Professional Diploma of Accounting and Finance in Business and Management

The Need for Complete and Accurate Accounting Information  

• The need for full and accurate accounting information
• Functions of accounting: recording and analysing transactions; reports and statements
• Limitations of financial statements
• Accounting terms and meanings

Capital and Business Finance

• Initial capital and financing businesses; sole proprietors, partnerships, companies
• Working capital, income & expenditure, cash flow and liquidity
• Financial decisions and investments
• Financial assets, gearing and risk; investment appraisal

Principles of Bookkeeping and Books of Account

• Principles of bookkeeping, the ledge, double-entry bookkeeping
• Books of account: cash book, sales book, purchases book, returns books, journals
• The trial balance, manual and computerised accounts
• Bank accounts: current, deposits, savings, interest

Final Accounts (1)     

• Financial accounting concepts
• Goodwill, prepayments and accruals
• Trading and manufacturing accounts
• Statistics, percentages and ratios

Final Accounts (2) 

• Profit & loss accounts; information, layout, interpretation
• Balance sheets; information, layout, interpretation, equity
• Analysis, ratios, calculations
• Gross profit, net profit, wealth; stock turnover

Principles of Costing

• Purposes, benefits and limitations of cost accounting; key terminology
• Different costing systems explained
• Overheads and allocation
• Standards, variances, activity based costing

Planning and Forecasting, Budgets and Budgeting

• Business objectives, policy formulation; interpretation and implementation
• Financial planning and forecasting
• Budgets and budget preparation; sub-budgets and the master budget
• Budgetary control, variances; inflation  

Stock and Inventory Control

• Stock management and control; inventory costs
• Factors affecting the management of stocks and inventory
• Stock levels; factors affecting levels set; types of levels
• Stocktaking and valuation of stocks and work in progress

Credit, Credit Control, Discounts

• Types and common forms of credit
• The role and importance of credit
• Credit control, credit limits and creditworthiness, dangers and bad debts
• Discounts: types, purposes, accounting treatment

Partnership Accounts, Departmental and Branch Accounts, Hire Purchase

• Special features of business partnership accounts, goodwill
• Departmental accounts; purposes, analysis, apportioning expenses
• Branch accounts; centralised, decentralised, consolidated trading, p&l and balance sheets
• Hire purchase, accounting treatment, agreements

Interpretation of Final Accounts, Pricing Policy, Auditors and Auditing

• Working capital management, cash and funds flows, liquidity, borrowing
• Accounting ratios, interpretation & analysis, break-even analysis
• Pricing policy, factors influencing selling prices
• Auditing and auditors; duties, activities

Computerised Accounting Systems and ‘Packages’  

• Computers in accounting, characteristics of computers and systems
• Components of accounting systems; hardware, software, databases
• Applications and advantages of computerised accounting
• Organisation and security of data; management information