LB5212:03

FINANCIAL FOUNDATIONS FOR MANAGERS

Study Period SP22, 2012

Brisbane Campus

3 Subject Details 3

4 Subject Readings and Resources 5

9 Postgraduate Skills & Qualities 11

10 Lecture & Tutorial Schedule 12

JCU’s recently ‘refreshed’ MBA is committed to an agenda of responsible management, in which all our activities are consistent with sustainable and ethical business practices. Across the four campuses, there are majors available in Marketing, Human Resource Management, Managerial Accounting, Dispute Resolution and International Tourism.

Research degrees are also available at honours, masters, and Doctoral levels. Honours students from JCU have an outstanding record of gaining quality jobs in government and consulting circles and a number of students have won Australian Postgraduate Award scholarships and progressed into doctoral courses.

Prepared by D. Smorfitt for the School of Business, James Cook University. © Copyright 2012

This publication is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process or placed in computer memory without written permission. This subject guide was last revised on 5 August 2012 by Glenn Cruse.

Staff Contact Details

Class Times and Contact Details

A three credit point subject will require a 130 hour workload of study-related participation over the duration of the study period irrespective of mode of delivery. Students enrolled in LB5212 should attend the three hours of contact time set aside for each session.

Assessment Summary

A summary of the assessable items for LB5212 is provided in the table below. Please read through the assessment details presented later in this subject guide.

Please note that in the event that you miss a piece of assessment, you will be allocated a zero unless the appropriate documentation such as a doctor’s certificate is provided. If such documentation is provided, the end of semester ‘Final Exam’s’ weighting will be increased accordingly.

3 Subject Details

Welcome from the Subject Coordinator

Subject Description

This subject provides students with an understanding of the fundamentals of accounting. The aim is to build on basic concepts to develop a clearer understanding of financial statements, their uses and limitations in decision-making. The capacity to analyse financial statements and make decisions based on them will be emphasised. The subject examines decisions on cost structures and the implications for operating leverage and thus the financial statements. An introduction to capital budgeting and the application thereof to various cases is also covered.

This subject is a core requirement for the MBA and thus must be completed by all MBA students.

Subject Learning Outcomes

These are the learning outcomes for the subject. Specific learning outcomes for each assessment item will be provided with the detailed assessment item.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning in this Subject

A number of teaching-learning approaches will be used in this subject in order to achieve the above-stated learning outcomes.

• Application of class learning to real world issues: In this subject, it is our intention to extend the learning beyond the classroom and hence you are expected to apply what you have learnt in the classroom to the real world issues. This is done by relating the subject assessment to financial analysis for a real world business or industry.

• A practical assignment in which the operational budgets and accrual based Income Statement and Balance Sheet are produced are required.

Prescribed Texts (Compulsory)

• Atrill, P., McLaney, E., Harvey, D. and Jenner, M. (2009), Accounting: an introduction, 4^th edition, Pearson, Frenchs Forest NSW.

• Copies of financial statements of an entity is provided to you - also available at http://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xbcr/cpa-site/2010-financial-report.pdf

Further Reading

Please note the following URL http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=117627&sid=2226980 contains additional information applicable to this subject. The literature on accounting is ever expanding. There are a large number of publications available at the JCU library. Books in this area are also readily available in business sections of many bookshops. Provided below is a list of selected titles for your information. You may not have the time to read through many books. Nonetheless, it will be useful even if you have a quick flip over some of them. We do encourage you to consult some other books or buy some good ones for your own library.

Some useful materials for further reading have been selected for you and will be placed on LearnJCU or handed out in class from time to time. Hope you will find it interesting to read them.

Useful Electronic Databases available at JCU library:

• ACCOUNT  1982 - via Informit - An index with abstracts produced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Subject coverage includes accounting, auditing, taxation, insolvency, financial management, corporation law, banking, electronic data processing, management and superannuation. Source documents are Australian journal articles, conference papers and academic research papers.

Subject Website on LearnJCU

Access the subject website through LearnJCU at learnjcu.jcu.edu.au for all relevant materials. Login using your JCU email username and password. The site for this subject is opened to all participants enrolled in the subject at least seven days prior to the commencement of the subject. Browser requirements for LearnJCU are provided on the opening webpage of LearnJCU.

5 Assessment Details

There are three pieces of assessment.

1. Semester test (20% Weighting)

You will be required to complete a two-hour end of semester exam covering sessions 4 to 11 inclusive. However, the material in sessions 1 to 3 may be examined indirectly and thus a good understanding of this material is essential.

6 Grading Criteria

Grading Criteria - The report should include the following:

• Student group work documentation as per the Annexure at the end of this document. No documentation will result in a zero mark attributed to the group.

• Budgets* for two years on a monthly basis. The budgets should at the very least include: (30 marks)

  • Sales budget (volume)

  • Sales revenue budget ($)

  • Debtors budget ($)

  • Cash budget ($)

• Budgeted Statement of Financial Performance for two years (P&L). (15 marks)

Total: 100 marks

Note: Attention should be paid to:

• not materially exceeding word limits;

• spelling, grammar and structure;

• professional presentation including tables and figures where appropriate; and

• use of other resources, appropriate referencing and provision of bibliography.

