TECHNICAL ARTICLES ACCA FM -  Financial Management

This is a collection of articles publsihed by ACCA UK on their official website.   
The objective is  to help you develop broader insight into the subject, split by syllabus sections.

Inflation and investment appraisal
This article discusses the nominal terms and real terms approaches to investment appraisal using the net present value method, and
also considers the impact of taxation in the context of these approaches. This is an area of the syllabus where mistakes are
often made by unprepared candidates.
 
Dividend theory
Dividends and share price growth are the two ways in which wealth can be provided to shareholders. This article looks at
some theories on dividend payments, as well as the practical matters that have to be taken into account and a discussion
on dividend policies.
 
Behavioural finance
This article briefly looks at what behavioural finance is and some important terms related to behavioural finance
which students should know.
 
Working capital management
This article covers the foundations of working capital management, a core area of the Financial Management syllabus, and
focuses on the analysis of current assets and current liabilities. The topic can form part, or the whole of, a 20-mark question
in the exam, as well as being examined by objective test questions.
 
Accounts receivable management

Hedging techniques for interest rate risk
This article looks at Section G of the Financial Management Study Guide relating to the management of interest rate risk.

The capital asset pricing model – part 1
In the first of a three-part series of articles, we consider the CAPM and its components, shows how it can be used to estimate
the cost of equity, and introduces the asset beta formula.

The capital asset pricing model – part 2
This article describes how to apply the CAPM when calculating a project-specific discount rate to use in investment appraisal.

CAPM: theory, advantages, and disadvantages
In the final article in his three-part series, we look at the theory, advantages and disadvantages of CAPM.

Management of foreign accounts receivable
This article focuses on foreign accounts receivable, which present some additional challenges to a business that are not
present with domestic-based customers.

Business finance for SMEs
In this article, we consider potential finance sources that an SME could use, with a particular focus on the more modern
sources of crowdfunding and supply chain financing.

Equivalent annual costs and benefits
The calculation of equivalent annual costs is a tool that can be used by companies to assist in asset replacement decisions.

Business valuations
This article discusses the three broad approaches to business valuations – assets-based, income-based, and cash flow-based.

Analysing the suitability of financing alternatives
This article suggests an approach for students to apply to a key area of the Financial Management syllabus before
finishing with a worked example to demonstrate the technique discussed.

Introduction to Islamic finance
This article takes a look at Islamic finance, which has just been introduced to the Financial Management syllabus.

Business finance
Section E of the syllabus deals with business finance. This article covers types of finance, sources of finance and mix of finance.

Advanced investment appraisal
Investment appraisal is one of the core topics within Financial Management and it is a topic which has been well
represented in the Financial Management exam.

Foreign currency risk and its management
A focus on the three types of currency risk – economic risk, translation risk and transaction risk.

Cost of capital, gearing and CAPM – part 1
A fundamental part of financial management is investment appraisal: into which long-term projects should a company put money?
This is the first part of the article that looks at how a suitable discount rate can be calculated.

Cost of capital, gearing and CAPM – part 2
A fundamental part of financial management is investment appraisal: into which long-term projects should a company put money?
This is the second part of the article that looks at how a suitable discount rate can be calculated.

Receivables collection
This article considers two methods a company could adopt in order to speed up the collection of cash from its customers.

Optimum capital structure
Is it possible to increase shareholder wealth by changing the capital structure.

All copyrights are with the original publsiher which is ACCA UK