Introductory description

This is a core module available to Foundation Year students only.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Accounting:

• The notion of profit – how incomes and expenses are measured and recorded and use to determine profit.
• Budgeting for planning and decision-making.
• The cash cycle – how cash differs from profit and the importance of working capital within a business.
• Capital and revenue expenditure.
• Preparing basic Financial Statements for a sole-trader entity – including the profit or loss and the financial position statement.
• Basic decision-making and performance-appraisal accounting techniques to support managerial decisions – including basic costing techniques, pricing and financial statement analysis.

Finance:

• Returns and percentage changes.
• Linear equations.
• Interest rates, simple interest and interest with compounding. Equivalent annual rates.
• Concept of present value, including annuities and perpetuities.
• Internal rate of return.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand the purposes of accounting and how to make use of the key analytical tools to analyze financial data accounting information is used in a business context.
• Be aware of the connections between accounting and the rest of the business world.
• Understand the purpose of finance in the business context.
• Make use of the key analytical tools to analyse financial data.
• Appreciate the nature of accounting information.
• Identify key limitations of accounting information.
• Apply basic accounting concepts and practices to analyse business problems.
• Reflect critically on how to employ data for financial decision making.
• Apply basic quantitative methods to interpret financial data.

Indicative reading list

Lindsey Byrne (2015) The Finance Coach, Teach Yourself.
Hillier et al 'Corporate Finance 2016'.

Subject specific skills

Apply accounting techniques/practices as usable, everyday business tools to support decision-making and planning.
Understand how notions of accounting profit and cash influence business decision-making.
Be able to use basic accounting practices to provide useful information to management and broader account users.
Apply basic quantitative techniques to solve problems related to financial decision-making.

Transferable skills

Demonstrate financial awareness around the importance and relevance of accounting as a key business tool.
Organise and use basic accounting information to support business decision-making and reporting.
Effectively communicate the results of basic accounting recording and analysis to a range of business users.
Use basic mathematical tools to improve financial decision-making.