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MN50341: Understanding financial principles

Follow this link for further information on academic years Academic Year: 2013/4
Follow this link for further information on owning departmentsOwning Department/School: School of Management
Follow this link for further information on credits Credits: 6
Follow this link for further information on unit levels Level: Masters UG & PG (FHEQ level 7)
Follow this link for further information on period slots Period: Modular (no specific semester)
Semester 1
Follow this link for further information on unit assessment Assessment: CW 20%, EX 80%
Follow this link for further information on supplementary assessment Supplementary Assessment: Like-for-like reassessment (where allowed by programme regulations)
Follow this link for further information on unit rules Requisites: Before taking this unit you must take MN50340 or take MN50339 and in taking this unit you cannot take MN50137
Follow this link for further information on unit content Description: Aims:
The aim of this course is to equip students with sufficient knowledge of accounting and finance to support the general management function and appreciate how specialist activities in these areas can contribute to the attainment of financial and business strategies and objectives.

Learning Outcomes:
On completion of the course students should be able to:
1. Explain the purpose and content of the principal financial statements of a company, and apply analytical techniques to interpret them.
2. Describe the components of an annual report and explain their respective purposes in terms of their contribution to corporate accountability.
3. Explain the uses of key management accounting techniques in the support of strategy, decision-making and control.
4. Discuss issues in financial management and explain their significance to the business.
For each learning outcome, the student should be able to summarise key current issues and developments of relevance to business generally.

Skills:
Intellectual Skills
* a systematic understanding of organisations, the internal and external context in which they operate and how they can be effectively managed (T/A);
* a critical awareness of current issues and frameworks in management (T/A);
* the ability to acquire and analyse data, information and situations; to evaluate relevance and validity, and to synthesise it in the context of topical business problems (F);
* a conceptual understanding of theoretical concepts and frameworks that enables the student to meaningfully link theory and practice and the ability to critically appraise both theory and practice (T/A).
Professional Practical Skills
* apply practical decision-making methods and tools at both tactical and strategic levels (T/A);
* operate effectively both independently as well as within teams and assume leadership roles where appropriate (F).
Transferable/Key Skills
* an openness and capacity to continue learning with the ability to reflect on earlier knowledge and practice and integrate the new with past experience and effectively apply it to the present situations (F);
* ability to recognise ethical corporate/social responsibility issues and to manage in light of these issues (T/A).
Personal/Interpersonal
* the facility to communicate including presenting and marketing themselves and their ideas; preparation and production of effective business plans and reports (T/F/A).

Content:
The course content may be described in two parts.
Accounting
i. Corporate financial reporting: Components of annual reports and the content and purpose of the principal financial statements. Qualitative characteristics of useful accounting information. Key accounting principles and concepts, e.g. accruals accounting. The effect of accounting policy selection on reported results.
ii. Regulation of financial reporting: Regulation of accounting and the integrity of accounts (including corporate governance aspects).
iii. Analysis and interpretation of corporate reports, particularly through ratio analysis.
iv. Current issues in corporate accountability: Developments in governance rules, international harmonisation of accounting standards, and proposals for widening the scope of corporate reporting.
v. Costing and business decisions: Typologies of costs. Costs in short-run decisions (contribution and cost-volume-profit analysis). Cost allocation through traditional methods and activity-based costing, including uses in inventory valuation and pricing.
vi. Budgeting and management control: Objectives of budgets, their construction and use in variance analysis. Interpretation of simple variances. Divisional performance measures (e.g. return on investment) and issues in their use. The balanced scorecard.
Financial management
This section focuses on the role financial management plays in the general management of a business and highlights those factors which impact on decisions inn the following areas:
i. Methods and types of company financing including share capital, retained profits and debt.
ii. The capital structure decision, risk and required returns, the cost of capital and the consequences of financial distress.
iii. Dividend policy and measuring shareholder value.
iv. Appraisal of capital investment decisions including net present value (NPV).
v. Company valuation methods with particular reference to mergers and acquisitions.
vi. Short term cash management including foreign currency risk.
Follow this link for further information on programme availabilityProgramme availability:

MN50341 is Compulsory on the following programmes:

School of Management
Notes:
* This unit catalogue is applicable for the 2013/14 academic year only. Students continuing their studies into 2014/15 and beyond should not assume that this unit will be available in future years in the format displayed here for 2013/14.
* Programmes and units are subject to change at any time, in accordance with normal University procedures.
* Availability of units will be subject to constraints such as staff availability, minimum and maximum group sizes, and timetabling factors as well as a student's ability to meet any pre-requisite rules.