Accounting and Financial Management (P01734)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : MSE-P-AFM

This is an introductory course on accounting and finance with a particular emphasis on financial management. Its objective is to provide the accounting and financial background and an introduction to those analytical tools necessary to understand the financial management of a commercial organisation and the interrelationship between the organisation's accounting results, financing, and strategy. Specifically, we focus on the following topics: the basic accounting statements and their interpretation, investment appraisal and the time value of money, management of working capital, corporate restructuring, risk/return and the valuation of stocks, how firms raise capital, cost of capital, capital structure and dividend policy.

Entry Requirements

none

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Common Courses (Management School and Economics), (Management School and Economics, Schedule H)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Semester 1 (Blocks 1-2)

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Thursday	14:00	15:50	Central

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course students will:

f Understand basic accounts, and appreciate their relationship to the performance, financing and valuation of the company.
f Recognise how accounts are a discipline in the process of valuation and performance measurement and how they form the basis of control, accountability and governance.

f Appreciate how accounts are used to derive the free cash flow of a business as the starting point for valuation.

f To understand the difficulty that contingencies (forward contracts, defined benefit pensions, research spend etc) pose for accounting and valuation.

f Understand the role of the firm in the economy and practical aspects of the concept of time value of money and its use in valuation of securities like stock and bonds.

f Appreciate how projects are evaluated using the idea of net present value both with and without uncertainty and to use the idea of weighted average cost of capital.

f Understand the role of risk in the pricing of financial assets and its role in the markets for equities and bonds.

f Learn how corporations raise capital and the valuation effects of capital structure decisions and dividend policy.

f Appreciate the role efficient capital markets play in affecting the values of traded securities and the implication of market efficiency for financial management.

Assessment Information

The course will be assessed by a combination of Coursework (30%) and a final two hour exam (70%). The course work could be done on either an individual or a group basis.

The final exam will consist of a mix of multiple choice/numerical and essay type questions.