EXC 2122 Financial Performance Management

EXC 2122 Financial Performance Management

Course code: 
EXC 2122
Department: 
Accounting and Operations Management
Credits: 
7.5
Course coordinator: 
Tor Olav Nordtømme
Course name in Norwegian: 
Financial Performance Management
Product category: 
Bachelor
Portfolio: 
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) - Programme Courses
Semester: 
2023 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Bachelor
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Financial Performance Management focuses on defining and describing important causal relationships between factors that contribute to creating long-term values for the firm. By designing controlling systems that help us to evaluate the company's ability to implement its overall strategies and plans, management theory, strategic planning and accounting together form a holistic framework for long-term decision-making.
The course focuses on theoretical models, various tools and techniques to support the decision-making process for management with real-life cases and exercises.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

After completed course students shall have acquired knowledge about:

  • The link between strategic planning, activity planning and the use of budgets as tools for simulating the financial outcome of these plans.
  • Techniques and tools for cash flow planning.
  • The link between the various activities carried out by an organization and the consumption of resources and their corresponding activity costs.
  • The design of a business value configuration that can be used as a tool to analyze how the various activities contribute to value creation as well as how multi-dimensional process analyses can be used to improve process efficiency.
  • The need to establish long-term goals, both financially and in non-financial perspectives, determine critical success factors and finding relevant Key Performance Indicators.
  • How the organization can measure the implementation of its current strategy plan by the use of a Balanced Scorecard.
  • How the lean-philosophy's continuous focus on reducing organizational waste can contribute to long-term value creation.
Learning outcomes - Skills

After completed course students shall be able to:

  • Identify relevant cost drivers in a given organization, an activity or a business process
  • Design a value configuration for a given organization or business process
  • Design models for allocation of direct and indirect costs to given cost objects
  • Define critical success factors, suggest relevant KPIs, design a strategy map and a scorecard as a basis for implementing Balanced Scorecard
  • Measure the efficiency of various business processes
  • Design tools for budgeting and other financial planning
  • Identify sources for organizational waste by the use of lean-philosophy methods
General Competence
  • The students shall reflect on management accounting in a strategic and long-term perspective, where the goal is to use resources optimally to create operational efficiency and value creation.
Course content

Part one - Financial Planning

The difference between profits and cash flows, designing budgeted income statements, cash flow predictions, limitations of traditional costing models, Activity Based Costing and the calculation of costs of excess capacity

Part two - Managing and measuring value creation

The triple bottom line, various ways to create competitive advantages, cost drivers, value drivers, The Balanced Scorecard, The Lean Philosophy, the quest for operational efficiency

Teaching and learning activities

The course consists of lectures, videos, exercises and cases. The lectures focus on both explaining theory, models and tools, as well as class discussions about relevant topics. Some of the exercises are solved in class.

Students are expected to use spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) when solving the quantitative assignments. 

Software tools
Software defined under the section "Teaching and learning activities".
Additional information

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Qualifications

Higher Education Entrance Qualification

Disclaimer

Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.

Required prerequisite knowledge

EXC 3442 Managerial Accounting and EXC 3452 Financial Reporting and Analysis, or equivalent.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Weight: 
40
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
24 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Mid-term exam, testing technical skills from the first part of the curriculum. All exams must be passed to obtain a final grade in the course.
Exam code: 
EXC 21222
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination every semester
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Invigilation
Weight: 
60
Grouping: 
Individual
Support materials: 
  • BI-approved exam calculator
  • Simple calculator
  • Bilingual dictionary
Duration: 
4 Hour(s)
Comment: 
End of semester test, testing mostly conceptual understanding from the last part of the curriculum. All exams must be passed to obtain a final grade in the course.
Exam code: 
EXC 21223
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination every semester
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
28 Hour(s)
Participation in theory-based lectures.
Individual problem solving
60 Hour(s)
Exercises and business cases
Group work / Assignments
12 Hour(s)
Participation in exercise seminars organized by student assistant
Student's own work with learning resources
60 Hour(s)
Textbook, videos, study guide and articles
Examination
40 Hour(s)
Including preparation for mid-term and final exam
Sum workload: 
200

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 7,5 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 200 hours.