To provide candidates with a sound knowledge and understanding of proposals for expenditure, budgets and budgetary control in the context of energy management.

Proposals for expenditure; agreeing budgets for programmes of work and controlling activities so that they operate within budget.

Candidates should already be capable of fulfilling the Assessment Criteria in Units S3 and M3.

The candidate should know and understand how to:

1. Prepare for and present a case for expenditure on a programme of work related to energy management, clearly identifying the principles and techniques used, and describe how this case would be presented.
2. Prepare a budget for a programme of work related to energy management, analyse the risks and show how support would be gained for the proposal.
3. Review the budgetary control procedure for a typical organisation, identify the strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations.

Candidates should be fully conversant with the content of Institute Units S3 and M3.

Organisational context

1. Relevant organisational strategies and objectives, procedures for making expenditure proposals.

Communication

2. Developing and arguing a case for expenditure.
3. Presenting budgets in a way likely to gain support, communicating budget information effectively.

Information handling

4. Identification and analysis of trends and developments as a basis for expenditure proposals; types of information needed for decisions on expenditure; collecting and validating information to aid the case for expenditure; legal requirements; cost benefit analysis.
5. Types of information needed to develop budgets and validating these.

Involvement and motivation

6. Encouraging people to contribute to expenditure proposals.
7. Encouraging involvement in the negotiation and agreement of budgets.
8. Encouraging team members to take responsibility for monitoring and controlling activities against budgets.
9. Gaining commitment of team members to budgets.

Resource management

10. Importance of expenditure planning to organisational efficiency, related roles and responsibilities, principles underpinning the planning of expenditure and applying them; targets, standards and monitoring. Interdependencies between costs and the usage/management of energy.

Budgets

11. Importance of clear, accurate budgets, related roles and responsibilities, balancing needs of the organisation with demands of own area of responsibility, principles underpinning budgets and applying them; analysing risks.
12. Importance of gaining agreement on budgets; budget negotiations, resolving areas of uncertainty and disagreement satisfactorily to those involved.
13. Importance of budgetary control, related roles and responsibilities, monitoring and corrective action; importance of accurate, comprehensive records and ensuring they are kept.