BA (Hons) Accounting and Finance with Law

Year 1 Core Modules

You must study and pass all six core modules

Brief description

Business Analytics is generally thought to comprise three broad categories: descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. You need no prior higher education experience in statistics.

Indicative content

• Descriptive statistics: Descriptive statistics to summarize data. Modifying data using Excel, measures of location, measures of variability, measures of association between two variables and data cleansing.
• Data visualisation: The most common forms of visualising data and when each form is appropriate. The human mind can process visual images such as charts much faster than it can interpret rows of numbers.
• Probability - modelling uncertainty: Basic relationships of probability, conditional probability, random variables and probability distributions.
• Descriptive data mining: Cluster analysis, association rules and text mining.
• Statistical inference: Sample selection, point estimation, sampling distributions, interval estimation, hypothesis tests.
• Simple linear regression: The least squares method and the fit of the model.
• Multiple linear regression: Extension of the simple linear regression model to incorporate multiple independent variables. Statistical inference in regressions, categorical independent variables, model fitting and prediction using regression models.
• Time series analysis and forecasting: Time series patterns, forecast accuracy, moving averages and using regression analysis for forecasting.

Brief description

The principles of Scots commercial law, consumer law and finance as they relate to business and consumer transactions.

Indicative content

• Sale and supply of goods and services to businesses: Contract of sale and related contracts to businesses: implied terms, transfer of property and risk, breach and remedies, operation of the Sale of Goods Act 1979,Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 and the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977
• Sale and supply of goods and services to consumers: Consumer Rights Act 2015, Consumer Protection Act 1987, Consumer contracts regulations
• Rights in Security: Rights in security over moveables, lien, pledge, hypothec, standard securities, floating charges, guarantees and cautionary obligations.
• Debt recovery and personal insolvency: Diligence: attachment inhibition, arrestment, adjudication and money attachment. Personal insolvency and the Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016.
• Insurance: The common law of insurance: operation of the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010, the Consumer Insurance (Disclosures and Representations) Act 2010, the Insurance Act 2015
• Consumer credit and consumer finance: Consumer Credit Act 1974, hire purchase, loans, banking practice, mortgages, personal savings and investments, pensions, stocks and shares, basic rules of taxation and money laundering
• Arbitration and ADR: ADR forms such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration. Arbitration in Scotland: Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010.

Brief description

Techniques used in financial and management accounting.

Indicative content

• Basic financial accounting: Double-entry bookkeeping. Internal Control: errors - their prevention, detection and correction; accounting ledger systems, trial balance, suspense accounts and journals. 
• Incomplete records: Preparation of final accounts of a limited company from incomplete records, and prepare bank reconciliation statement. 
• Accounting for costs: Accounting for material: FIFO, LIFO, Weighted Average. Accounting for labour: labour costs, idle time, incentives and labour turnover. 
• Pricing methods and pricing decisions: Cost plus, target costing, price skimming, penetration pricing 
• Budgeting: The context of budgets. Approaches to budgeting. Interpreting and acting on budgets. Preparation of functional budgets from given data. Budgeting and performance analysis in not-for-profit organisations and the public sector 
• Taxation: The impact of taxation on companies, calculating corporation tax.
   

Brief description

The fundamental areas of civil law.and an understanding of the 'legal system' in general. 

Indicative content

• Legal systems: The nature of law; the distinction between civil and criminal law;sources of law; the structure of the courts; impact of EU law on Scots law.
• Contract: Nature and formation; essential features and validity; terms of the contract; breach of contract; extinction of contractual obligations.
• Delict: Nature of delict; culpa and negligence; strict and vicarious liability; Consumer Protection Act 1987; defences to an action in delict.
• Employment law and business organisations: Nature of employment and contractual relationship; unfair and wrongful dismissal; health and safety in the workplace. Business Organisations and legal framework - Law of Agency, Partnerships and Company law.

