module specification

Financial decision-making is important for all businesses. This natural mental process needs to be informed to select a course of action from several alternative options. One of the most essential elements that help to facilitate the implementation of the business strategy in an organisation is Finance. The financial manager of an organisation plays a central role in making decisions on optimum utilisation of financial resources and assess the implications for shareholders and other stakeholders, and the need for effective corporate governance. Therefore, managers require critical understanding of key financial management concepts and techniques, performance indicators and methodologies relating to financial management frameworks. Managers use these tools when they are faced with making financial decisions in the business environment. This module provides students with knowledge about financial decision-making approaches and control systems businesses use to make managerial decisions.

The module also provides the knowledge and skills necessary to evaluate the impact of financial decisions. It enable learners of today, who are managers of tomorrow, to participate in decision making processes concerning the utilisation of finances in investment, financial and risk management, and the delivery of value for money in achieving the objectives of the business. Although managers are not always required to perform detailed financial analysis, they need to have a clear understanding of how the process of financial management and decision-making work to ascertain that decisions are properly made and implemented and that apposite risk management system are in place.

The module focuses on fundamentals of financial management, the need for accounting and finance, financial governance, making capital investment decisions, balancing risk and return, tools of financial analysis, interpretations and planning, reading financial reports, cost challenges in decision making, working capital management, sources of finance, cost-volume-profit analysis and its use in managerial decisions and planning.

N/A

• Fundamentals of financial decision-making: introduction to the module, financial variables for decision-making, accounting conventions and the need for accounting and finance for managers, roles of financial function, objectives of financial decision-making, planning and control.
• Balancing risk and expected return: identifying and managing financial risk, main forms of financial risk, methods for hedging financial risk, including futures options, forward rate agreements, swaps and money market hedges, confidence on expected return, risk appraisal methods including sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, expected NPV, event tree diagrams.
• Arithmetic of finance for decision-making: analysing, interpreting and reporting financial results/statements, contribution margin analysis, financial ratio analysis including profitability, efficiency, liquidity, gearing and investment performance.
• Cost-volume-profit: CVP assumptions, the manner in which fixed and variable costs interact, the use of these concepts for FDM, basic operational elements such as sales volume and price, production volume and costs, multiple breakeven points, profitability and breakeven analysis, contribution margin, margin of safety.
• Making capital investment decisions: issues in investment appraisal such as cash flow estimation, relevant costs and benefits, impact of taxation and the problem of inflation.
• Cost of capital and capital structure decision: basic principles of Capital Asset Pricing Model, cost of loan capital, gearing and its effect on risk and returns to shareholders, factors influencing the level of gearing in practice, budgeting.
• Issues in managing working capital and short/long term financing: nature and purpose of working capital, analysis and interpretation of working capital ratio, working capital policies, sources of short and long-term financing,
• Financial governance: corporate governance and the agency problem, the UK Corporate Governance Code.

The module is delivered in a weekly 1 hr Lecture, 2 hr Seminar, part of which may encompass the use excel software using the computers to analyse financial statements. The session is designed in an interactive manner to effectively help the learning process and engage students through a collaborative two-way-process. The interactive approach stimulates motivation and interest in the subject area.

As the module content focuses on financial decision making, students are given the opportunity, using own cognitive ability, to take part in the decision-making process, while learning a broad context of knowledge in the process. This approach is aimed at creating a context in which their aspiration and ability to work most effectively to achieve deep understanding.

In the interactive lecture and seminar session, students are given more opportunities to stimulate their motivation and develop the understanding of the weekly topics. In the tutorial/activity session, they are given guidance to think carefully and critically when analysing and expressing their thoughts. Their learning process is monitored continuously using valid assessment schemes. 

Students receive in-house materials, which includes weekly lecture/seminar notes in the form of PPT presentations, and scenario-based activities. They are expected to complete set tasks in seminars (in part), tutorial sessions and some of the tasks may be left for the students to complete them outside the formal contact hours.

The sessions are blended into the weekly tasks so students are using computer facilities (mainly for Excel package) to analyse financial statements and word processing to write their critical analysis in the form of a report. As this is a practice-oriented module, online and blended learning approaches are sought to facilitate communication, engagement in group work activities, independent learning and discussions.

The module is assessed with a two hour in-class test (ICT) in week 10. Students will be given questions from different topics covered from week 1 to week 8 about five questions will be on the paper and students will be asked to answer any four questions out of five each carrying 25 Marks. The ICT will be 40% of the final mark. The purpose of the ICT is to test students’ understanding of some of the concepts covered and how to answer questions in the area. It is also to assess how their understanding of these concepts would help future managers in decision making. The second assessment is an individual report/essay of about 1,500 words which is designed to test their understanding of the fundamental financial theories relevant to financial decision making and governance and the ability to critically analyse and evaluate financial statements using various analytical tools to facilitate strategic decision making. This second assess is 60% of the final module mark. The second assessment also assesses the issue of corporate governance and sustainability with the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in financial decision making
 

Learning Objectives (LO):

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

LO1. Demonstrate conceptual understanding of the fundamental financial theories relevant to financial decision-making and governance.
LO2. Understand, critically analyse and evaluate using various analytical tools to facilitate strategic decision-making.
LO3. Evaluate elements of risk, return and value strategic operational financial decisions.
LO4. Understand the importance of good governance in financial decision making.

Library Reading List link 
https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/85481E67-96A5-CBE8-4B17-1A495E8FF20A.html?lti1p3LaunchId=lti1p3_launch_692066cdbc1364.56047877&lti1p3LinkType=resource_link-best_guess&lti_auth_nonce=6b1e38ff-9f93-4f4c-9954-d0237e862d38&resourceLinkSingleOption=true&login=1

TBC


Core book: 

•    Atrill, P. (2025). Financial Management for Decision Makers (10th ed). Pearson Education.

Additional reading: 
Bamber, M and Parry, S (2024) Accounting & Finance for Managers, 4th Edition Kogan Page.

Forester, S. (2014). Financial Management: Concepts and Applications, Global Edition. Pearson. 

Journals: 
•    ACCA Student Accountants Magazine
https://www.accaglobal.com/uk/en/student/sa/student-accountant-direct.html

•    CIMA Financial Management Magazine
https://www.fm-magazine.com/
•     PQ Magazine https://www.pqmagazine.com/

•    Accountancy Ireland http://www.magazinesireland.ie/business-info/accountancy-ireland