The course will consider how to utilise different types of financial information to aid decision making.

This course will be delivered through a series of lectures and seminars over six weeks in semester 1, with sessions lasting up to 3.5 hours per session.

None

None

A 2000-word individual assignment (40%)

Degree examinations (60%)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to a range of foundational accounting concepts. Students will learn how to apply these concepts to appraise financial information and enhance decision making among general managers and entrepreneurs. Participants will be introduced to a range of tools, techniques and practices which are commonly used in both public and private sector organisations.

At the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Identify and appraise the principal accounting user groups and identify their requirements.

2. Explain the principal components of financial reports produced by businesses according to UK and international standards and use ratio analysis to critically comment on and evaluate the performance of such enterprises.

3. Assess the principal methods of capital investment appraisal and solve capital investment problems using both discounting and non-discounting methods.

4. Appraise the nature of and the advantages and disadvantages of both full costing and marginal costing.

5. Appraise the principal approaches to budgeting as seen in commercially oriented businesses and comment on the interaction between budgeting and human behaviour.

6. Analyse the principal methods of divisional performance appraisal.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.