Assignment requirements:

• Reports should follow (generally) a format for a professional report.

• All calculations are to be provided in the appendix to your report.

Some useful sites

The following may assist you in this assignment:

• Small Business Development Corporation (WA): http://www.sbdc.com.au/index2.asp

• The Queensland State Development: http://www.business.qld.gov.au/index.html

• Tourism Tropical North Queensland – http://www.ttnq.org.au/

General information regarding the assignment

• Please read the articles on effective group work as well as the website links on the Subject libguide which can be accessed via the following link:

 http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/content.php?pid=117627&sid=2226980&search_terms=LB5212

Subject, year, surnames, document

For example:

• The mark allocated to the group for the written component will also be the mark allocated to the individual members of the group adjusted as per the peer assessment documentation as provided to the lecturer. The lecturer’s decision on the allocation of marks is final.

• See Annexure for peer assessment documentation.

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

• People from rural and isolated areas

8 Important Policies & Guidelines

Role and Responsibilities – JCU Student Charter

The Charter outlines the reasonable expectations that students can have of the University while studying and also what the University expects of its students. Refer to the JCU website.

Assessment Policies

There are a number of assessment policies that you should be aware of as a student of JCU. The most important policy is the university’s Assessment Practices Policy, which specifies the requirements of assessment practice for undergraduate and postgraduate coursework subjects. This policy can be accessed from:

Referencing and Plagiarism

Working together, discussing ideas, or helping one another with references is fine. However, the piece of work that you finally submit for assessment must be your own. It should contain your ideas and your assessment of other people's ideas, and be written in your own words.

Students who are found guilty of plagiarism will be subject to the provisions of the Student Academic Misconduct Requirements which can be accessed from:

Submitting Written Assignments

http://www.jcu.edu.au/business/public/groups/everyone/documents/learning_object/jcudev_014008.pdf

The assignment and coversheet must be stamped using the time/date stamp located adjacent to the assignment boxes in Townsville and Cairns. Different submission processes are in place for students in other locations.

Penalties for late submission of assignments

Supplementary and Deferred Exams

If you are unable to sit your examination at the scheduled times due to extenuating circumstances (e.g. medical, trauma, death in the family etc) you may apply to sit a deferred examination. The Head of School has the right to decline an application if they consider the reasons are less than exceptional. Alternately, applying for special consideration is recommended in situations where you feel that your preparation has been/or is adversely affected by certain circumstances before and up to the day of the exam. In this situation you still need to sit the exam on the scheduled day. Special consideration (if approved) means that the lecturer will consider your circumstances when marking your examination.

In some cases, you might be awarded the opportunity to complete a supplementary exam. This will be indicated by an ‘NS’ grade on semester results. A supplementary exam cannot be applied for, it is granted at the discretion of the examiner. A supplementary result is based exclusively on the result of the supplementary exam and previous assessment is not included in a recalculation of the student’s result. In accordance with University policy, a student who has completed a supplementary exam can only receive a grade of ‘SP’ (supplementary passed), ‘SN’ (supplementary failed) or an ‘SX’ (failed to sit supplementary). For more information please see:

Subject and Teaching Feedback

Other Policies and Guidelines

Further information on important policy information is available for all JCU students at the JCU website http://www.jcu.edu.au/policy/student/

9 Postgraduate Skills & Qualities

Notes:

^a The sequence of some topics may change due to availability of staff, resources or due to unforeseen circumstances and/or the discretion of the lecturer.

Employers have clearly indicated the need for their employees to have appropriate social skills including the ability to work in groups. Management (something I assume all of you aspire to) are required to undertake performance appraisal of their employees. For these two reasons alone, the ability to work in groups is a skill the University encourages students to develop. In working in groups there are a number of aspects that need to be managed including:

• Identify members of the group. This should be done keeping in mind the skills required to do the assignment as well as your peers’ attitude towards their academic work and their grade expectations;

• Some people are free-riders – they want the benefit of the group mark but will only put in as little effort as possible. This can be managed by using the Appendices 1 and 2 that follow. Every time (weekly) a meeting is held you should complete Appendix 2 for each group member. This should be kept in a file and submitted weekly together with the minutes of the meeting and any other supporting documentation from that week.

• Appendix 2 should also include any emails confirming allocation of work, requests for work to be done by individuals (and was expected of them), identification of any issues and how they were resolved or suggestions on how to resolve them. Essentially you are to document the process so that the full picture can be presented and the results you award can be justified.

The next two pages provide you with an example of how to use the Appendices; then two blank forms are provided for your use.

EXAMPLE: Three members in the group David, John and Mary

2. Adequate

Comments:

The score tally will be used to weight this member’s assignment grading and adjust accordingly.

I attest, as being the member assessed here, that I have seen and read this assessment:

David signs here ________ Signature: Mary signs here

APPENDIX 1: (Submitted at the end of the process with the assignment) SUBJECT:

As a means of assisting you in completing the above table, the following table must be completed and where appropriate documentary evidence can be submitted including any written statements.

Please note: between scores can be awarded by marking two juxtaposed circles and thus averaging their score:

Becomes (10+8)/2 = 9

The following are the individual members whose group assessed this member’s performance

Name ____________________________ Signature _________________