Brief description

The basics of management accounting in its role in shaping long term decisions, in planning and in control and presenting reports to management.

Indicative content

• Further issues in costing: Overhead allocation, apportionment and absorption; compilation of process costing statements and joint costing statements using FIFO and Weighted Average considering opening and closing stocks; throughput costing.
• Marginal costing: Cost-volume profit analysis for multi-product. Absorption and Marginal costing compared.
• Capital investment appraisal: Investment appraisal methods; Net Present Value, Payback, Internal Rate of Return and Accounting Rate of Return. Strengths and weaknesses of these methods. Sensitivity analysis applied to capital investment appraisal. 
• Working capital: The nature and importance of working capital. Management of working capital. Determining working capital needs. 
• Variance analysis: Calculation and interpretation of variances. Reconciliation of actual to planned performance by means of variances. Distinguish between planning and operational and operational variances. Role of MRP and ERP systems in supporting standard costing systems.Material mix and yield variances, sales mix and quantity variances.

Brief description

This module seeks to expose students¿ to regulatory frameworks that underpin the preparation of financial statements for different forms of business organisations. It also seeks to develop students¿ ability to prepare partnership accounts and limited liability companies¿ general-purpose financial statement based on relevant standards issued by the IASB.

Indicative content

• Introduction to accounting and reporting frameworks: Accounting framework for a sole trader, a partnership and a limited liability company.
• Partnerships: Legal background. appropriations, admissions/retirements, dissolutions and conversion to a limited company.
• Financial statements for limited liability companies: Preparation and presentation of general purpose financial statements based on the provisions of relevant IASs/IFRSs issued by IASB.
• Accounting treatments for current assets (inventories IAS2, trade receivables)
• 5. Accounting treatments for non-current assets (tangible/intangible/impairment IAS36)
• Calculation and interpretation of accounting ratios and trends; Earnings per shareIAS33 limitations of ratios. 
• Prepare and report financial performance to address financial information users and stakeholder needs. 
• Financial Reporting and basic group accounting with associates IFRS3, IFRS10

Year 3 Core Modules

You must study and pass all five core modules

Brief description

The use of management accounting for management control and advanced numerical techniques in decision-making.

Indicative content:

• Control: Divisional performance appraisal. Transfer pricing. Aspects of modern management practice and accounting issues within different sectors (including social enterprise). Business Plans and management reports. Life-cycle costing.
• Decision analysis: An introduction to Activity Based Costing and Activity Based Management. Decisions under uncertainty, including decision trees and the value of information.
• Strategic management accounting techniques: Value Management: value chain analysis, economic value added. The use of strategic management accounting techniques within an organisation: target costing, linear programming, Learning Curve and Experience Curve and Regression analysis and cost estimation and other forecasting techniques. Performance analysis in NPF organisations and the public sector.

Brief description

Introduction to corporate finance. Gain knowledge of the main sources of corporate finance and the ability to apply key techniques to use and manage finance in large and small organisations.

Indicative content:

• Time value of money: Future Value and Present Value; Annuities and Perpetuities; Quotes rates, Effective Annual Rate and Annual Percentage Rate.
• Bond valuation: Bond Pricing; Bond Ratings; Interest Rate Risk; Determination of Bond Yields.
• Equity valuation: Ordinary and Preference Shares; Cash Flow Valuation.
• Capital budgeting: Net Present Value, Payback Rule and Other Investment Criteria; Pro forma Financial Statements; Special Cases of Discounted Cash Flow; Scenario Analysis; Sensitivity Analysis; Break-Even Analysis.
• Risk and return: Expected Returns and Variances; Systemic and Unsystematic Risk; Diversification and Portfolio Risk; Systemic Risk and Beta; the Security Market Line and CAPM.
• Cost of capital: The Cost of Equity; the Cost of Debt and Preference Shares; the Weighted Average Cost of Capital.
• Financial leverage and capital structure policy: The effect of Financial Leverage; Capital Structure and the Cost of Equity; Modigliani & Miller Propositions and the value of the firm; Optimal Capital Structure; the Pecking-Order Theory.
• Dividends and pay-out policy: Cash Dividends and Dividend Payments; Does Dividend Policy Matter? Low vs. High-Dividend Pay-out; Shares Repurchases.
• Short-term financial planning and management: Reasons for holding Cash; Understanding Float; Investing Idle Cash; Determining the Target Cash Balance; Optimal Credit Policy; Inventory Management.

