Financial AnalysisModule Details

Rationale

Financial Analysis is at the heart of accounting and finance. It involves the systematic evaluation of businesses, projects, budgets, and other finance-related entities to determine their performance and suitability for investment or other financial decisions. Therefore, the comprehensive exploration of accounting measurement and reporting practices, financial analysis methodologies, and analytical tools provided in this course equips students with the required financial tools for conducting financial analyses that will also assist them in decision-making. 

This course aims to provide an understanding of the environment under which financial statements are prepared and used in different types of business analysis.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students will be expected to:

(i)     Distinguish between various forms of business entities and the financial statements that are required to be published using international accounting standards. 
(ii)    Prepare a formal auditor’s opinion.
(iii)   Detect problems in the balance sheet presentation and the statement of stockholders’ equity. 
(iv)   Prepare various financial statements such us: classified income statement, statement of retained earnings, statement of comprehensive income and classified statement of cash flows. 
(v)    Prepare trend and common size analyses and compare results with other sources of data like industry averages, competition etc. 
(vi)   Prepare ratio analysis using current assets and liabilities. 
(vii)  Assess the long-term debt paying ability using ratios based on the income statement and the balance sheet.
(viii) Interpret the results of the profitability ratio analysis from the point of view of shareholders, creditors and managers. 
(ix)   Evaluate the returns and risks of investments based on ratio calculations.