ECTS credits: 1
Trainer: James Grech

Learning Outcomes:

• Understanding the difference between a fixed and variable cost and their behaviour in the long and short term;
• Demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of variable (direct) costing and absorption (full) costing and the benefits and limitations of these measurement concepts;
• Describe the role that budgeting plays in the overall planning and performance evaluation process of an organization;
• Describe different budgetary systems – Master budgets, Project budgeting, Activity-based budgeting, Zero-based budgeting, Continuous (Rolling) budgets, and Flexible budgeting);
• Identify the role that budgeting plays in formulating short-term objectives and planning and controlling operations to meet those objectives;
• Describe bottom up approach to budgeting;
• Demonstrate an understanding of the use of cost standards in budgeting;
• Explain the role of budgets in monitoring and controlling expenditures to meet strategic objectives;
• Define budgetary slack and discuss its impact on goal congruence;
• Define the purposes of the cash budget and describe the relationship between the cash budget and all other budgets;

ECTS credits: 1
Trainer: James Grech

Learning Outcomes:

• Analyse whether a product line or other organizational segment should be dropped or retained
• Conduct a make or buy analysis
• Identify whether a special order should be accepted
• Calculate relevant order quotations
• Determine the most profitable use of a constrained resource
• Calculate whether a joint product should be sold at the split-off point or processed further
• Analyse whether a fixed asset should be replaced with a new one
• Describe the opportunity cost concept and explain its importance in relevant costing analysis

ECTS credits: 1
Trainer: James Grech

Learning Outcomes:

• Accounting Rate of Return
• Timevalue of money and Net Present Value Concept
• Payback Investment Appraisals
• Internal Rate if Return
• Interpret results of different appraisal technqiues and use them to make comparisons between mutually exclusive projects
• Consider other non-financial aspects in evaluating projects
• Rank mutually exclusive projects on the basis of results from appraisal techniques

ECTS credits: 1
Trainer: Vincent Marmara

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the need and impact of financial planning through budgeting and financial forecasts;
• Use the information learned about regression analysis as a basis to discover further forecasting techniques.
• Plan finances responsibly and budgets time and resources over a set period of time to ensure that the maximum potential of the organisation is reached.
• Determine the required assumptions and important parameters of the budgeting process
• Use forecasting to generate additional information about the future to help assess future consequences of existing decisions making and to evaluate the consequences of alternatives.
• Apply the skills learned to establish a planned performance for the business on the basis of the forecasted variables.
• Monitor the planned performance to the actual performance and determine which elements have deviated and adjust the forecasting model.
• Identify the shortcomings of forecasting and take them into account;

James Grech graduated with a Bachelor of Business and Commerce Degree in 2001 and later on obtained the Accountancy (Honours) degree from the University of Malta in 2003. James is Certified Public Accountant and holds a Practising Certificate in Auditing issued by the Ministry of Finance in Malta. He is also qualified as Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and member of ISACA. James is also a member of the Institute of Internal Auditing (US), and is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA). The CIA is the only internationally accepted certification designation for internal auditors and is the standard by which individuals demonstrate their competence and professionalism in the internal auditing and Management Consultancy field.

James is a renowned Business Consultant and Management/Business trainer and conference speaker in Malta and is also founder and Managing Director of LEAD Training Services, one of Malta’s largest professional training Institute licensed by the Malta Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA).

Vincent Marmarà is a Statistician and Researcher by profession. He obtained his first degree in Statistics, Operational Research and Mathematics at the University of Malta. He later advanced his studies by obtaining Masters of Science in Statistics at Sheffield University, UK. Furthermore, he has obtained his PhD in Mathematics (Statistics) from the University of Stirling, Scotland. He was entrusted with numerous research projects both at a national and international level. He led research groups and analyzed data to a high-level scientific extent.

Vincent has over 11 years of experience in the Remote Gaming Industry as a Business Intelligence Analyst and Consultant. He occupied several key important roles in various organisations such as: Student Representative of the Faculty Board of Science (University of Malta), President of the Science Student Society, President of the Malta Statistics and Operations Research Organisation (MSTOR), Financial Officer of the National Youth Council, Deputy CEO and Chief Regulatory Officer within the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority.

Dr. Vincent Marmarà lectures statistics at the Department of Management (FEMA) at the University of Malta. Vincent is a fellow member (FRSS) of the Royal Statistical Society (UK). Dr. Marmarà provided research consultancy services to various organisations and supervised / is currently supervising BSc, BCom, MBA and MSc research students at the University of Malta. Vincent published several academic articles on international journals and other scientific surveys in Malta. At present he is one of the partners and co-owner of the statistics research company, Sagalytics.