Brief description

The individual contract of employment at common law and under statute and the regulation which applies to that contract.

Indicative content:

• Formation of the contract of employment: Definition; form; jurisdiction and choice of law, continuous employment; fixed-term, retiring age.
• Administration of employment law: The Tribunals system; the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and other agencies active in this field e.g. ACAS, Equality and Human Rights Commission.
• Terms of the contract: Minimum statutory requirements; express, implied, custom, collective agreements. Terms imposed by the common law and modified by statute. Employment protection provided by statute: e.g. suspension from work; family friendly working rights; pay; insolvency of employer.
• Discrimination in employment: General; Equality Act 2010 and protected characteristics of gender reassignment, race, disability, age, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership; equal pay.
• Discipline and grievance: Works’ rules and procedures; ACAS recommended practice.
• Transfer of a business: UK implementation of EU Directives; rights of transferred employees.
• Termination of the contract of employment: Notice; dismissal: wrongful, unfair; redundancy; remedies.

Brief description

The application of financial accounting theory and practice to current issues in accounting, and the development of international financial accounting theory and practice.

Indicative content:

• Statements of cash flows IAS7: Preparation of statements of cash flows. Cash and cash equivalents; classification of cash flows by activities, Indirect and direct methods. The Interests, dividends and taxes on cash flows. Working capital changes and cash flows.
• Accounting for groups: The conceptual basis of accounting for the investment of one entity in another entity; preparation of group accounts including inter- company balances, unrealised profit on inter-company sales and acquisitions during the year.
• Accounting treatments under IAS and IFRS: Provisions IAS37, post balance sheet events IAS10 Leases, IAS17, IFRS16 Financial instruments. IAS32, IAS39, IFRS7, IFRS9.

Brief description

The legal framework business organisations operate within and the principles of Scots commercial and corporate law.

Indicative content:

• The Law of Partnership: Definition, relationship between partners and between partners and third parties, limited partners, limited liability partnerships.
• Incorporation: Organisation of business in the UK, registration, promoters, separate legal personality, piercing the veil, minority protection.
• Company Officers: Directors, role, and duties; auditors, role and duties; company secretary, role and duties.
• Shares and share capital: Allotment and transfer of shares; maintenance of capital; repurchase and reduction of shares, dividends.
• Unfair prejudice and derivative proceedings: Shareholders’ rights in the face of unfairly prejudicial conduct; shareholders’ rights against directors.
• Insider dealing, meetings: Insider dealing and its prevention; market abuse. Shareholder democracy and decision-making.
• Corporate insolvency: Receiverships, administration orders, liquidation and company voluntary arrangements.

Year 3 Option Modules

You must study and pass one option module of your chossing.

Brief description

Introduction to financial markets and institutions. The role, functions and tools of the financial services industry in the context of both domestic economies and the world economy and international trade.

