been in as strong in the other tasks they could have worked with it, but as one of the schools was in major deficit they could not take it further (no one was offered the job out of three).

A positive was that everyone thought she was great, they loved her enthusiasm for the job and approach. He said there was a position coming up in another school and they would strongly advise her to look out for this and to apply as a number of people will be looking out for her name. He said this will be a stepping stone and would also help her finance skills.

Gutted, but proud of her, she did awesome and was let down by the one thing she knew would be an issue, but she gave it her best shot