Organisational Simulation I

Students should have a good knowledge of:

• Financial and Corporate Accounting

• Management Accounting

• Taxation

• Labor Law

• Corporate Law

Students are organized into groups of two, each group being responsible for managing a virtual company in an organizational simulation environment.
The companies to be created will preferably be in the service sector, and complementarity between them should be sought.
The companies will begin their activity in October of year N, so that at the end of the financial year, students will have the opportunity to carry out all the procedures related to preparing the closing of the financial year.
During their activity, the companies will generate and receive documents that will be organized, classified, and entered into an integrated management information system. Alongside day-to-day management, students will face accounting and tax challenges, so that they can apply in practice the theoretical knowledge acquired in other curricular units such as financial accounting, corporate accounting, taxation, commercial law, labor law, among others.
Classes will take place in computer labs, where each student will have access to a computer and the respective integrated management software (PHC). From the introduction of data, documents for external and internal use will be produced, and demonstrations and analysis maps will be obtained. This work will result in outputs, generated by the different modules of the software, which will be organized and archived in a dossier.
In addition to providing a brief overview of the most relevant concepts within the scope of the tasks to be performed, particularly in the areas of Accounting, Taxation, Labor Law, Corporate Law and Management, the instructor will combine theoretical explanations of the architecture of an integrated management software program with practical examples in the software chosen to support the Organizational Simulation I classes.

This course unit aims to achieve the following objectives:

OA1. To consolidate and integrate the knowledge acquired in the other course units of the degree, especially those most closely related to the professional career paths of the course;

OA2. To provide students with methods, processes, and work discipline within a framework of references virtually equivalent to those they will encounter in their future professional lives;

OA3. To promote awareness that the quality and skills acquired will be a condition for professional success;

OA4. To promote forms of group work and collective activities, in order to bring the classroom environment closer to the real work environment;

OA5. To foster creativity in business transactions and the ability to respond promptly to the needs of other business organizations involved in the simulation;

OA6. To raise students’ awareness of the relevance of using information technologies in the management of organizations;

OA7. To recognize the importance of information analysis for decision-making; OA8. Understand and use software that allows the production of internal and external documents, as well as the preparation of control and analysis charts and financial statements;

OA9. Increase the ability to work under time pressure and task volume;

OA10. Promote the development of a business plan;

OA11. Foster ethical reasoning and regulatory compliance, ensuring the correct application of accounting (SNC, IAS/IFRS), tax and labor standards.

OA12. Allow contact with internal control practices;

OA13. Respond to the legal, technical and ethical requirements they will face in their future professional lives;

OA14. Sensitize students to the critical analysis of accounting and financial outputs, promoting an integrated view of business management.

OA15. Raise students’ awareness of the importance of timely compliance with legal obligations, with a special focus on tax and parafiscal obligations;

OA16. Highlight the challenges of closing accounts, as well as the preparation and drafting of the respective accountability documents and the organization of the elements to be included in the tax file;

OA17. Equip students with the essential skills for preparing management reports and financial statements, as well as for fulfilling reporting obligations.

OA18. Evaluate the internal control system adopted by another team and formulate well-founded recommendations for improvement.

OA19. Introduce the procedures for setting up companies;

OA20. Provide an ethical experience in the profession and in business.

At the end of the semester, students should be able to:

CD1. Develop a business idea and follow the procedural steps for setting up a company;

CD2. Understand integrated management software (ERP) to enable the articulation and consistency of data between the various software modules;

CD3. Configure an ERP to produce automatic accounting records;

CD4. Produce and analyze automatically generated accounting records;

CD5. Perform monthly accounting closing using an ERP;

CD6. Organize accounting documents into journals;

CD7. Be able to interpret and analyze various accounting listings and documents, namely, account statements, journals, trial balances, analytical trial balances;

CD8. Prepare and analyze financial statements in accordance with the SNC (Balance Sheet, Income Statement by Nature and by Function, Cash Flow Statement, Statement of Changes in Equity and Notes).

CD9. Prepare the Management and Accounts Report, justifying the main economic and financial indicators.

CD10. Comply with, prepare, and submit accounting and tax reporting obligations (VAT, Summary Statements, DMR/Social Security, Form 22, IES, Single Report, among others).

CD11. Execute and simulate compliance with tax and social security obligations, including the electronic submission of declarations on the Tax Authority’s website and Social Security Direct.

