Area Gestione Didattica
Servizio Formazione Superiore
Ufficio Master e Formazione Permanente
Fundamentals of business economics
Dr. Paolo Neirotti
ECTS credits: 3
Course Description
Managerial accounting information is used within an organization for planning, control, motivation,
and decision-making. The course will focus on describing the nature and purpose of both financial
and management accounting. The first part is focused on providing a general overview of financial
accounting and is addressed at providing students with the capability to analyze a financial
statement. The second and the third part have more a managerial focus, and they describe the nature
of costs and how the information embedded in costs can be used in managerial decision-making
processes.
Part I. Financial Accounting
Course Topics
1. Nature of Financial Accounting Principles
2. The Balance Sheet
a. Basic concept: the cost concept, the fair-value concept, the entity concept
b. The fundamental accounting equation
c. An overall overview
3. The Income Statement
a. Basic concept: the accounting period concept, the matching concept, the conservation
concept
b. The relation between income and owners’ equity
c. Recognition of expenses
d. Amortization and depreciation of long lived nonmonetary assets
4. Cash Flow Statement: basic concepts
5. Financial Statement Analysis
Part II. Management Accounting
1. The nature of management accounting: differences between financial and management
accounting
2. the behaviour of costs
a. variable and fixed costs
b. cost volume diagrams
c. break even analysis
d. operating leverage
Area Gestione Didattica Servizio Formazione Superiore Ufficio Master e Formazione Permanente
Politecnico di Torino Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 – 10129 Torino – Italia
[email protected] www.polito.it
Area Gestione Didattica
Servizio Formazione Superiore
Ufficio Master e Formazione Permanente
3. cost concepts
a. cost object
b. full cost
c. direct and indirect costs
d. non manufacturing costs
Part III. Long run decisions: capital budgeting
1. nature of the problem
2. general approach
a. net present value (NPV)
b. return on investment
3. estimating the relevant variables for NPV analysis: required rate of return; economic life; cash
flows; terminal value; non monetary considerations
4. other methods of analysis: internal rate of return; pay back; annual equivalent return.
Area Gestione Didattica Servizio Formazione Superiore Ufficio Master e Formazione Permanente
Politecnico di Torino Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 – 10129 Torino – Italia
[email protected] www.polito.it