Module Information

Module Identifier
DBM2020
Module Title
Financial Management and Strategic Decision Making
Academic Year
2020/2021
Co-ordinator
Semester
Distance Learning
Mutually Exclusive
ABM2020
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Due to Covid-19 students should refer to the module Blackboard pages for assessment details

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment ​Report / Case Study  (4,000 words)  80%
Semester Assessment Report  (2,000 words)  20%
Supplementary Assessment ​Report / Case Study  (4,000 words)  80%
Supplementary Assessment Report  (2,000 words)  20%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

​1. Analyse, compare and contrast different elements in accounting context, usage, approaches, regulation, practices and analysis; business funding; financial decision making; and business planning and monitoring.

2. Account for common transactions and produce standard financial and management accounting statements.

3. Analyse financial accounting statements.

4. Cite, explain, appropriately select and apply formulae/techniques to analyse accounting and market-based information; make short and long-run financial decisions; calculate costs of capital; and describe and present data.

5. Integrate different forms of analysis in order to generate a well-reasoned and holistic assessment of an organization's financial performance and position.

Brief description

This module provides a sound underpinning of financial and management accounting, financial analysis and financial decision-making, relevant to business leaders. Topics include the preparation and interpretation of the principal financial statements; accounting requirements and practices for the internal planning, monitoring, management and control of a business; and business finance, including sources of finance, financial management, and stock-market analysis of performance.

Content

Introduction and context
Alternative forms of reporting entity
Users and uses of accounting information
Financial versus management accounting
Desirable qualitative characteristics of accounting information
Regulatory requirements of accounting

Understanding and interpreting financial accounting information

Accounting concepts and conventions
Principal financial accounting statements
Approaches to financial statement analysis

Choosing and managing business funding

Sources of business finance
Cost of capital

Essential statistics and present value calculations

Summarizing and representing data using mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation, covariance etc.
Plotting data, charts etc.

Management accounting techniques and short term decision making

Various cost types and cost classifications
Alternative approaches to the costing of goods and services
Short run decision making

Long term investment appraisal techniques and decisions

Alternative methods for capital project appraisal/ long run decision making

Planning and monitoring business activities

Approaches to and perspectives on budgeting Simple variance analysis
Sub organizational performance evaluation

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number
Communication Must provide a high quality report and deliver a sound and well developed presentation of the key issues relating to the project.
Improving own Learning and Performance The students are required to adapt their strategies and approaches to providing a financial solution to the identified problem or issue and to show strong leadership skills to provide an effective solution to the issues identified.
Information Technology Students are expected to use a range of financial management packages (Stata and Datastream) and deliver the report results using spreadsheets or other electronic analysis tools. Maintain links with supervisors via email and VLE.
Personal Development and Career planning Students must show critical reflective skills and adapt and improve solutions and the quality of the reports on an ongoing basis. Financial analysis undertaken on real world financial problems with solution requiring realistic responses.
Problem solving Identify the precise problem to be solved Assess which data are pertinent to the problem. Recognize that alternative solution methods might be available. Select and apply appropriate methods for solving the problem. Assess the reasonableness of problem solutions and interpret those solutions.
Research skills The module demands the participants to apply analytical skills to reason and understand the challenging nature of the financial management. By introducing a variety of theoretical as well as empirical topics, the module enables students to develop creative thinking approaches to financial problem solving. These skills will have to be applied in seminar discussions, preparation of the coursework and timed assessment.
Subject Specific Skills Must show executive level leadership and management skills in the execution of the financial analysis reports.
Team work Students will need to show their ability to work as a team especially in the early stages of the project and in providing a solution to the issues highlighted.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7