Accounting and Finance

with a Foundation Year

Unlock your potential and gain the essential skills for academic success at university. You’ll develop effective study habits, learn to manage your time, and gain strategies for independent learning. You’ll conduct academic research, by learning to find, evaluate, and use academic sources, while avoiding plagiarism. Your writing skills will be developed through extended writing activities, referencing, proofreading, and editing. You’ll also improve your communication skills by learning how to structure a presentation and use visual aids. You’ll develop your critical thinking through analysis, evaluation, and argumentation. By the end of this module, you’ll be building towards working at Level 4. 

How do businesses operate today? What are their key functions and how are they organised? Most importantly, what do managers need to know in order to make sound decisions?

You’ll develop a broad understanding of essential business management and accounting models, exploring theories that are integral to how businesses work. By looking at fundamental business strategies and different tools of analysis – like break-even calculations, ratio analysis, capital appraisal models, and decision trees – you’ll develop your understanding of the basics of business and start building up your skills in Excel.

Throughout the course, students actively engage in discussions and practical applications, preparing them to confront complex global economic challenges armed with a data-driven approach. By the end of the course, students emerge equipped with the necessary skills to analyse economic data effectively and contribute meaningfully to informed decision-making in the global economic landscape.

What knowledge and skills you need to succeed in a globalised economy? You'll learn about the key drivers of the global economy, the global sustainability, social, cultural, economic, international trade, investment and political environments, and how to identify and mitigate the risks associated with operating in unpredictable environment.

You'll gain important insights into the social, political, economic and technological issues related to business that are essential to pursuing a career in multinational corporations and understanding the world around you. Your understanding of the global business world will help you develop analytical skills to turn data into valuable information for business decisions and position yourself for success in international business.

Dive into a project that sparks your curiosity and hones your academic skills, as you choose a topic you’re passionate about and transform your research into a compelling essay. This module allows you to develop and apply the learning from your Autumn term module ‘Academic Skills Development’.  You will improve your research and writing skills further and refine your use of sources. While you conduct your reading and research, you’ll engage in reflective practices improving your ability to assess and evaluate your learning using various reflective models.  Independence and time management are key skills you’ll develop as you navigate this module.  To maximise your experience, you are expected to prepare and actively participate in our regular tutorials.  These are designed to provide invaluable opportunities to seek guidance and develop your project. 

Given the constant changes in business environments, how can financial accounting help managers create budgets, improve efficiency and develop short- and long-term strategies to stay competitive?

You'll study the core principles, concepts and policies in financial accounting and examine the necessary adjustments that underpin the preparation of final financial statements of sole traders, partnerships and limited liability companies.

You'll also gain practical experience with key accounting tools used by industry to prepare, analyse, and interpret financial statements, preparing you for the rest of your degree.

Practitioners in accounting and finance fields currently face many challenges around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) decisions. Ethical conduct is essential to maintaining the integrity of financial information, promoting investors' confidence and upholding the standards of the profession.

Your professional ethics will determine how you behave when doing your job and help you act responsibility. You will examine codes of conduct issued by several professional organisations (ACCA, ICAEW, CFA, etc) and explore various factors influencing professional judgement in accounting and finance decisions.

You will also develop the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate ethical dilemmas and make sound ethical decisions in your professional career.

Economics are a crucial tool for business to utilise to help make informed decision that support success and drive growth. Devloping a knowledge of microeconomics will help you understand how millions of consumers and producers make decisions, how they interact and use scarce resources.

You will learn how to apply microeconomic theories and tools to understand consumer and producer behaviour, resource allocation, and pricing policy, including cost and benefit analysis. The application of microeconomic theory to real-world situations will help you make efficient decisions as a manager and as an entrepreneur.

You ability to both understand and apply microeconomics theories to real business situations is vital to not only launching your career, but making rapid progress and delivering results on a managerial or executive level through informed decision making.

Management accounts act as a constant for businesses in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment, making them crucial for success and valuable to organisations. You'll apply management accounting tools and techniques to assist managers in making profit planning decisions, controlling company performance, and evaluating long-term investments to grow.

Through developing skills in how to become a business partner, analytical problem-solving and decision-making skills you’ll be ready to analyse economic results, identify growth opportunities and advise managers on how to drive sustainable performance across their organisation.

Develop the research, analytical and critical-thinking skills needed to understand financial information and business performance. Learn to evaluate evidence, interpret data and turn financial insights into informed accounting and business decisions.

Develop the communication, analytical and problem-solving skills needed for careers in accounting and finance. Build your confidence in presenting financial information, collaborating with others and applying professional judgement to real-world business challenges.

Almost all listed companies in the European Union and the United Kingdom have to prepare financial statements that comply with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). With a thorough understanding of how financial statements are prepared under IFRSs, managers of mid-sized companies will have the skills needed to identify trends and potential threats, and actively track their financial performance in real-time.

