Description
This module equips you with the skills to critically analyze the role of budgeting, planning and control and its implications for strategic management. The module also focuses on the critical appraisal of accounting and control tools to assess business performance, provide actionable feedback, and recommend improvements to enhance financial decision making and align organizational performance with strategic goals.
Aims
This module aims to provide students with in-depth knowledge and skill to examine and develop financial and budgeting control systems covering planning, control and decision making within the business activity.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module the student should be able to:
- Understand and explain the role of budgeting within the planning and control framework, including its implications for strategic management
- Critically appraise accounting and control tools to assess business performance, provide feedback, and recommend improvements.
- Evaluate capital investment projects and analyze the effectiveness of budgeting, costing, and capital investment methods in supporting financial decision-making and organizational performance.
Indicative Content
1 Budgeting process
Strategic planning process, functions of budgets; the budget period; administration of the budgeting process; stages in the budgeting process; Cash budgets, Master budgets, Activity-based budgeting.
2 Standard Costing and Variance Analysis
Various roles of budgets and their behavioural implications; Functional and flexed budgets; Calculation and interpretation of variances; Distinguish between planning and operational variances; Material mix and yield variances, sales mix and quantity variances.
3 Capital Investment Appraisal
Investment appraisal methods; Present Net Value, Payback, Internal Rate of Return and Accounting Rate of Return; Strengths and weaknesses of these methods; Sensitivity analysis applied to capital investment appraisal.
4 Working Capital
The nature and importance of working capital; Management of working capital; determining working capital needs.
| Teaching and Learning Method | Hours |
|---|---|
| Lecture | 0 |
| Tutorial/Seminar | 0 |
| Supervised Practical Activity | 0 |
| Unsupervised Practical Activity | 30 |
| Assessment | 40 |
| Independent | 80 |
Guidance Notes
SCQF Level - The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.
Credit Value – The total value of SCQF credits for the module. 20 credits are the equivalent of 10 ECTS credits. A full-time student should normally register for 60 SCQF credits per semester.
Disclaimer
We make every effort to ensure that the information on our website is accurate but it is possible that some changes may occur prior to the academic year of entry. The modules listed in this catalogue are offered subject to availability during academic year 2025/6, and may be subject to change for future years.