Brief description

The course aims to homogenise the participants' knowledge in the area of accounting and finance in the business world, so that for students who have never studied these subjects a first approach is made and, for students who have already studied them, the knowledge is reinforced and focused.

Name

Introduction to accounting and finances (on-line and onsite)

Code

102799

Academic year

2024-25

Degree

MASTER'S DEGREE MBA IN INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

ECTS Credits

3

Type

MANDATORY

Duration

Cuatrimestral

Language

Spanish/English

Contents

Online part:

The sections cited correspond to the Technical Note (T.N.) for the subject available on the Virtual Campus.


Section 1: Basic accounting issues

• Accounting and decisions
• Accounting Classes
• Account maxims: the attributes of Accounting
• Accounting principles: how to carry out accounting
• Types of accounts
• Daily journals and general ledgers
• Year-end process
• Basic accounting documents: balance sheet and profit and loss statement

Section 2: Solved Accounting Case Study

Section 3: Accounting for stocks

Section 4: Other accounting issues and problems

Section 9: Business and financial system

• Financial System: Definition
• Financial Brokers
• Financial Markets
• Financial Products
• Other forms of financing

Section 10: Financial calculation

• Simple and compound interest rates
• Capitalisation and discounting
• Nominal and effective interest rates
• Nominal and real quantities
• Annex I. Exercise solved.

Classroom-based part:

The sections cited correspond to the Technical Note (T.N.) for the subject available on the Virtual Campus.
Review of the online part and:

Sections 5 and 6: Economic and financial analysis

• Introduction
• Financial break-even. Working Capital.
• Cash flow analysis
• Economic and financial ratios
• Analytical or percentage review

Section 7: Analysis and appraisal of investment projects

• Introduction
• Criteria for assessment: Project liquidity, profitability and risk
• Cash flows. ISIN.
• Valuation techniques
       Payback
       Net Present Value or NPV
       Internal Rate of Return or IRR
       Comparing both methods (NPV - IRR)
       Rate of return
Section 8: Basic concepts for business costs

• Costs and cost types
• Break even.
• Contribution margin
• Operating leverage


Work for each face-to-face session:

The course documentation will include the Technical Note (T.N.) mentioned above and an exercise book for the classroom sessions, as well as a file with spreadsheets containing the accounts of several companies, which will be analysed in sessions 6, 7 and 8. It is recommended that students come to each session having read the sections of the technical note and/or prepared the case study or exercises mentioned in the following summary.

Conocimientos

CO1 - To learn about business management analytics in dynamic and complex environments, such as the international environment.

CO2 - To acquire a body of theoretical and practical knowledge and learning skills, which will enable those who remain interested to pursue further, more specialised studies in the field of advanced research or doctoral studies.

CO4 - To understand the concepts, theories and instruments for analysing and developing business internationalisation plans.

CO5 - To understand the nature of problems in the organisation and therefore the application of suitable tools by developing analytical skills.

CO6 - To acquire the skills for professional document drafting and reporting in the field of international business.

CO7 - To know the structure and functioning of the organisations and institutions that support companies’ internationalisation.

Habilidades

S1 - To apply the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired, with a high degree of independence, in both national and international companies, be they small or medium-sized or companies of a more multinational dimension, and even in non-business organisations whose management requires an international vision.

S2 - To apply the analytical skills acquired in defining and approaching new problems and in searching for solutions both in a national and international business context.

S3 - To be able to collect, record and interpret macroeconomic data, country information, industry and business information, financial and accounting data, statistical data, and relevant research results to systematise business decision-making processes in international environments.

S4 - To apply the appropriate procedure to achieving an international business objective.

S5 - To assess the relationship between enterprises and the institutional framework in which activities are carried out.

S6 - To manage digital platforms, technological, audiovisual and computer media to search for information and for effective communication of business projects.

S7 - To manage software and statistical programmes for data recording and analysis.

S8 - To analyse the results of market and competition research to propose strategic orientations and operational actions.

Competencias

C5 - To work in a team, prioritising the precision of the results and the soundness and originality of the proposals.

