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• Module overview
• 1. Introduction to budgets
  • 1.1 Introduction to the Budget Process
  • 1.2 Budget types
    • 1.2.1 The Budget Guidelines
    • 1.2.2 The Sales Budget
    • 1.2.3 Budget for Operating Expenses
    • 1.2.4 Profit Budget
    • 1.2.5 Cash-Flow Budget
    • 1.2.6 The Financial Position Budget
    • 1.2.7 Additional Types of Budgets
    • 1.2.8 Additional Budgeting Techniques
  • 1.3 The budget process and its objectives
  • 1.4 Budgets for performance management
    • 1.4.1 Master budget

• 2. Planning the budget

  • 2.1 Planning the Budget
    • 2.1.1 Business income
    • 2.1.2 Visual representation of sales and budgets
    • 2.1.3 The break-even point
    • 2.1.4 Contribution margin

• 3. Controlling the budget

  • 3.1 Controlling budgets
    • 3.1.1 Variance analysis
    • 3.1.2 Taking action to achieve the objectives of the budget
    • 3.1.3 Resource acquisition and usage

• 4. Introduction to Financial Management

  • 4.1 Business Objectives
    • 4.1.1 Maximising profit
    • 4.1.2 Maximising wealth
  • 4.2 Ethics and conflicts in business
    • 4.2.1 The dilemma of ethics in finance, investment and accounting
  • 4.3 Financial Managers
    • 4.3.1 Financial information and objectives
    • 4.3.2 Accounting, the financial information system
  • 4.4 The finance function
    • 4.4.1 Business and financial calculations

• 5. Elements of Business and Financial Management

  • 5.1 Business Structures
    • 5.1.1 Sole proprietors
    • 5.1.2 Partnerships
    • 5.1.3 Corporations and companies
  • 5.2 Reporting financial data and information
  • 5.3 Financial reports
    • 5.3.1 Statement of financial performance (profit and loss statement)
  • 5.4 Capital Markets
    • 5.4.1 Capital Markets
  • 5.5 Regulation and financial institutions
    • 5.5.1 Interest rates, supply and demand and market efficiency
  • 5.6 An overview of taxation implications

• 6. Obtaining Funds: Sources of Long Term and Short Term Finance

  • 6.1 Finance from external sources
    • 6.1.1 Equity finance
  • 6.2 Debt
  • 6.3 Long-term debt
    • 6.3.1 Debentures and unsecured notes (bonds)
    • 6.3.2 Mortgage loans
  • 6.4 Hybrids of debt and equity
  • 6.5 Leasing
    • 6.5.1 Operating Lease
    • 6.5.2 Financial Lease
    • 6.5.3 Distinguishing between an operating lease and a financial lease
    • 6.5.4 Sale and Leaseback
    • 6.5.5 The issue of gearing
  • 6.6 Short-term debt
    • 6.6.1 Bank Overdrafts
    • 6.6.2 Fully drawn advance
  • 6.7 Retained Earnings, internal funds and depreciation

• 7. Managing Working Capital

  • 7.1 Managing current assets and current liabilities
    • 7.1.1 Appropriate level of working capital
  • 7.2 Managing inventories
    • 7.2.1 Reasons for holding inventories
    • 7.2.2 The economic order quantity (EOQ)
    • 7.2.3 Re-order point (ROP)
    • 7.3.4 Safety stock (SS)
    • 7.2.5 Quantity discounts
  • 7.3 Managing trade debtors (accounts receivable)
    • 7.3.1 Credit policies
    • 7.3.2 Collection period
    • 7.3.3 Managing cash and near-cash assets
    • 7.3.4 Managing trade creditors (accounts payable)

• 8. Job Costing

  • 8.1 Accounting information about product, service and project costs
    • 8.1.1 Full costing
    • 8.1.2 Single product/service line
    • 8.1.3 Multi product/service
    • 8.1.4 Direct and indirect costs
  • 8.2 How costs behave
    • 8.2.1 Allocating Overheads
  • 8.4 Cost drivers
    • 8.4.1 ABC and the service industry
  • 8.5 Conclusion

5.2 Reporting financial data and information

Accounting and reporting for business activities is for managers (internal parties) and other businesses and individuals, including lenders and shareholders (external parties). The frequency, content and form of management accounting reports depend on the specific needs of managers at all levels.

The other main area of accounting is financial accounting , which is concerned with the design of accounting systems and procedures to produce general purpose financial reports for external parties. You each have two sets of these reports. Company directors are obliged by the Corporations Law to produce these to fulfil their accountability responsibility. The next chapter shows the procedures for producing external reports for shareholders, lenders, potential investors, creditors, customers, government agencies, regulatory bodies and other interest groups. These reports must meet a number of accounting standards, and must be audited by independent external auditors. The three external reports are:

• a statement of financial position
• statement of financial performance
• a statement of cash flows

The complete accounting process begins with a financial transaction, proceeds through sorting, classifying, recording, summarising and checking steps, and ends with the financial reports. These steps in the accounting cycle, and the records involved are illustrated in the next diagram. The accounting cycle, which covers a period of a year, will be made clear in the practical case studies in Chapter 6, as will the accounting records.

The accounting cycle

Steps in the cycle	Accounting records
Recognize and record transactions	Source documents
Journalise transactions	General/special journals
Post to ledger accounts	General ledger
Prepare unadjusted trial balance	Trial balance (unadjusted)
Determine and journalise adjustments	General journal
Post adjusting entries to general ledger	General ledger
Prepare adjusted trial balance	Trial balance (adjusted)
Prepare financial statements	Financial statements

 

The cycle involves record keeping, and you will learn about this in the next chapter, and we will refer back to this diagram often.

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