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22 Oct 2025

Understanding and Preparing Budgets – In Person Course 22/10/2025

Target Audience

Anyone involved in preparing and approving budgets and managing an organisation’s resources.

Prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable with Microsoft Excel basics. Laptops will be provided by Carmichael for the training session.

Outline

Community, Voluntary and Charitable Organisations have a responsibility to manage their money and other resources properly. Budgeting is an essential management tool that helps such organisations manage resources effectively. This workshop is for anyone involved in the process of budgeting and managing an organisation’s resources. The workshop will include practical examples and short exercises using MS Excel. To ensure the training is as interactive and participatory as possible, we limit the number of participants to 10. Laptops will be provided.

The main areas covered will be:

  • What a budget is and the typical content
  • The budgeting process and how it fits into the charity’s annual and strategic planning processes
  • Benefits (and potential downsides) of budgeting
  • Tips for preparing a budget
  • Measuring actual outcomes against budgets
  • Importance of review and update
  • The workshop will encourage participants to relate the principles to their own charity.

Methodology

In-person training, in Carmichael Centre, Dublin 7.

Instructor

Andrea Shupinski FCA

Andrea is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. A sole practitioner, she has been providing consultancy, accountancy and taxation services to the Charity and Not-for Profit sector for over 30 years.

Andrea has extensive financial and senior management experience with charities and not for profits as an advisor and accountant and as Chief Financial Officer. She has helped organisations to prepare for a more regulated and transparent environment and has practical experience of charity accounting principles and putting them into practice.

Andrea is a member of the Charity and Not-for Profit Committee at Chartered Accountants Ireland. She and has been a Board member for a number of charities over the years.

Outcomes

By the end of the workshop participants will:

  • Be able to create an effective budgeting process
  • Know how to set a budget in line with the organisation’s aims and objectives
  • Be able to identify the important “building blocks” to prepare a budget for their own organisation
  • Have the skills to build a budget and prepare a draft budget using the template provided
  • Be able to explain variances between actual outcomes and planned outcomes.

Fees

€80Nonprofit Organisation
€70Carmichael Resident Organisation
€90Statutory Organisation
€90Corporate Organisation

Testimonials

Andrea's wealth of experience in her career allowed her to have relevant examples and good knowledge of common issues for charity budgeting. The templates of the budget are extremely useful and I will definitely be using them.
Practical spreadsheets, one on one contact with Andrea.

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