This unit provides students with an understanding of the development and use of IT tools and techniques for modelling and decision support in the field of finance. The unit is designed to give students a broad understanding of the financial subsystems confronting business enterprises. The main focus, besides the traditional modelling of finance decision making process using spreadsheet tools, will be IT tools and related techniques that can aid in the analysis and interpretation of real financial problems confronting an enterprise. This unit will look at business related financial issues in the context of specific case studies.
Minimum total expected workload equals 12 hours per week comprising:
(a.) Contact hours for on-campus students:
(b.) Additional requirements (all students):
See also Unit timetable information
FIT9131 or FIT5131 or FIT9004 or FIT9017 or equivalent
Basic descriptive and inferential statistics, some financial accounting and basic business finance knowledge.
Caddie Gao
Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) survey. The University’s student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.
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Based on previous student feedback this unit is well structured and no changes have been made for this semester.
If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp
| Week | Activities | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Register for lab/tute | No formal assessment and activities are undertaken in week 0 |
| 1 | Fundamentals to decision making in finance | |
| 2 | Knowledge creation in finance - Financial statements and cash flow | Tutorials start Week 2. Class exercises and discussions in tutorials (weekly) |
| 3 | Analysis of financial statements - Ratio analysis | |
| 4 | Analysis and evaluation of cash flow | |
| 5 | Cost of capital and basics of capital budgeting | |
| 6 | Risk-return and formation of financial asset portfolios | Assignment 1 due Friday 4 September 2015, 4pm |
| 7 | Multi-criteria decision support framework (AHP) | |
| 8 | Financial knowledge representation using fuzzy logic and expert system | |
| 9 | Analytic Network Process (ANP) - Decision making with dependence and feedback | |
| 10 | Artificial Neural Networks (ANN-SOM) for classification | |
| 11 | Financial planning and forecasting | Assignment 2 due Friday 16 October 2015, 4pm |
| 12 | Current issues on IT for financial decision and revision | |
| SWOT VAC | No formal assessment is undertaken in SWOT VAC | |
| Examination period | LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/ academic/education/assessment/ assessment-in-coursework-policy.html |
*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your learning system.
Examination (3 hours): 60%; In-semester assessment: 40%
| Assessment Task | Value | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment 1 - Assessment of financial health with spreadsheet tool | 15% | Friday 4 September 2015, 4pm |
| Assignment 2 - Finanical Investment Analysis using AHP based Expert Choice 11.5 software | 20% | Friday 16 October 2015, 4pm |
| Continual assessment during tutorial Participation | 5% | Weekly (starting Week 2) |
| Examination 1 | 60 % | To be advised |
Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://intranet.monash.edu.au/infotech/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/assessment-hurdles.html)
Academic Integrity - Please see resources and tutorials at http://www.monash.edu/library/skills/resources/tutorials/academic-integrity/
Tutorial Participation will attract a 5% weighting towards the overall unit grade.
This individual assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
This group assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
Students must indicate their % contribution to the group work. This will be used to adjust individual student marks if necessary.
Monash Library Unit Reading List (if applicable to the unit)
http://readinglists.lib.monash.edu/index.html
Types of feedback you can expect to receive in this unit are:
Submission must be made by the due date otherwise penalties will be enforced.
You must negotiate any extensions formally with your campus unit leader via the in-semester special consideration process: http://www.monash.edu.au/exams/special-consideration.html
Unless otherwise special permission is granted by the Lecturer, no resubmission after due date will be granted.
Please refer to the Library Guides for Citing and Referencing at http://guides.lib.monash.edu/content.php?pid=88267&sid=656564
It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/student-academic-integrity-managing-plagiarism-collusion-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an electronic submission). Please note that it is your responsibility to retain copies of your assessments.
If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the learning system for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.
Please check with your lecturer before purchasing any Required Resources. Limited copies of prescribed texts are available for you to borrow in the library, and prescribed software is available in student labs.
You will need access to: Expert Choice software and spreadsheets. The software is available in the labs.
Besley S., Brigham E. F., Henry D. & Watanabe T.. (2013). Corporate Finance: The Essentials. (1st Edition) South-Western.
Scientific and/or financial calculators without prior programming.
Monash has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and to provide advice on how they might uphold them. You can find Monash’s Education Policies at: www.policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/academic/education/index.html
Important student resources including Faculty policies are located at http://intranet.monash.edu.au/infotech/resources/students/
The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at http://www.monash.edu.au/students. For Malaysia see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/.
The Monash University Library provides a range of services, resources and programs that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Malaysia, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.
All reading materials, lecture slides and tutorial/assignment notes other than textbook chapters will be posted on the FIT5159-S2_2013 unit Moodle website prior to each week's lecture. Students are requested to do prior readings before the classes.