PROGRAMMING AND CONTROL SYSTEMS

The course lie at the core of the master degree in accounting and finance as it aim to provide the knowledge necessary for projecting and managing planing and control systems in organisations of all size and context.
More specifically, the course aim is to strengthen the understanding of techniques and tools useful to provide managers with information capable of improving their decisions, and ultimately of conducting the business toward short, medium and long-term goals. Techniques and tools relying both on accounting data and going beyond them will be considered, connecting business performance measurements with the support of strategising.
The tools considered include: business budgeting, planning and reporting, balanced scorecard, strategy maps, business performance management. A critical approach to evaluating techniques will be encouraged as well as their application in case study settings and project works.

The active participation to the activities of the course (lectures, case discussions and project work) is aimed at obtaining the following results:

1. Knowledge and understanding
- To know the main issues in management accounting literature and practice
- To know the management control systems useful for addressing management accounting issues
- To know the specific feature of management accounting depending on the entity's characteristics, such as activity performed, size and environment.

2. Ability to apply knowledge
- Ability to prepare a business plan, in both the strategic and the financial part.
- Ability to identify a balanced set of measures to evaluate the performances of a specific business

3. Judgment skills
- To be able to evaluate the congruence of a set of management control systems with an entity's specificities

4. Communication skills
- To be able to communicate effectively the suitability of a set of Management Control Systems to face specific business situations
- To be able to present a business plan

5. Learning skills
- To be able to face complex business problems with incomplete information and time constraints
- To be able to autonomously collect information useful for writing a business plan
- to be able to collect information to address a business case both in the literature and in case repositories

Student's are expected to be familiar with the contents of the following exams: Business Administration, Accounting and Financial Statements Analysis, Cost Management.
Specifically, participants are assumed to be familiar with the following topics:
- ratio analysis
- cash flow statement analysis
- cost behaviour analysis
- contribution margin and break even analysis

- Management control systems and the business organisation
- The budget process
- Responsibility centres and performance mesures
- Non-financial Performance measures
- The strategic control

Mandatory texts:
K.A. Merchant, W.A. Van der Stede, L. Zoni, Sistemi di Controllo di Gestione. Misure di performance, valutazione e incentivi, Pearson
Case studies and articles will be communicated during classes

Optional texts:
C. Parolini (2016) Business planning. Dall'idea al progetto imprenditoriale, Pearson
Analisi e contabilità dei costi, McGrow-Hill, Custom publishing Università Ca' Foscari, Dipartimento di Management

Written test 70%
Project work 30%

The course is based on active class participation, with case studies discussion and student project.

Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support
services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with
mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

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