Indicative content:

• Money and the financial system: The Six Parts of the Financial System; What is Money and How Can We Measure It? The Payment System.
• Bond markets and interests rates: The Bond Market and the Determination of Interests Rates; Ratings and the Risk Structure of Interests Rates; The Yield Curve; Theories of the Term Structure of Interests Rates.
• Stock markets and derivatives: The Essential Characteristics of Common Stock; Measuring the Level of the Stock Market; Investing in Stocks for the Long Run; What are Derivatives?; Forwards and Futures; Options; Swaps.
• Financial institutions: The Role of Financial Intermediaries; Information Asymmetries and Information Costs; Bank Management; Bank Risk: Where it comes from and what to do about it?
• Central banking and monetary policy: Understanding the Central Bank's Balance Sheet; Monetary Base; the Money Multiplier and Money Supply; Monetary Policy; Unconventional Monetary Policy Tools.
• Regulation and financial crises: The Need for Regulating the Financial System; The Government Safety Net; Regulation and Supervision of the Financial System; Financial Crises.
• Foreign exchange: Exchange Rates Determination and Foreign Exchange Markets.
• Current topics on financial markets and institutions: The Euro Debate; Socially Responsible Investment; Islamic Finance; Microcredit.

Brief description

Spend a specified time in a business environment working in an area related to your programme.

Indicative content:

• Placement preparation: Placement workshops (max 3 x 1 hour) to prepare for the placement, including CV preparation. Discuss placement options with placement tutor.
• Placement briefing: Responsibilities of all parties involved; expectations; professional conduct.
• Experiential learning: Supervised placement carried out 1 day per week for 10 weeks (preferred structure) or 10-day block; feedback; employer assessment, student reflection on performance while on placement.
• Placement check: Discussions between the placement tutor, student and employer to ensure satisfactory progress is being made.
• Placement presentation: Poster presentation on your placement learning and employability skills development, and on learning through experience to peers and employers.
• Business investigation/Business project: Research within the placement organisation, a business/management issue, or participate in a workplace project and report on the findings/outcomes.

Brief description

The challenges facing contemporary business organisations in an operating context in which they are expected not only to demonstrate an economic contribution and shareholder value, but increasingly, to do so in a manner that reflects the interests of a range of stakeholder groups and being sustainable.

Indicative Content

• The changing context of business: The changing nature of organisations: from industrial to post-industrial society; globalisation structures, processes and arguments; 
• Sustainable business practice: Corporate social responsibility and The Business and Society Relationship; Corporate Citizenship: Social Responsibility, Responsiveness, and Business Performance 
• Employee well being at work: Employees as stakeholders: issues relating to privacy, safety and employee well-being 
• The role of third sector organisations; Social and economic exclusion and business; understanding the conditions of inequality and social exclusion; factors influencing social mobility, The social contribution of third sector organisations
• Corporate social responsibility:  Public Policy and governance: public and third sector 

Brief description

The skills and knowledge needed to launch a small business successfully. Acquire the personal and professional skills needed in order to develop a professional career and/or to succeed as entrepreneurs in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Indicative content

• An introduction to entrepreneurship and an analysis of the skills and qualities associated with successful entrepreneurs.
• Generating successful business ideas.
• Environmental scanning.
• Developing a credible business plan that includes evaluating business ideas. Assessing risk and uncertainty; identifying potential customers, markets and market segments; assessing operations, USP and competition; price vs quality and profits.
• Presenting the business idea.

Year 4 Core Modules

You must study and pass all five core modules

Brief description

Financial accounting in the context of international business and the financial reporting and accounting complications caused by multinational business activities. 

Module content: 

• International financial reporting and harmonisation: Drivers for international financial reporting; accounting as an international language of business; general financial reporting models; the process of harmonisation and the theory of international disclosure.
• The concept of valuation in accounting: Income measurement and capital maintenance; Income measurement under the conditions of certainty and uncertainty.
• Accounting for changing prices: Criticism against historical cost accounting; current purchasing power accounting; replacement cost accounting; realisable value accounting and current value accounting; fair value measurement and IFRS 13.
• Accounting treatments for Government Grants.
• Accounting treatments for pensions and foreign currency transactions.

Brief description

Corporate finance issues. Develop the ability to critically evaluate and synthesise issues in the control and decision- making process of multinational corporations.