Training activities

Teaching methods

This subject is taught following a combined online and face-to-face methodology.
The contents of the online and face-to-face parts complement each other. For the online part, the contents and exercises focus more on accounting aspects. For the classroom part of the course, the contents are focused on economic-financial analysis, costs and investment analysis, together with the accounting part.

Online part:

• The course is taught following online methodology, which implies that the student-teacher relationship is established through electronic means.

• The teaching content for student reading are found on the virtual learning platform and the students have a guide that indicates the activities they must carry out, which are of different types, such as reading materials, answering exercises, answering self-assessment questionnaires, etc.

• Through the platform, students can ask questions and submit exercises or take quizzes, receiving feedback and support from the teacher, as well as from the online support technicians.

Classroom-based part:

• Reading of the associated documentation prior to each session, as indicated in this document session by session.

• Students will carry out and prepare the case studies that are indicated for each session in advance of the class.

• Active participation in class.

Learning outcomes

• To understand a company’s basic economic-financial concepts.

• To know how to carry out the accounting for a company with a base level of complexity, going deeper into the results rather than the process (account statements).

• To understand and be able to carry out economic and financial analysis for a company based on its financial statements, issuing an opinion on its situation and assessing whether it is ready to internationalise.

• To understand the key issues in analysing investment projects (such as internationalisation projects) and understand and apply analysis and valuation techniques.

• To know the basics of financial calculation.

• To understand the basis of business costs and their typology, as well as their possible impact on internationalisation projects.

• To have basic knowledge on interest rates and other concepts in the financial system, including a global overview of financial markets, institutions and products.

Evaluation system

The evaluation of the course in its ordinary exam session comprises the online part and the face-to-face part and will be carried out in the following way:

• 30% of the grade will correspond to the partial exam that will be held at ICEX-CECO in the last quarter of 2024, which will evaluate the student's use of the online course and the face-to-face sessions held up to the date of the exam.
             -The examination will be a multiple-choice test, although it may involve developing of advanced solutions to problems or theory.

• 70% of the grade will correspond to the final exam, which will be taken after the face-to-face sessions for Phase I and which covers all the material studied, both in the online and face-to-face parts.
            -The examination will be a multiple-choice test, although it may involve developing of advanced solutions to problems or theory.

In the 2nd and subsequent exam sessions, the grade will depend on the test(s) (written, test type, essay type, assignments, oral exams, etc.), which will be determined by the teachers and communicated to the students sufficiently in advance.

Additional notes

In this subject, the student does not need to memorise the formulas for the financial and economic ratios studied in the section on economic-financial analysis, as these will be provided if they are needed in the exams.

As part of this subject, we study concepts that are very useful for the Master's Dissertation.

In the process of carrying out the internationalisation projects that the students complete, there are two sections in which the knowledge from this module is essential.

Thus, to study the company's initial situation, it is essential that students apply the knowledge and techniques studied in this subject relating to economic-financial analysis in order to draw conclusions on whether their economic and financial situation allows, and even advises, the internationalisation process.

In a later stage of project development, students study the feasibility of the internationalisation project, for which they must also apply, among others, the techniques for investment project analysis studied in this subject.

Coordinator/s

Lecturers

Bibliography

In this course, the essential study material is the technical note and complete teaching materials (exercises, questionnaires, transparencies, etc.) provided by the lecturers for the subject.
The readings recommended here are additional reference material.

• Brealey, Myers, Allen “Principios de finanzas corporativas”. Mc Graw Hill.
• Amat, Oriol “Contabilidad y finanzas para no financieros”. Deusto.
• Carmona, Carrasco. “Estados contables”. Mc Graw Hill.
• Horngren, Datar, Foster “Contabilidad de costos: un enfoque gerencial”. Publisher Pearson, Prentice Hall
• Ross, Westerfield, Jordan “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance”. Ed. Mc Graw Hill.
• Harrison, Horngren “Financial accounting” Pearson-Prentice Hall.

Printable syllabus

This document can be used as reference documentation of this subject for the application for recognition of credits in other study programmes. For its full effect, it should be stamped by UIMP Student's Office.

Document for the application for recognition of credits in other study programmes