IT Financial Management: IT Budgeting, Cost Allocation and Chargeback – Dubai, 15–19 Feb 2027

Programme overview

Introduction:

IT financial management breaks down when the technology budget is rolled forward from last year's ledger, shared infrastructure and licence costs are spread by headcount, and business units cannot see what the services they consume actually cost. Finance then questions every increase, and the CIO office cannot show how money moves from keeping systems running to new capability. This Core Concept course trains IT finance staff and budget-owning IT managers to cost technology services, allocate them on fair drivers and defend the plan. Participants build an IT Budget and Chargeback Model for a case organisation.

Course Objectives:

• Classify IT spend by cost pool, IT tower, capital or operating treatment and run, grow or transform purpose
• Build an IT cost model that maps ledger lines through IT towers to services using the TBM Taxonomy and measurable allocation drivers
• Calculate unit costs and a service rate card, and choose between showback, chargeback and fixed allocation for each service
• Prepare a driver-based IT budget and monthly forecast with variance commentary that finance accepts
• Identify savings in software licences, outsourcing contracts and data centre hosting and rank IT investments for funding
• Report IT spend, benchmarks and value to the CFO and business unit heads in a dashboard they can act on

Target Audience:

• IT finance and controlling staff who prepare the technology budget, accruals and cost reports
• CIO office planning staff who consolidate IT spend and prepare investment and portfolio submissions
• IT infrastructure, application and service managers who own cost centres and approve vendor spend
• Finance business partners who support the technology function and challenge its plans
• IT sourcing and vendor managers accountable for licence and service contract costs

Course Outline:

Day 1: IT Cost Structure and Spend Baseline

• General Ledger Mapping of IT Labour, Hardware Depreciation, Software and Outside Services
• Run, Grow and Transform Classification of the IT Portfolio
• Capital and Operating Expenditure Treatment of Hardware, Licences and Project Labour
• Fixed, Variable, Direct and Indirect IT Cost Behaviour Analysis
• Current-State IT Spend Baseline and Cost Transparency Scorecard

Day 2: TBM Taxonomy and IT Cost Models

• TBM Taxonomy Layers: Cost Pools, IT Towers, Sub-Towers and Solutions
• Cost Pool to IT Tower Mapping Rules and Allocation Drivers
• Service Catalogue Costing with Activity-Based Allocation
• Showback, Chargeback and Fixed Headcount Allocation Models Compared
• Cost Model Data Feeds from the Asset Register, CMDB and Ticketing Volumes

Day 3: IT Budget Build, Forecast and Unit Rates

• Driver-Based IT Budget Build from Users, Devices, Servers and Application Counts
• Unit Cost Calculation per User, Server, Storage Terabyte and Application
• Chargeback Rate Card Design, Billing Units and Quarterly True-Up Cycle
• Monthly IT Forecast, Accruals and Budget-to-Actual Variance Commentary
• IT Investment Scoring Matrix and Stage-Gate Project Funding Release

Day 4: Cost Optimisation, Benchmarking and CFO Reporting

• Software Licence Position Review: Shelfware, Vendor True-Ups and Renewal Negotiation
• Outsourcing and Managed Service Contract Cost Levers and Price Review Clauses
• Data Centre Cost per Rack, Power Draw and Hosting Versus Public Cloud Comparison
• IT Spend Benchmarking Ratios: IT Cost to Revenue, Cost per Employee and Run-to-Change Mix
• CFO IT Value Dashboard and Chargeback Dispute Resolution Procedure

Day 5: Modelling Build: IT Budget and Chargeback Model

• Case Organisation Briefing: Ledger Extract, Service Catalogue and Consumption Data
• Cost Pool and IT Tower Allocation Build in a Spreadsheet Model
• Service Rate Card and Business Unit Chargeback Statements
• Next-Year IT Budget with Run, Grow and Transform Split
• Model Presentation to a CFO and Business Unit Review Panel

Skills You Will Gain:

• IT Cost Pool Mapping
• Allocation Driver Selection
• Unit Cost Calculation
• Rate Card Design
• Driver-Based IT Budgeting
• Licence Cost Recovery
• IT Spend Benchmarking
• Technology Cost Reporting

Why Attend This Course:

• Leave with a working IT Budget and Chargeback Model tested by a CFO and business unit review panel
• Answer the question every business unit asks: what does this IT service cost and why
• Find licence, contract and hosting spend that can be cut or recovered without cutting service
• Compare IT cost practice with peers from banking, healthcare, energy, retail and public service organisations

Conclusion:

Technology spend earns trust when every ledger line can be traced to a service, a consumer and a purpose. The course moves from IT cost structure, capital and operating treatment and run, grow and transform classification, through the TBM Taxonomy and allocation drivers, to unit costs, rate cards, budgets and forecasts, then to licence, contract and data centre savings, benchmarking and CFO reporting. The final day produces an IT Budget and Chargeback Model ready for review by finance and business unit heads.