Module content:

• The international financial environment: Overview of the MNC and the environment in which it operates (Goals of the MNC, international flow of funds, international financial markets).
• Exchange rates: Factors that affect exchange rates (Determination of exchange rates, links between inflation, exchange rates and interest rates). 
• Managing exchange rate risk: Functions involved in managing exposure to exchange rate risk (measuring exposure to exchange rate movements, hedging that exposure). 
• Management of long-term assets and liabilities: How MNCs manage long-term assets and liabilities (information needs, capital budgeting, cost of capital, country risk, long-term financing decisions, international portfolio investment). 
• MNC portfolio investment: Domestic and international investment in real projects and financial investments.

Brief description

The principles of Intellectual Property law, looking at key substantive domains such as copyright, patents and trademarks in a critical way.

Indicative content:

• Introduction: The origin and rationales of IP law in the UK.
• Copyright: Origins. The statutory framework of Copyright in the UK. The legislative and judicial rationales. The impact of the EU and International Treaties. Copyright in the context of IT applications. Competing paradigms of regulation of copyright. Potential futures. The critical commentaries.
• Patents: Origins. The statutory framework in the UK. Patents in the context of IT applications. The judicial experience. The EU patent. The European Patent Convention. Challenges to the current patent regime.
• Trade Marks: Origins. The statutory framework in the UK and the impact of EU law. Trade marks in the context of IT applications. The relationship between trademarks and the law of passing off.
• Law: Origins, rationale in the UK and EU. The statutory framework. The relationship between design law and copyright.
• Misuse of Private Information; Confidential Information: Origins, rationale in the UK .The impact of the Humans Rights Act 1998 and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Development of the common law protection in the UK. Proposal for a Directive on trade secrets and confidential business information 2013/0402 (COD).

Brief description

Introduction to international trade. A practical guide to sell abroad profitably including the legal regimes applicable.

Indicative content:

• Introduction to world trade: The economic rationale for international trade, barriers to trade and international markets. World Bank data, current trade developments.
• Building the foundations for exporting: Are you ready for export? Writing an export Business Plan, prepping for exports.
• Creating and using online marketing platforms: Online fundamentals, creating a social media and networking presence, marketing your business worldwide.
• Mapping your export journey: Choosing a product to export, exploring your territory, preparing and adapting your product for the export marketplace.
• Managing the transactions: Transport, logistics and fulfilment options; pricing and preparing quotations; getting paid.
• Some policies of the institutions and organisations: For example the Generalised System of Preferences and the incorporation of Development issues into International Trade regulation.
• The effect on business of the International Regulation: To include the Vienna Sales Convention 1980, with a UK focus, letters of credit, cross border guarantees, international carriage of goods, by land, sea and air.

Brief description

Students will be expected to undertake some practical research in response to a current business need of a real company and produce a suitable management report with recommendations.

Indicative content

• Analysing a problem: Using different analysis techniques such as data flow diagrams, entity relationship modelling and process mapping, examine problems to better understand the current position of the business.
• Innovation and innovation techniques: Using different creativity and innovation tools to help find solutions to business problems.
• Innovation for global growth (IGG): Work with multiple organisations - public, private and third sector, on a challenge they currently face. This will provide a scoping opportunity for the problem and a chance to test possible solutions. Prior to this event take part in discussions on professional behaviour and communication.
• Developing and presenting the solution: Take the solutions identified during IGG and further investigate their suitability. Develop one or more solutions to provide an implementation plan for the organisation.

Year 4 Option Modules

You must study and pass one option modules of your choosing.

Brief description

The essential components of modern corporate finance, equity investment and ethical and professional standards.

