Summary

This course guides participants through a step-by-step process for developing a business plan and financial projections for a microfinance institution using Microfin 4.0, the sophisticated financial projections software that was developed by the facilitators of this training course, Chuck Waterfield and Tony Sheldon, with financial support from CGAP, Women's World Banking, and Sida.

Microfin has long been the microfinance "industry standard" for planning andbudgeting. Microfin allows you to develop detailed five-year financial projections and budgets for your institution, and to simulate the impact of key decisions on your institution.

Microfin 4.0 includes 200 major enhancements over Microfin 3.0, including an expanded range of financial products, improved guidance and error-checking features, versatile graphing, and much more.

This fast-paced course is designed to be highly participatory, with a large amount of hands-on time working in groups at the computer, applying the software to a detailed case study. In addition to the course manual, at the conclusion of the course, participants will receive a CD-ROM containing Microfin and the User's Handbook.

By the end of the workshop you will have a better understanding of:

. how to use Microfin to develop financial projections for your own institution

. practical approaches to planning

. the most important financial ratios to monitor, and how to interpret them

. critical operational issues such as designing products to meet client needs, pricing your products, and focusing on loan officers to leverage institutional productivity

. how to develop long-term, diversified financing strategies

This workshop is facilitated by the two developers of Microfin, and is based on the CGAP Handbook they authored, Business Planning and Financial Modeling for Microfinance Institutions. They have taught this course in 20 countries around the world, and it is one of the most recognized and attended courses in all of microfinance.

Agenda

Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Coffee, tea, and snacks will be provided daily. Hotels or other accommodation are the responsibility of each participant and are not included in the course fee.

Day 1

. Overview of Business Planning: Participants will review and discuss the Business Planning framework. In particular, attention will be directed to the market-based approach of the framework.

. Strategic Planning: This section will address the key steps of strategic planning - articulating the mission, identifying clients and markets, performing an environmental analysis, carrying out an institutional assessment, and developing an overall strategy.

. Overview of Financial Management: We provide a brief overview of financial statements, the calculation of financial adjustments, and the key financial ratios used in the microfinance industry.

Day 2

. Operational Planning and Introduction to Financial Modeling / Product Design: Over Days 2 through 5, we will apply the strategy developed on Day 1 to creating an operational plan and detailed financial projections, beginning with design of credit and savings products (loan amounts and terms by cycle, pricing, collateral, etc.). Small group exercises throughout will focus on applying a case study to the new version of the Microfin model.

Day 3

. Establishing Marketing Channels: Operational planning continues with projecting the levels of activity for each credit and savings product, including growth strategies by branch, retention rates, and analysis of Microfin's outputs and graphs.

Day 4

. Determining Institutional Resources and Capacity: We will look at each aspect of institutional capacity (staffing, operating expenses, fixed assets), linking resources to credit and savings activity.

Day 5

. Developing a Financing Strategy and Analyzing Projected Financial Statements and Ratios: We will look at designing a financing strategy by sources (income, grants, equity, debt) and by uses (operations, portfolio, and other assets). We will also review the overall financial projections

. Advanced Microfin topics: We will cover advanced topics in Microfin, including sensitivity analysis, variance analysis, creation of additional graphs, etc.