Course Resources Archive

This module will introduce students to accounting and finance (A&F), assuming no prior knowledge.

It will start by identifying the major institutions involved (investors, companies and businesses) and the relationships between them, and the implications of these for the locus of power, responsibilities and accountability; and the development of A&F over time in response to wider economic, technological and social changes.  This will provide a continuing context which will continue to be used as a point of reference in this and subsequent A&F modules, to help students to understand and evaluate A&F practices and techniques.

The module will then move on to study the preparation of conventional financial reports and examine examples of these in the form of companies’ published financial reports, and evaluate the potential impacts on these of accounting conventions, differences in accounting policies, and International Financial Reporting Standards.  This conventional accounting process will then be contrasted and evaluated against firstly the concept of the value of a firm, applying a number of different possible methods of valuation; and secondly the demands placed on businesses by the issue of sustainability.

This will be brought together in the use of financial reports as a basis for analysing and evaluating the performance and position of a company by applying ratio analysis.

1. Identify the institutional context of accounting and finance in business and its implications for relationships of power, responsibility and accountability between different stakeholders
2. Critically analyse different forms of business firm, and the characteristics of limited companies in particular
3. Preparation of a balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement from a set of business transactions, applying conventional accounting practice and International Financial Reporting Standards
4. Critically evaluate the concept of ‘business value’ as defined by a number of complementary methods
5. Accounting conventions, techniques and policies and the potential effects of differing methods of depreciation and stock valuation
6. Evaluation of the conventional accounting process in the context of the implications of sustainability for businesses, including the concept of external costs
7. Critically evaluate the potential for companies to extend their conventional financial reporting, primarily to investors, with supplementary published sustainability and corporate responsibility reports directed to a wider stakeholder audience.
8. Analysis, interpretation and evaluation of a company’s performance and position by applying ratio analysis to a series of financial reports

On successful completion of the module the student should be able to:

1. critically assess the institutional context of accounting and finance in business and the relationships between different stakeholders within a UK and global context
2. prepare financial reports from underlying data and critically evaluate the implications for financial reporting of accounting conventions and different alternative methods of depreciation and stock valuation
3. apply techniques of ratio analysis to a company’s published financial reports to analyse, interpret and evaluate its performance and position from the perspective of an investor or other stakeholder
4. critically assess business value, and compare and contrast measures of value against conventional accounting measures
5. critically evaluate the suitability of the conventional financial reporting process and proposed changes to this in the context of the challenges set for business by the issue of sustainability.

Approximately
20 hours class contact,
80 hours independent study

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.