EXC 2122 Financial Performance Management
EXC 2122 Financial Performance Management
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.
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 value chain model 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.
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 chain 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
- 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.
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.
The course consists of lectures, videos, exercises and cases. The lectures focus on both explaning theory, models and tools, as well as class discussions about relevant topics. Some of exercises are solved in class.
Students are expected to use spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) when solving some of the assignments.
Please note!
Due to the Corona situation in the spring of 2020, the new evaluation form with exam codes EXC 21222 and EXC 21223, was not implemented.
Instead, the previous exam form is offered. (An individual written exam of 5 hours, code ECX 21221. Re-sit examiniation will also be offered for the last time autumn 2020.
EXC 3442 Managerial Accounting and EXC 3452 Financial Reporting and Analysis, or equivalent
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 2 Hour(s) 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:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: End of semester test, testing mostly conceptual understanding from the last part of the curriculum Exam code: EXC 21223 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination every semester |
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 26 Hour(s) | Participation in theory-based lectures. |
Feedback activities and counselling | 16 Hour(s) | Participation in exercise and case based lectures |
Group work / Assignments | 18 Hour(s) | Participation in exercise seminars organized by student tutor |
Group work / Assignments | 60 Hour(s) | Solving assignments alone and in student groups. |
Student's own work with learning resources | 50 Hour(s) | Text book, articles and class preparation |
Examination | 30 Hour(s) | Including preparation |
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.
Testing technical skills from the first part of the curriculum.