MBA 2425 Financial Accounting

MBA 2425 Financial Accounting

Course code: 
MBA 2425
Department: 
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Credits: 
4
Course coordinator: 
Huang Rong
Course name in Norwegian: 
Financial Accounting
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
MBA China
Semester: 
2024 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

This course introduces the fundamentals of financial accounting and financial statement analyses. It prepares students to interpret and analyze financial statements for purposes such as equity valuation, credit analysis, investment decisions, lending decisions, etc. This course develops a thorough understanding of financial reporting from the users’ perspective. Students learn to use financial accounting information to compare and evaluate companies’ profitability, risk, prospect, efficiency, competitiveness, strategy, and intrinsic value.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge
  • Understand basic accounting terminology and be able to draw appropriate inference from key financial statements and performance metrics.
Learning outcomes - Skills
  • Describe the format, content, and concepts of balance sheets, income statements, statement of cash flows and footnote to financial statements
  • Explain the two-prong process for recording business events, which include (a) Define the four generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), including the principles of recognition, valuation, presentation, and disclosure and describe the role of GAAP in financial reporting. (b) Describe the basic mechanics of bookkeeping.
General Competence
  • Be able to critically analyze financial statements using various tools and techniques, with a focus on DuPont analysis.
  • Recognize that accounting information is embedded in social, cultural, market, and political environments and that financial information can create tensions among decision-makers.
Course content

S/N

Date

Course Content

Course Reference

1

 

Day 1 morning session

Overview of Financial Statement Analysis

Lecture notes and reading materials

2

 

Day 1

afternoon session

Analyzing Investing Activities

Lecture notes and reading materials

3

 

Day 2

morning session

Analyzing Financing Activities

Lecture notes and reading materials

4

 

Day 2

afternoon session

Analyzing Operating Activities

Lecture notes and reading materials

5

 

Day 3

morning session

Cash Flow Analysis

Lecture notes and reading materials

6

 

Day 3

afternoon session

Financial Statement Analysis: Applications

 

Lecture notes and reading materials

7

 

Day 4

morning session

Financial Reporting Quality

Lecture notes and reading materials

8

Day 4

afternoon session

Group Presentation, Course Summary

Lecture notes and reading materials

 

2 of the teaching hours in this course are dedicated to CSR, ethics, social and environmental issues.

 

Teaching and learning activities

The course is conducted as a teaching module, where students have classes all day for four subsequent days, a total of 32 hours.

The teaching is practice oriented, with a heavy use of real companies’ financial statements. It covers companies from various industries including manufacturing, retail, service, etc. References are often made to current popular press publications, such as Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune, Forbes, etc.

Pre-course preparation by all students allows class time to be used most productively, and allow everyone to participate in the discussion which, in turn, enhances the prospect of advancing the financial accounting competencies listed above.

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component will be graded using points on a scale 0 -100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course. Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam components will get a lower grade or may fail the course. Candidates may be called in for an oral hearing as a verification/control of written assignments.

Specific information regarding the points system and the mapping scale beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation.

The course is a part of a full MBA and examination in all courses in the MBA program must be passed in order to obtain a certificate for the MBA degree.

In all BI Executive courses and programmes, there is a mutual requirement  
for the student and the course responsible regarding the involvement of the student's experience in the planning and implementation of courses, modules and programmes. This means that the student has the right and duty to get involved with their own knowledge and practice relevance, through the active sharing of their relevant experience and knowledge.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Additional information

Group Project on Financial Statement Analysis

Suppose your group represents an investment company and your mission is to evaluate two companies competing in an industry. Your group will prepare a project that involves financial analysis of these two companies covering a period of three years from 2021 to 2023. You will first download financial statements from company websites, WIND, CSMAR, Bloomberg, or other sources. You will then compare the companies during the analysis period and make predictions about their future performance. Here are some aspects you may want to examine:

  1. Industry Economics and Company Strategy
  2. Quality of Financial Statements
    1. Revenue and profit growth analysis.
    2. Perform profitability, operating efficiency, and risk analysis using financial statement ratios.
    3. Predict the general outlook of the companies.

Each group will present the project in the last session. Your grade will be based on the quality of your analysis and your presentation, not on the accuracy of your predictions. You are required to submit the PowerPoint slides at the end of the last session. Your grade will be based on the quality of your analysis and your presentation, not on the accuracy of your predictions. You are required to submit a write-up at the end of course.

Qualifications

Granted admission to the BI-Fudan MBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.

Disclaimer

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

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Submission PDF
Weight: 
40
Grouping: 
Group (5 - 6)
Duration: 
6 Day(s)
Comment: 
Written submission of powerpoint slides and self-evaluation notes of class participation, counts 40% of the total grade.
Exam code: 
MBA 24253
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Structured Test
Weight: 
60
Grouping: 
Individual
Duration: 
2 Hour(s)
Comment: 
Home exam, structured test, open-book, counts 60% of the total grade
Exam code: 
MBA 24254
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
24 Hour(s)
Prepare for teaching
30 Hour(s)
Student's own work with learning resources
56 Hour(s)
Sum workload: 
110

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 4 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 110 hours.