ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE FOR THE SERVICE INDUSTRY - 2024/5

Module Overview

Managers in the service industry need to be able to measure and analyse the financial, social and environmental performance of the business to underpin decisions in the management and investment setting. In this module, students will learn how to critically evaluate financial information and data available in annual reports, financial analysts' reports and other relevant sources. Using the principles and practices of financial analysis offered in this module, professionals in the service industry will be able to continuously optimise their firm performance and enhance the profitability of the investment decisions.

Module provider

Hospitality & Tourism Management

Module Leader

KIM Bora (Hosp & Tour)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 2

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Measuring and reporting financial position


• Measuring and reporting financial performance


• Accounting for limited companies


• Measuring and reporting cash flows


• Analysing and interpreting financial statements


• Cost and volume profit analysis and full costing


• Measuring social and environmental performance


• Budgeting for innovative organisations - agile budgeting


• Making capital investment decisions


• Financing a business

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

n/a

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding. 

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

Five Online Tests (10% per test, 50% in total) Five online tests to demonstrate their understanding of the core areas of accounting and finance, this will also help them to assess how much work they may need to undertake to be ready for the final financial evaluation project.

Financial Evaluation Project (50%) Students will be required to produce an individual report that evaluates the financial performance of the group's hotel and suggests solutions to enhance future performance. Students will submit a 2,000 word written report.

Formative assessment

First, formative assessment will be given in a live tutorial based on students' understanding of the knowledge learnt and the implications to decision makings in the service industry.

Second, post-lecture live Q&A sessions and weekly homework exercises will be set to improve students' understanding on an on-going basis.

Third, practical exercises and answers will be provided on Surrey Learn as a way of formative assessment. Feedback The feedback of the online test will be given automatically and immediately after the test; whereas the feedback of the individual report will be available no more than three weeks after the submission date.

Module aims

• Provide students with the conceptual foundations for critically analysing and interpreting business financial information.
  
• Equip students with the rationale of investment decision making in the service industry.
  
• Enable students to apply accounting principles, financial analysis and investment appraisal to decision making in the service industry.
  

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

• Captured content to illustrate the principles of finance and accounting and practice their applications to the service industry


• Live lecture to extend the understanding of the principles and their applications in the service industry through further discussions


• Live tutorial to apply the learnt theories and principles through in-class interaction and short and long problem solving


• Independent learning to extend the understanding and application of the finance and accounting principles with the support of additional learning material and reading


• Support of lecture/seminar/tutorial materials by directed reading and exercises


• SurreyLearn will be used as an information portal and will contain captured content videos, lecture notes, practical exercises, solutions to practical exercises, mock exam papers and relevant reading


• On-going feedback in-class on an individual and group basis


• Online discussion boards for students to raise questions and discussions on weekly content

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM553

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing postgraduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

Digital Capabilities: Learning to navigate the VLE, SurreyLearn, is an essential part of the module. Teaching and learning materials are provided in a number of formats (e.g. captured content, documents, mock test/exam), and students are encouraged to use discussion boards for communication. In addition, in this module, students learn how to navigate and access digital information of hospitality firms online to analyse accounting and finance performance of their chosen firms.

Employability: This module provides students with a working knowledge of key conceptual foundations for critically analysing and interpreting business financial information, equipping students with the rationale of investment decision making in the service industry. This knowledge and decision-making skills will naturally be developed over time with more experience in their career but also will be useful when conducting a ‘business plan’ dissertation module later in the programme. This module continues to build on the ability to critical analyse and interpret business financial information that is key to understanding the financial performance and management of any service business.

Resourcefulness and Resilience: This module equips students with the rationale of investment decision making in the service industry, using practical examples and exercises for students to apply the key principles of accounting and financial management learnt throughout the module. This allows students to build resourcefulness and resilience in developing a problem-solving mindset through financial problems and risks in the context of service businesses.

Global and cultural capabilities: In this module, students learn different accounting systems in different countries, which allows them to understand pros and cons of each system and how it affects business practice of firms in global market. Students are to analyse a public hospitality firm of their choice that often operate in multiple countries. Students consider and understand the key market and its business environment as well as financial performances for their financial analysis report, applying all the knowledge acquired from this module to provide their analysis of the company’s profitability and future sustainability.  

Sustainability: This module offers students an ample opportunity to examine a firm’s sustainability investments and consider the important and most relevant sustainability issues or agenda for hospitality industry and a chosen firm and how that affects their financial performance during in-class discussion as well as for the final report.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2024/5 academic year.