In this module you’ll develop the knowledge and skills to understand and apply IFRSs. You’ll also learn the theoretical framework for preparing and analysing financial statements. Learning how to apply IFRSs will give you the necessary skills to become a successful accounting and finance professional.

Management accountants are the strategic business partners who can help companies thrive and succeed. How do they do so, and with what tools?

In this module, you’ll use management accounting tools and techniques to help managers assess companies’ performance and evaluate long-term investments.

You’ll develop analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills which will allow you to analyse economic results. This will help you identify growth opportunities and advise managers on how to drive sustainable business performance.

What are the legal responsibilities of businesses and individuals towards customers, suppliers, the environment, the workforce, and the public? This module covers key aspects of contract, negligence, company, and employment law. It looks at the formation, control, and performance of legally compliant contracts, organisational structures, employee treatment, and duty of care.

You’ll learn to apply legal knowledge to business-related client disputes. In the process you’ll enhance your problem-solving skills and boost your confidence in analysing and debating legal issues. By applying the law to real-world business scenarios, you’ll deepen your understanding of relevant business law and gain insight into making and supporting responsible business decisions.

Auditing of companies' financial accounts help increase transparency as it assures stakeholders and potential investors that companies' accounts are reliable, unbiased, and faithful representations of companies' financial performance. You'll gain a thorough understanding of a range of auditing topics together with an appreciation of the regulatory and social environment within which auditing process takes place. Through real-life case studies, you will gain technical knowledge and critical thinking skills that will help you undertake efficient auditing processes and provide assurances to all interested stakeholders.

Excel is the industry-standard software for data processing and modelling, so gaining a strong working knowledge of it enables you to bring immediate value to a business and / or management role. By working on realistic problems and skill exercises, you will learn key Excel and spreadsheet modelling techniques, gaining real hands-on experience that will enable you to use data effectively to support decision making.

By the end of the module, you will be able to use Excel competently for business reporting, modelling, and forecasting. You will understand how to gather the right and relevant information; analyse it; ensure it can be trusted, and how to demonstrate its value in the context of making business decisions. In this way, you will build the confidence to present your insights clearly to managers, stakeholders, business leaders and non-technical audiences, making you a valuable asset to organisations committed to data-driven and evidence-based decision making.

Explore how organisations make financial decisions to support performance and growth. Learn to evaluate investment opportunities, assess funding options and use financial information to plan, allocate resources and manage risk.

Many large companies operate as groups and are required to prepare consolidated financial statements. In this module, you’ll develop a critical understanding of the principles and practices that underpin the preparation and interpretation of these reports, and learn how to apply international financial reporting standards.

When preparing these reports, you’ll also make ethical assessments of managers’ stewardship and examine the information needs of various stakeholders. This module will help you deepen your financial accounting knowledge and help you develop your technical and analytical skills which you can use to address complex accounting standards and current issues in financial reporting.

For centuries taxation has been an important fact of national life. Without tax it would be impossible to pay for the country's defence services, its health, welfare and social services, it schools and universitites and its transport systems. In addition , taxaion is a means for government to influence our everyday activites. In this module you will be introduced to how the taxation system operates in the UK, providing a core knowledge of the underlying principles and major technical areas of taxation as they impact the activities of individuals and businesses. Through case studies, practical examples and discussions, you will gain a core understanding of the various UK taxes. We will explore the areas of tax compliance, reporiting obligations and develop effective tax planning strategies. In this module, you will gain a deeper appreciation of how taxation impacts on every area of our personal and business lives.

Gain the knowledge and skills required for meeting the strategic needs of businesses in the digital age. You will develop competences in the application of management accounting techniques to complex organisational problems, learn how to analyse data, solve problems related to cost, pricing, variances and performance management and convey your solutions in a succinct and impressionable manner for the purpose of planning, controlling, evaluation and decision-making.

Explore the emerging trends and challenges shaping the accounting profession, from AI and automation to sustainability reporting and changing regulations. Examine how accountants adapt to new technologies and evolving business expectations.

Explore how businesses manage cash flow, liquidity and financial risk to maintain stability and support growth. Learn how treasury decisions influence funding, investment and the effective management of financial resources.

Apply your learning, experience, skills and curiosity to varied contemporary accounting and finance issues. Under the guidance of academics, alumni and businesses, you'll be given the autonomy to select, investigate, report on and defend a contemporary accounting and finance problem or topic leading to the development of a business case or dissertation.

Do you have what it takes to be a management consultant? Do you have the skills to be able to respond to the real-world problems that businesses are facing today? On this module, we'll work with real businesses who want the help of groups of KBS students to solve the challenges that they currently face.  Through a series of workshops you'll come to understand the consultancy process and develop key consultancy skills as you master the art of responding effectively to a brief from a business. Working in a group of your peers, you'll bring different skillsets from your studies to bear on solving business problems like designing a marketing strategy, advising on recruitment processes, or support meaningful performance management and financial evaluation etc. Put a capstone on your studies with a project that has real world impact.