Management Accounting (5cr)

Objectives

For a diverse group of master’s degree students, studying, at least, one basic course on management accounting can be described as “a nice must-do experience”. Participation in and responsibilities of accounting and finance are no longer the responsibility of designated finance managers only. Organizations’ expectations for especially their new managers include understanding and practical knowledge and skills also in management accounting, as an essential, applied field of science. This course both opens the big picture of current management accounting contents and future trends and provides its students with information about the necessary terminology and frameworks as well as practical skills of utilizing them when running a company and participating in its business development.

Learning Objectives/Outcomes:
At the end of the block learners will:
• Master the main practices of basic budgeting, reporting and financial performance measurement and evaluation.
• Have a thorough understanding of state-of-the-art strategic performance management frameworks, and skills of how to apply them in the contexts of various industries and business cases.
• Have experience of where and how to identify applicable English information about the main themes and topics of the course, and how to communicate these discussion topics professionally in English.
• Demonstrate an understanding of “what next?”; i.e., what kind of current and future megatrends and arising practices there are identifiable, having even very remarkable effects on accounting and finance professions, tasks, duties and easily available services in companies and businesses.

Content

Contents/Topics to be explored in the course:
• As an introductory part, the Financial Planning and Control theme will be studied. It will be made sure the students understand and can work on the Master Budget as well as the financial measures based on Financial Closing information. The traditional categorization of financial measures as profitability, liquidity and solvency measures is used. The assigned Pretask reading will support to keep this part brief and informative.
• There’ll be a deep focus on the strategic performance management frameworks like the KPIs, The Balanced Scorecard, the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) etc., with attention to both the financial and non-financial measurement and performance evaluation. Exercises starting from e.g., a ROI DuPont one, and a larger, hypothetical business development case to be also presented by little student teams will follow, as a continuation, forming the important assignment part of this course.
• The conclusory part of the course will include a take-a-look at the latest trends, development, and some future scenarios in management accounting, with a special attention to digital and sustainable finance.

Prerequisites

English B-2

Assessment criteria, pass/fail

Expected Assessment:
• Active participation in the workshop style classes and exercises is required and expected
• Near the end of the course the students will give a presentation of a hypothetical business development case in small groups of 2-3 students

Further information

Teaching and Learning Methods:
• Brief openings of new themes and topics, supported by learning discussions.
• Group and individual work and activities.
• Exercises, assignments, and team presentation in English.