Course information
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, the student will:
- Understand the role of accounting in companies and society.
- Be able to explain the significance of financial reporting.
- Understand the key concepts of financial reporting and typical business transactions.
- Be able to analyze the impact of business transactions on a company's cash flow, income, and balance sheet.
- Be capable of reading and interpreting financial statements and calculating their key financial ratios.
- Understand the importance of financial control in business operations
- Have the skills to create financial plans and evaluate the financial profitability of products, services, and investments. Based on this information, the student can make key decisions related to business management.
- Understand how performance can be measured and assessed using both financial and non-monetary indicators. Additionally, the student can determine metrics based on the company's strategy.
Teacher
David Derichs, Nina Sormunen
Study material
Course literature (below) as well as materials indicated during the instruction or on the course website.
Harrison, Horngren, Thomas, Tietz & Suwardy (2023). Financial Accounting: International Financial Reporting Standards, 12th edition, Pearson.
Datar, Srikant M., and Madhav V. Rajan (2021). Horngren’s cost accounting: a managerial emphasis, 17th edition, Pearson.
Also three other courses organized by the Department of Accounting use the same course books: Introduction to Financial Accounting, Management Accounting 1 & Management Accounting 2.
Workload
6 ECTS, 160h
- Recorded lectures (lectures in English + exercises)
- Independent work
- Midterm exam
- Exam
Prerequisites
None
Evaluation
Exam: 60%
Midterm exam and other exercises: 40%
To pass the course, the following conditions must be met: (a) the final exam score must be at least 30 points (50% of 60 points), and (b) the combined score of the final exam and other exercises must be at least 50 points (50% of 100 points).
Teaching time and location
23.2.-12.4.2026.
This course is based on self-study materials, which will be available in the MyCourses online learning environment. Detailed instructions on how to complete the course will be provided on MyCourses closer to the course start date.
The recorded lectures are in English. The course includes weekly exercises that must be submitted on a regular basis, as well as a midterm exam held midway through the course. Students may complete both the exercises and the exam in either Finnish or English.
Exams
The course exam and retake exam will be conducted as supervised hall exams, with students completing the exam electronically on their own computers in the exam hall. The exam can only be taken using the Safe Exam Browser program, which you must have downloaded to your computer in advance. This program "locks" the exam space so that during the exam, the computer cannot access anywhere other than the exam area. Please read the instructions before the exam: SEB-Exam. Further information about the exams as well as a technical test exam available in MyCourses.
- Exam 20.4.2026 at 16.00-19.00. No registration is required.
- Retake exam 20.5.2026 at 16.00-19.00. Please, remember to register for the retake in Sisu on 13.5.2026 at the latest.
The teacher has four (4) weeks to grade the exam submissions starting from the exam date.
Exam instructions at the Open UniversityOpen University exam halls
Online learning environment for the course
MyCourses online learning environment is a tool for both students and teachers for communication and managing everyday course work. You need an Aalto User ID to log in to the course's MyCourses workspace and participate in teaching.
Digital workspace of the course: MyCourses (link will be updated later)
More details on completing the course will be available at MyCourses closer to the start of the course.
Registration and course fee
Registration for Open University courses is done via the link below:
Registration for this course starts on 26.1.2026 at 9.00
Registration for this course ends on 16.2.2026 at 23.59
It is not possible to register before the registration period has started or after it has ended.
The course fee is paid upon registration for each course at a time and it is binding. Familiarize yourself with registration and payment rules as well as other guidelines for students:
Registration, payments and rules
This course is organized by the Aalto University Open University.
Activating Aalto ID and Multifactor Authentification
You can activate your Aalto User ID the day after the registration and you should activate it no later than the day before the start of the course.
Instructions for activating your Aalto user ID
Once you have activated your Aalto user ID, also enable multifactor authentication. Some of Aalto University's services require multifactor authentication.
Instructions for using Multifactor Authentication
