Course: Financial Accounting and Management

Course Code: ACT610

This course provides students with an understanding of financial accounting and basic financial management. It is designed to provide the student, upon satisfactory completion of the course, with the ability to identify, record, communicate (or report), and analyse accounting transactions/ events; and to interpret accounting transactions/ events and financial statements so as to better inform the decision-making process.

The course begins with an overview of the fundamentals of accounting and finance: the importance of accounting and finance to various types of entities, ethics in accounting, how business transactions are reflected in financial statements, how tools, such as, the accounting equation, ledger, trial balance, and the double entry system, are used in accounting, the timing of reports and the need for accounting adjustments, preparing financial statements, and applying the closing process.

In the accounting aspect of the course, students are exposed to reporting and analysing, that is, merchandising operations, inventories, cash and inventory controls, accounts receivable, long-term (fixed) assets, current and long-term liabilities, equity, and cash flows. On the financial side, students will analyse and interpret financial statements: horizontal, vertical, ratio, and decision analysis; and they will also apply basic financial management tools and techniques, such as, financial budgeting and forecasting, time value of money, risk and return, and investments and international operations.