Financial Management

Intro­duces the finan­cial, orga­ni­za­tion­al, and polit­i­cal impli­ca­tions of pub­lic finan­cial man­age­ment prac­tices. One of the major focus­es is the bud­get process and under­stand­ing the ele­ments of a bud­get in a pub­lic sec­tor con­text. Oth­er top­ics exam­ined include costs of ser­vice deliv­ery, ele­ments of alter­na­tive ser­vice deliv­ery, and how to mon­i­tor ser­vice deliv­ery per­for­mance. Some tech­niques used for long-term deci­sion-mak­ing are also introduced.

Course at a glance
  • Whether you are a financial or a non-financial professional, this course will provide you with expertise to understand the economic, organizational, and political implications of financial issues at the local level.
  • Aimed at individuals interested in moving into higher level responsibilities in the local government field; our student body includes municipal government employees in planning, corporate services, economic development, operations, finance, and more.
  • Fully online asynchronous course, accessible through eClass, the University of Alberta’s eLearning management tool.
  • Participate in online discussions with peers from all over Canada and expand your professional network.
What you will learn

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  • Analyze municipal government financial statements.
  • Explore the concept of fund accounting and the difference between cash and accrual bases of accounting.
  • Examine the municipal budget process, including citizen engagement and the role of spenders and guardians in the process.
  • Evaluate the methods used for forecasting revenue and expenditure budgets.
  • Discuss the importance of full costing for provision of municipal government services and the methods of calculating full costs for services.
  • Explore the concept of alternative service delivery for provision of municipal services and examine the decision-making process for choosing a service delivery mechanism from among a number of service provision mechanisms in municipal government.
  • Discuss the importance of performance monitoring for municipal governments and assess the techniques used in performance monitoring, including the importance of auditing.
  • Critically evaluate the merits of cost-benefit analysis and discounted cash flow technique for long-term financial investments, with specific reference to municipal governments.
This course has no prerequisites

Students from all educational backgrounds welcome. You can register for this course without applying and enrolling in a program.

Take note:

  • All learning materials are found through eClass.
Currently counts towards:

Applicants intending to enrol in a program are encouraged to apply as soon as possible to lock in their course requirements since they are prone to change.

*If you are already enroled in this program, please refer to your specific program requirements as outlined at the time of your admission: Bear Tracks > Academic Advisement.

Email

naclaa@ualberta.ca

When will
this course be offered?

New course schedules are released each June and November.

Course not yet scheduled

This course is not currently scheduled, but may be offered in an upcoming term.

New course schedules are announced each June and November.

Sign up for updates

Interested in future offerings of this course? We can let you know when this course becomes available.