ACCA course in Financial Management

buck65

Anyone on here do this course? How did you find it? Thanks

antoinolachtnai

buck65 wrote: »

Anyone on here do this course? How did you find it? Thanks

I did it down in Dublin Business School years ago. It's a good course. It will give you a good idea as to how a set of accounts are constructed and give you an idea how to interpret them. It also covers how various sorts of derivatives are done.

It won't be that much help if you are running a small business, at least not in the sense of showing you how to do the vat and the bookkeeping.

But basically I would recommend it.

buck65

Thanks for the reply.
Well I am running a medium size business (30 odd employees) and have an accountant so not worried there. Was there a big workload? Really looking forward to getting the teeth into this. Had a look at some exam papers and it looks quite technical and math based - is this correct?

antoinolachtnai

Well, it is an accounting thing and is very much quantitative. The strategy part of it is pretty thin.

Really though, this is the best sort of course to do. You can listen to a load of flim-flam about strategy and all the rest of it, but learning to do the basic numbers is really important.

Workload - really depends on how you take to it. Some people find the quantitative stuff really tough. It isn't too bad for me. I'd say if you did the same amount of study as you spent at the lectures, you'd be all right.

a.

Spinnaker

Agree fully with Antoin.

Course wont turn you into an SME accountant but it will vastly increase your vocab and discussion power with your accountant for your greatest benefit.

In an SME, say expanding, you will get great value from performance management for decision making, interpreting financial statements, risk management (i.e. hedging curriences , options, cash etc), investment appraisal techniques etc. Some of the material is more corporate e.g corporate governance but all good.

There is a big workload that kicks in after March. Start giving up weekends in earnest during May. All worth it though. Many say this is better than the finance syllabus of an MBA (my motive for doin it)

PM me if you'd like to chat.

Spinnaker

Two more thoughts.

It can be quantative but no harder than lower level leaving cert maths The exam papers and projects are set so that the 'creative' kinds can pass too i.e. through essays etc.

You'll meet great people on the course also

buck65

Great stuff spinnaker,. thanks alot, I might pick your brain over the duration of the course from time to time if that's ok?
Course starts tonight!

Spinnaker

You are welcome Buck. PM sent. Enjoy course.

By the way, I set up a group so that 'alumni' and current students of DBS ACCA DipFM could connect with each other. Nearly 40 members and counting. See
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1031737&trk=hb_side_g