Study Guide

Objectives (course unit)

This course offers the students a chance to enhance their knowledge and managerial skills of financial planning and control as well as performance measurement and evaluation to a professional level.

The course is based on modern management accounting methods, frameworks and practices, laying a solid foundation on which continuing business studies and a serious business career in the field of accounting and finance can be built later on. The contents and learning experiences of the course are planned to be useful and generally applicable for every business professional.

After completing the course, students will be able to:

Prepare the major budgets of a company and participate in creation of budgeting systems.
Analyze business performance and participate in decision-making and business planning using standard budget reports.
Create business forecasts for the future, based on budget reports and other relevant business information.
Calculate the value of economic value added (EVA®) measure and utilize the DuPont approach to the return on investment (ROI) measure.
Participate in planning and implementing tailor-made strategic performance management solutions for various business cases.
Consider and try to include the effects of latest technological innovations and human aspects in any of their later business development projects.

Content (course unit)

Which budgets does a modern budgeting system – “The Master Budget” – include, and how can a tailored version be constructed?
How can the planning and control processes of a decentralized organization be managed using budgets, reports and supporting IT tools?
What different approaches are there for strategic performance measurement and evaluation?
What are the roles of human considerations, e.g. gaming, intangible assets and management myopia, as part of system creation?
How are the values of advanced measures such as economic value added (EVA®) calculated, and how can business reporting become more lively through visualization?
How can technology help in planning and control; what kind of insights do e.g. ERP systems, business intelligence and the current strong development of digitalization, mobile services and Internet of Things (IoT) offer to companies?
How is a strategy-bound performance management framework built and used in practice?

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1-2) (course unit)

The student is able to determine and use the concepts and methods of financial planning and control as well as the performance measurement and evaluation theme sufficiently. He/she can take responsibility for his individual financial planning and reporting duties in routine activities, and is able to make some contribution in a group.

Assessment criteria, good (3-4) (course unit)

The student achieves the competence of applying and explaining the concepts and methods of financial planning and control as well as the performance measurement and evaluation theme in controllable situations. He/she works actively and cooperates responsibly and constructively both individually and in a group. The student can solve financial planning and measurement problems, and his courses of action are well justified.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5) (course unit)

The student can analyse complex situations and produce alternative solution proposals to various financial planning and control as well as performance measurement and evaluation tasks and problems. He/she is able to apply his extensive knowledge and skills of the subject matter creatively in problem solving, solution tracing, new experiments, and when generalising his well-justified courses of action. The student can work strongly individually and make remarkable contribution to group work, cooperating responsibly, constructively and flexibly with excellent commitment.

Location and time

From Jan 8 to February 19, 2025.

The classes will be there at TAMK if not otherwise mentioned during the course.

Exam schedules

No written exam.

Assessment methods and criteria

Student’s overall course grade is based on
1. evaluation criteria of the course
2. active individual participation in the classes
3. performing all the assigned course exercises as instructed
4. his/her group assignment performance.

Assessment scale

0-5

Teaching methods

Learning discussions, group assignment(s), exercises, case studies, literature, lecturing.

Learning materials

Bhimani, A., Datar, S., Horngren, C.T. & Rajan, M. 2018. Management and Cost Accounting. 7th ed. Harlow, United Kingdom: Pearson Education. Chapters 14 and 18-21.
ISBN: 9781292232669. EISBN: 9781292232676.
https://andor.tuni.fi/permalink/358FIN_TAMPO/176jdvt/cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9781292232676

In addition, student groups also perform self-driven data collection, as part of their group assignment.

Student workload

Max. some 135 hours as workload; approx. 18-20 hours of that as contact teaching classes.

Content scheduling

1. THE MASTER BUDGET
- Case: A hypothetical business case
2. STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION
- EVA
- ROI DuPont
- Financial and non-financial KPIs
- The Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
3. GROUP ASSIGNMENT
- Objectives and Key Results (OKR) challenging The BSC.

Completion alternatives

No.

Practical training and working life cooperation

No, not in the winter 2025 implementation.

International connections

Neither guest lectures nor company visits or so in the winter 2025 implementation; a truly international group of students, anyway, studying together. There's also quite many double-degree and exchange students in the implementation group.

Further information

Pasi Kuusijärvi, M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Adm.), AmO, HHJ PJ
Senior Lecturer, Accounting and Financial Management

Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK)
Tampere, Finland

pasi.kuusijarvi@tuni.fi
Tel. +358 40 846 3052
www.tuni.fi