CD12. Interpret and analyze the main economic and financial indicators, evaluating the company’s performance and financial position.

CD13. Understand the procedures and phases of closing accounts;

CD14. Execute the closing of accounts, including year-end operations, namely periodizations, adjustments, tax estimation, and profit and loss calculation.

CD15. Develop internal audit and internal control skills, identifying weaknesses in procedures adopted by other teams and proposing duly substantiated improvement recommendations.

CD16. Integrate and actively collaborate within a work team, adopting ethical and professional behaviors appropriate to the practice of the Certified Accountant profession.

P1. Objectives of the organizational simulation

P2. Presentation of the computer program

P3. Creation of a business activity

3.1. Procedures for the incorporation of a commercial company

3.2. Fulfillment of obligations necessary to start the activity

3.3. Organization of the company, considering the constraints of a specific activity, notably regarding:

3.3.1. Organization of accounting according to the officially applicable accounting standardization system, from the receipt of documents to their filing, classification and registration

3.3.2. Internal control practices.

3.4. Business Plan

P4. Simulation of situations that allow the recording of operations and the fulfillment of legal obligations during the last three months of the fiscal year (October to December).

4.1. Creation of supporting documents

4.2. Identification and monitoring of the resolution of organizational issues, using contacts with services related to the profession of Certified Public Accountant

4.3. Classification and accounting record of current operations:

• Purchases and sales

• Payments and Receipts

• Compensation Processing

• Purchase and Sale of Fixed Assets

• Non-current operations (Accounting and tax challenges)

P5. Preparation of accounting outputs

5.1. Review of accounting operations: analysis of monthly trial balances produced (October, November, December and Trial Balance as of 12/31/N)

5.2. Corrections and adjustments of the fiscal year with a view to obtaining the Corrected Trial Balance

5.3. Preparation of basic accounting outputs.

P6. Year-end operations and accounting closing

6.1. Non-current operations

6.1.1. Depreciation and amortization

6.1.2. Adjustments: accrual accounting, impairments, provisions

6.1.3. Tax Challenges Associated with Non-Current Operations

6.1.4. Verification and Validation of Account Balances

6.2. Inventory and Adjustments

6.3. Calculation of Profit Before Tax

6.4. Estimation and Determination of Income Tax (Guided Completion of Form 22)

6.5. Calculation of Net Profit

P7. Accountability

7.1. Preparation of Information for Decision-Making

7.2. Preparation of Financial Statements

7.3. Preparation of the Management Report

7.4. Report and Opinion of the Supervisory Body

7.5. Convening of the General Meeting

7.6. Minutes of Account Approval

P8. Tax Obligations – Mandatory Monthly and Quarterly Compliance

P9. Legal Obligations – Social Security and Other Agencies

P10. Document Filing and Internal Control

10.1. Organization of the accounting file

10.2. Organization of the tax file (Article 130 of the CIRC) 1

0.3. Internal control procedures

P11. Professional ethics

Given the eminently practical nature of the course unit, regular class attendance is mandatory, and students must be present before the start of simulated activities. Learning results from the continuous execution of the proposed tasks, interaction with the ERP system, and active participation in group dynamics, and cannot be ensured exclusively through autonomous study or bibliographic consultation.

An individual accumulation of absences exceeding 10% of the total number of classes automatically implies failing the course. In exceptional situations, duly justified and upon the student's request, the responsible professor may grant partial or total justification for absences. T

he final grade results from the weighting of the following continuous assessment elements:

MA1. Challenges/Assignments: 20%

MA2. Audit: 30%

MA3. Final Dossier: 20%

MA4. Presentation and defense of the work: 20%

MA5. Participation and attitude: 10%

Each assessment element is graded on a scale of 0 to 20 points.

A student is considered to have passed if they obtain a final grade equal to or greater than 10 points. F

ailure in the continuous assessment does not grant access to other assessment periods, given the applied and process-oriented nature of the curricular unit. Mandatory submissions related to Challenges/Assignments and Audits must be made on the dates established in the course schedule. Failure to submit any element will result in a grade of zero for that item. Late submissions will incur a penalty of 0.5 points per day of delay, up to a maximum of one week.

Use of Artificial Intelligence: The use of Artificial Intelligence tools is permitted to support research, information organization, and writing review, and its use must be properly identified by students. The use of AI does not exempt students from intellectual authorship or responsibility for the content presented.

NAO