CATEGORY:  EMA CERTIFICATES

Accounting for Non-Financial Executives

(Massey Paper Level: 110 : 293) 15 Credits

Credits can be used towards gaining a Massey Graduate Diploma in Business Studies (ERM)

For

• People who need to use accounting information in business decisions.
• Managers who need to report in financial terms - inside and outside their organisation.
• Managers who want to speak the language of the financial market.

Purpose

• To promote financial practices internal and external to the organisation, and introduce the use of modern accounting and finance concepts and techniques.
• To provide employers with a recognised qualification for staff involved in accounting related activities.
• To foster personal development and provide the opportunity to attain a qualification which employers will recognise and value.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the role and function of accounting in contemporary society.
• Apply accounting concepts to analyse and record economic transactions or events in the accounting records.
• Analyse financial statements. 
• Apply financial concepts and techniques to manage working capital, make financing decisions and evaluate long-term investments.
• Apply the principles of costing, budgeting, and cost-volume-profit analysis to given problems.
• Evaluate alternative business structures and describe the role of governance in organisations.

Content

Part 1: Business/Decision Context of Accounting – Financial Reporting

• The role of accounting:
  -  decision support
  -  discharging accountability
  -  internally and externally
  -  informing the financial market
• Recording and reporting financial transactions:
  -  cash v accrual bases
  -  financial results of operations
  -  financial position statements
  -  cash flow statements

Part 2: Financial Evaluation and Management

• Financial evaluation:
  -  objectives of financial statement evaluation
  -  performing ratio analysis and evaluating financial
     performance
• Financial management concepts and techniques:
  -  working capital management
  -  financing sources
  -  long-term investment appraisal
  

Part 3: Managerial and Strategic Accounting

• Cost behaviour and analysis:
  -  costing concepts, cost estimation
  -  cost-volume-profit relationships (and break-even
     analysis)
  -  transfer pricing and costing systems (including
     JIT, ABC)
  
• Budgeting and responsibility accounting:
  -  budget process
  -  variance analysis
  -  behavioural implications
• Companies and groups:
  -  partnerships, companies and public entities
  -  company accounting - groups, international
     operations, transfer pricing
  
• Accounting information and strategies:
  -  corporate governance
  -  strategic management
  -  measuring corporate performance