Programme overview
Introduction:
CAPEX governance fails quietly: sustaining spend crowds out growth, proposals reach the investment committee in inconsistent formats, released funds are never reconciled to commitments, overruns slip past re-approval and completed assets are never reviewed against the case that justified them. This Core Concept course equips finance, FP&A and asset owner staff to run capital expenditure control from allocation policy to post-investment review. Participants test submission standards, gate decisions, commitment tracking and investment audit on a multi-sector capital portfolio and produce a CAPEX Governance Framework and Post-Investment Review Report.
Course Objectives:
- Set a capital allocation policy that links capex envelopes to strategy and splits spend across growth, sustaining, compliance and replacement categories
- Build an annual capex plan and rolling multi-year capital programme with ranked proposals under a capital ceiling
- Enforce submission templates, business case standards and stage-gate approval thresholds for investment committee decisions
- Control fund release, purchase commitments, accruals and forecast to complete so that overruns trigger supplementary approval
- Design a capex dashboard with plan-versus-actual, phasing and slippage indicators for committee and board reporting
- Conduct a post-investment review and investment audit, and feed its lessons into the next capital planning cycle
Target Audience:
- Finance managers who consolidate capex requests and report capital spend against the approved plan
- FP&A managers who phase capital budgets, maintain forecasts to complete and model portfolio headroom
- Investment committee secretaries and members who screen, challenge and approve capital proposals
- Asset owner managers who sponsor capital requests for plant, fleet, facilities and technology
- Internal audit and controllership managers who test capex approvals, capitalisation and completed investments
Course Outline:
Day 1: Capital Allocation Policy and the Capex Control Baseline
- Capex Lifecycle Map: Idea, Proposal, Sanction, Release, Execution, Closure and Review
- Capital Allocation Policy: Strategic Envelopes, Hurdle Tiers and Portfolio Balance
- Capex Category Taxonomy: Growth, Sustaining, Compliance and Replacement
- Capex Versus Opex Boundary Test and Capitalisation Threshold Policy
- Capex Governance Maturity Diagnostic of a Case Organisation
Day 2: Capital Planning Models, Submission Standards and Stage Gates
- Annual Capex Plan and Rolling Multi-Year Capital Programme Structure
- Capital Rationing Under a Spending Ceiling with Profitability Index Ranking
- Capital Request Submission Template and Business Case Quality Standard
- Stage-Gate Sanction Model: Concept, Feasibility, Final Investment Decision
- Approval Threshold Ladder Linking Capex Value Bands to Sanctioning Bodies
Day 3: Investment Committee Practice, Fund Release and Spend Tracking
- Investment Committee Charter, Agenda Pack and Challenge Question Bank
- Appraisal Sanity Checks: Payback, NPV and IRR Red Flags Without the Maths
- Staged Fund Release and Capex Authorisation Numbering in the ERP
- Purchase Commitment Register, Capital Work in Progress and Accrual Cut-Off
- Forecast to Complete and Phasing Variance Reporting by Capex Number
Day 4: Overruns, Re-Approval Triggers, Dashboards and Investment Audit
- Overrun Tolerance Bands and Supplementary Capex Request Triggers
- Scope Change, Deferral and Project Cancellation Decision Rules
- Capex Dashboard: Plan Versus Actual, Slippage, Headroom and Category Mix
- Post-Investment Review Timing, Scope and Evidence Checklist
- Investment Audit Tests: Approval Trail, Capitalisation Accuracy and Case Assumptions
Day 5: Capital Portfolio Case and the CAPEX Governance Framework
- Multi-Sector Portfolio Case: Utility Network, Hospital Equipment and Logistics Fleet Requests
- Investment Committee Mock Sitting on Three Competing Capital Requests
- Post-Investment Review of a Completed Plant Expansion Against Its Original Case
- Lessons Log Feeding Next-Cycle Planning Assumptions and Hurdle Tiers
- CAPEX Governance Framework and Post-Investment Review Report Drafting and Panel Defence
Skills You Will Gain:
- Capital Allocation Policy Design
- Capex Portfolio Prioritisation
- Capital Request Assurance
- Stage-Gate Sanctioning
- Commitment and Accrual Control
- Capex Performance Reporting
- Post-Completion Audit
- Capitalisation Judgement
Why Attend This Course:
- Leave with a CAPEX Governance Framework and Post-Investment Review Report tested on a multi-sector capital portfolio case
- Bring sharper challenge questions to investment committee sittings and spot weak capital requests before sanction
- Catch overruns, stalled capital work in progress and unreconciled commitments before they reach the annual accounts
- Compare capex control practice with finance and asset owner peers from utilities, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing
Conclusion:
Capital expenditure creates value only when allocation, sanction, release, tracking and review work as one control cycle. The course moves from capital allocation policy, capex categories and the capitalisation boundary, through multi-year capital programmes, submission standards and stage gates, to investment committee practice, fund release, commitments and forecasts to complete, then overrun triggers, capex dashboards and investment audit. The final day applies this to a portfolio case and produces a CAPEX Governance Framework and Post-Investment Review Report ready for the next planning cycle.