99178 - PRINCIPLES OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students: - grasp the impact that the economic environment has on companies’ economic and financial choices and are familiar with forecasting processes as well as with the most relevant economic and financial documents; - are capable of applying financial analysis tools to assess the risk of companies’ activities and of managing a portfolio of investments, and know how to perform industry analyses and contribute to the elaboration of company investment strategies.

Course contents

Accounting and Financial reporting are the way business communicate to stakeholders and business partners their performances. This course, altogether with module 2, analyses different topics that link company performance to financial information at multiple levels. The course starts with an introduction to fundamental concepts of what kind of financial information are usually reported in a full financial reporting disclosure. Each document will be analyzed in its content to understand structure and detect the key performance indicators (KPI) it contains. Based on these fundamentals, the course provides a framework for financial analysis; it will also illustrate the difference between corporate regulated financial information, mainly meant for external usage, and management reporting, mainly meant for internal usage.

Students will be capable to understand how Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash flow statements are prepared and how to read them, also with support of their notes, to be able to use the information these documents provide from different perspective.

Starting from financial information the course will analyse the identification of the key information useful for measuring the value of a company and determining the main indicators of its economic performance and its ability to operate in a business continuity scenario. Having defined these fundamentals, the main criteria used to measure the value of a company will be reviewed, with particular emphasis on income and financial methods, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The discussion of operational cases will enable students to acquire greater sensitivity in the critical analysis of business value assessment reports, and in company valuations in general. In the final session of the course, the course will focus on preparation and critical reading of the "information memorandum", which is the key document aimed at presenting the company as a target to an audience of potential investors, emphasising not only its quantitative information but also to its qualitative contents.

Readings/Bibliography

Course material consists of slides, case studies and course textbooks (see below).

With reference to textbooks, relevant chapters will be indicated at the beginning of the courses.

All teaching material (except for textbooks and academic articles) will be available online at virtuale.unibo.it.

Course textbook:

• P. Atrill, E.McLaney. Financial Accounting for Decision Makers. Pearson, (latest edition). Relevant chapters 1,2,3,6,7,8,9

Teaching methods

Lectures, cases, interactive exercises during classes.

The full course (module 1 + module 2) consists of 15 hours per each module, 5 sessions of 3 hours during the 1^st and 2^nd subcycle of the academic year for a total of 30 hours

Assessment methods

This is the assessment grid: (a) <18 insufficient; (b) 18-23 sufficient; (c) 24-27 average/good; (d) 28-30 very good; (e) 30 cum laude excellent/outstanding.

The assessment is based on a written test that will cover both Module 1 + Module 2

Three calls per year will be made available on almaesami.unibo.it for Module 1 and Module 2 altogether.

Teaching tools

Slides and additional material can be found on virtuale.unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Monica Romboli

See the website of Fabio Landuzzi