The first half of the unit focuses on financial accounting. The topics include:

• An introduction to what accounting is, and its role in organisations.
• Financial statements, namely the statement of financial position, statement of comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity, and statement of cash flows.

The second half of the unit focuses on management accounting and investment appraisal. The topics include:

• An introduction to management accounting, which includes relevant costing techniques and cost behaviours.
• Financial management and capital investment decisions.

On completion of the unit students should be able to:

• Use appropriate tools and techniques to Prepare Financial Statements from information about transactions and balances, including from incomplete records;
• Analyse financial statements and comment on the financial position, performance, and financial adaptability of an organisation;
• Explain the concepts of “Contribution” and “Relevant Costing”, and their significance for decision-making;
• Apply Cost-Volume-Profit analysis to inform organisational decisions;
• Use Marginal Costing and Absorption Costing to prepare profit statements and provide appropriate advice to decision-makers within the organisation, appreciating the benefits and drawbacks of those approaches;
• Prepare budgets;
• Analyse project viability using multiple investment appraisal methods, including Discounted Cash Flow techniques in the presence of taxation and inflation; and
• Explain, in simple broad terms, the implications of the nature of different sources of finance