Indicative content

• Capital budgeting: Investment appraisal methods, strengths and weaknesses of these methods, cash flow projections, project analysis and evaluation, sensitivity analysis.
• Capital structure: MM propositions without taxes and with taxes, agency theory and agency costs, pecking order theory, trade-off theory, market timing theory etc., practical issues in capital structure policy.
• Working capital management: Inventories management, accounts receivable management, accounts payable management, cash management, treasury management, working capital funding strategies.
• Corporate governance: Definitions, agency theory, conflict between managers and shareholders, conflict between majority shareholders and minority shareholders, a variety of governance mechanisms, such as ownership structure, board of directors, executive compensation, corporate control market, and shareholder activism etc., corporate governance codes around the world.
• Portfolio management and cost of capital: Capital allocation line (CAL), capital market line (CML), security market line (SML), the beta coefficient, the market risk premium, and the Sharpe ratio, WACC, CAPM, APT, Fama & French three-factor model.
• Market efficiency and equity valuation: Weak market efficiency, semi-strong market efficiency, strong market efficiency, behavioural finance, discounted dividend valuation, free cash flow valuation, market-based valuation, residual income valuation, private company valuation, applications and processes of equity valuation.
• Ethics and professional conduct: Components of the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, responsibilities required by the Code and Standards, practices and procedure designed to prevent violations of the Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct, CFA research objectivity standards.

Brief description

The analytical tools to make sound investment decisions. 

Module content:

• The investment environment: The risk-return trade-off and the efficient pricing of financial assets are central to the investments process. The role of financial markets and their degree of efficiency is an important factor to support investors.
• Fixed-income securities: Debt securities are often called fixed-income securities because they promise either a fixed stream of income or one that is determined according to a specified formula. These securities have the advantage of being relatively easy to understand because the payment formulas are specified in advance and there is no uncertainty about the size and time of their payments.
• Equity valuation: The price of a stock depends on the dividend and earnings that can be expected from the firm. In analysing a firm’s prospects, it often makes sense to start with the broad economic environment, examining the state of the aggregate economy and even the international economy. This analysis combined with the appropriate equity valuation model provides the guidance to the investor to operate in financial markets.
• Portfolio theory and practice: Introduction to Risk, Return and the Historical Record. Risk Aversion and Capital Allocation to Risky Assets. Optimal Risky Portfolios.
• Options, futures and other derivatives: Introduction to Option Markets. Option Valuation. Futures Markets. Futures, Swaps and Risk Management.
• Behavioural finance and technical analysis: Understanding the behavioural critique. Technical Analysis and Behavioural Finance.

Brief description

Audit theory, concepts and practices.

Indicative content

• Audit theory: The postulates of auditing and the enduring principles of auditing. Agency theory and auditing. The nature and value (usefulness) of key accounting information. Internal and External users.
• Legal and professional considerations: Rules of professional conduct (independence etc.). Quality control and process monitoring. Companies Acts - Legal status of an audit; auditor appointment, resignation and removal; auditor rights, duties and remuneration; professional responsibility and liability. 
• Current issues: The auditor's responsibility for discovering fraud and error; Quality control and monitoring; Corporate Governance; Limiting the auditor's liability; Non- audit engagements undertaken by the auditor. 
• Risk based auditing: Business risk and its impact on audit risk; Analytical procedures; Understanding the industry; Audit planning. 
• Audit objectives: Testing controls; Balance sheet assertions; Types of tests; Types of evidence; Sufficiency and reliability of evidence. 
• The audit process: Specific balance sheet items and related profit and loss account cycles. Audit completion procedures - events after the balance sheet date, contingencies, management representations and the overall review of financial statements. 
• The audit process: Characteristics of information systems and control over systems reliability. Use of the computer as an audit tool. Applying Computer Assisted Audit Techniques (CAATs). Introduction to group and specialised audits (e.g. Financial services). 
• Reporting and completion: Reports to management. Statutory audit reports. Special reports.    

Brief description

Contemporary accounting, business and management issues and to gain an in-depth understanding of current thinking. 

Indicative content

• Business and management: Contemporary issues in general management 
• Human resource management: Contemporary issues in human resource management, organisation theory and structure
• Marketing: Contemporary issues in marketing  
• Accounting and finance: Contemporary issues in accounting and finance