Syllabus
Financial Decision Making
Course Dates: October 23, 2017 – December 17, 2017
Course Description
In this first Micro-Masters in Accounting and Financial Management course, you will gain knowledge of the fundamental concepts of financial accounting, finance, and managerial decision making. This course investigates financial decision making in business, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Emphasis is on the application of financial and nonfinancial information to a wide range of managerial decisions, including the time value of money, financial analysis, budgeting, incremental analysis, long-term planning and cost-volume-profit analysis. A variety of decision-making tools (such as break-even analysis, activity-based costing procedures, and discounted cash flow techniques) are studied. Contemporary managerial practices are explored.
Course Learning Outcomes
In this course, you will learn:
- How to perform basic financial analyses to support decision-making
- The role financial decisions play in the overall management function
- Methods for applying financial and non-financial information to management decisions
- The relationship between risk and return in publicly-traded corporations
- How to apply discounted cash flow techniques to compare projects costs
Course Information
This is a self-paced online course. All course materials are presented in English. Learners new to edX are recommended to take the DemoX course, which is designed to show new students how to take a course on edx.org.
Course Materials
All materials are freely available within the course. Additional resources, and optional readings can be easily accessed and downloaded from the References, Resources, and Optional Readings sections of this course.
Course Schedule
The course will open on October 23, 2017 and run for eight weeks. As this is a self-paced course, all content will be available in Week 1 including weekly knowledge checks, discussions, and homework. The course ends December 17, 2017 UTC. You will have until that day (11:59 PM UTC) to complete all learning activities.
Students should plan to spend between 10-15 hours each week to fully complete each module.
|
Week |
Topics |
Description |
Activities |
|
1 |
Foundations of Financial Decision Making for Managers · Financial Statements and Accounting Principles Overview · How Managers Make Financial Decisions on Behalf of their Employers
|
An introduction to the role of financial management in corporations. Learn how management selects the best type of business formation and ownership, identifies tactical and strategic goals, and balances profits vs. shareholder value. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks · Submit Homework |
|
2 |
Financial Statements · Income Statement · Balance Sheet · Statement of Cash Flows |
Learn how managers use financial information to assist in the management decision-making process, including the relationship between financial statements. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
3 |
Financial Analysis · Financial Statement Analysis · Financial Ratio Analysis |
Perform financial ratio analysis, financial statement analysis, and other financial metrics to improve managerial decision making. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
4 |
Risk and Return · Time Value of Money · Risk and Return |
Learn how managers use discount rates to estimate the risk and return on investments, and compare investment risks and returns to analyze financial challenges and opportunities. In the role of a manager, you will develop an understanding of how the passage of time affects the value of a dollar, investment, assets and liabilities for making investment, divestiture, and other operational business decisions. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
5 |
Overview of Management Accounting · The Manager, Management Accounting, and an Introduction to Cost Terms |
Managers use managerial reports to operate more effectively their unit of responsibility. Learn how managerial accounting assists management in making more informed operational decisions to maximize shareholder wealth, maintain a competitive market position, and ensure a safe working environment. Learn the difference between accounting and economic profit, when to consider opportunity costs, use management control systems, understand the value chain, and make decisions from management reports. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
6 |
Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis · Activity-Based Costing · Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis |
Learn how managers use activity based costing to promote business activities that result in higher profits. Learn to make pricing decisions using various methods, including customer behavior in response to price changes and pricing changes in the competitive market. Learn to compute the cost and volume of sales necessary to break even or achieve a desired profit level. Use cost-volume-profit analysis to make pricing, marketing, and other operational decisions, such as quality control. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
7 |
Budgeting · Static, Flexible, and Master Budgeting · Benchmarking |
Learn how to create a master, static, and flexible budget based on historical operational information and desired or projected results in the future. Use your budgets and other financial information for forecasting future economic and financial trends. You will also learn how to create pro forma financial statements. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
|
8 |
Capital Budgeting · Capital Budgeting · Differential Analysis |
Learn how managers prepare capital budgets to assist in making better long-term investment decisions. You will perform differential analysis to compare alternative capital improvement projects to make financial decisions such as whether to accept or reject individual projects and make outsourcing decisions. |
· Complete readings · View videos · Answer Knowledge Checks Submit Homework |
Course Grading and Policy
You will be able to view all material and take any knowledge checks, or participate in discussions at any time during the course. In order to be awarded a certificate you will need to have completed all learning activities by 11:59 PM UTC on December 17, 2017 when the course closes.
The course score for AF6010 is determined from two components: weekly homework assessments (70%) and a Final Assessment (30%).
Weekly Homework Assessments - At the end of the material for each week, there is a homework assessment. Combined, the homework assessments account for 70% of your overall score in the course. The homework assessments may include several types of questions including multiple choice questions, drag and drop questions, checkboxes, and text or numerical input.
Final Assessment - At the end of the material for Week 8, there is a Final assessment, which accounts for 30% of your overall score in the course. The Final assessment contains 50 randomly generated multiple choice questions worth 2 points each and are based on the topics covered from Week 1 to 8.
Certification
For those students working to obtain the MicroMasters certificate, you must register for the verified track before the deadline and obtain a total score of 80% or greater in the class.
For those verified students who receive an edX certificate, it will appear on their edX dashboard after the course ends. As of December 7, 2015, edX no longer offers certificates for students who audit a course.