FIN 320 Project One Financial Analyst Job Aid

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School

Southern New Hampshire University *

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320

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Finance

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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FIN 320 Project One: Financial Analyst Job Aid [This job aid has two goals. First, it reviews a financial analyst’s daily responsibilities. Second, it describes how financial management is important to a business. To complete the job aid, replace the bracketed text with your own content based on the Project One Guidelines and Rubric instructions. Remove this note before you submit your job aid.] Financial Responsibilities [In this section, write five to seven bullet points outlining the responsibilities of a financial analyst. Use complete sentences.]  Responsible for planning, analyzing, and projecting for corporations.  Create financial examples in support of financial decisions by analyzing data.  Develop automatic forecasts tools to increase productivity.  Forecast future profits and expenses to determine cost structures and regulate capital budgeting for projects.  Collaborate with CFOs and other members to regulate company financing direction and policies.  Analyze past results, perform a variety of analyses, identify trends, and recommend improvements.  Perform such tasks as data mining, market research, and business intelligence. Financial Management Decisions [In this section, use examples to discuss the importance of analyzing and managing finances to help make business decisions. Consider the bullet points you outlined in the previous section. Then write a brief paragraph that answers the following questions. Use examples to support your claims.  How do the responsibilities help inform management decisions?  What would happen if management didn’t have this information?] Financial management is one of the most important tasks a financial analyst must perform. Financial managers should consider potential outcomes of those management choices of profits, cash flows, and the company’s financial circumstances. Each aspect of a business impacts a company's financial operation. Financial analysts work to assess and monitor these various influences (Vipond, 2023). If they do not have this information, then for example, a business wants to buy a new property for a new division and believes they have the funds, but do not. If their reports from their financial planner may say they have $450,000. But once they enter the building, they may find that they are under $100,500. Proper research and reporting of analyzing the data could have prevented the misrepresentation of funds. Accounting Principles

[In this section, use examples to explain how to use accounting principles to analyze a business’s financial health. Write a brief paragraph that explains how financial analysts use accounting principles to analyze a business’s financial health. In your paragraph, also answer the following questions:  What accounting information do financial analysts use?  What would happen if that information was unavailable or inaccurate?] The Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP, are a set of standards, principles, and procedures that companies follow in order to prepare their financial statements. These standards help investors, and third parties to analyze a company's financial accounts and other financial information. Some basic principles that are often used are the cost principle, monetary unit assumption, time period assumption, and finally, going concern principle. Without these principles and information generated from them, companies would not know what direction to take their business to ensure financial stability and growth (CFI Team, 2023). Financial Statements [In this section, use examples to describe how to use financial statements to help businesses make finance-related decisions. Think about how financial analysts identify the information contained in financial statements. Then use examples to write a brief paragraph that answers the following questions.  What does a financial analyst need to be able to do the job?  What types of finance-related business decisions would this information help businesses to make?] There are different financial statements which can help utilize a business to make decisions. Some of the most popular statements are balance sheets, cash flow statements, and income statements. Balance sheets include a summary of a company’s financial balances and describe an image of strength of the company. Cash flow statements show the inflow and outflow of cash during a fixed period (Jain, 2022). Income statements can also be referred to as “profit and loss” statements. Income statements show a business’s revenue and expenses during a set period. The purpose of income statements is to reflect how a company’s performance through sales, expenses, and profit and loss. Financial Terminology [In this section, explain how a financial analyst uses key financial terms every day. Ensure your response is clear and easy to understand. Define each term listed below. Then, for each term, write one or two sentences showing how a financial analyst might use the term and how the concept is used to make important financial decisions.]  Financial statement

o Definition: A written account that shows the business activities and the financial performance of that business (NYSSCPA, 2024). o How this is used: The data taken from financial statements are used to investigate the performance of a company and create predictions about the future direction of the company.  Liquidity o Definition: This refers to the efficiency with which an asset can be converted into ready cash without affecting the market price (NYSSCPA, 2024). o How this is used: Financial analysts evaluate a company’s ability to liquidate assets to cover short-term commitments.  Working capital o Definition: This is the difference between a business’s current assets and inventories of raw materials and finished goods, as well as its current liabilities (NYSSCPA, 2024). o How this is used: This is needed for a company to stay solvent. Companies cannot rely just on accounting profits to pay bills and rely on working capital to fulfill its liabilities.  Diversification o Definition: This is a risk management strategy which mixes a broad variety of investments within a portfolio (NYSSCPA, 2024). o How this is used: Financial analysts can expand portfolios to influence their risk. Determined investors can break up their investment with multiple funds to restrict the risk and increase potential reward.  Time value of money o Definition: This concept is the money you have now is valued more than the identical sum in the future due to its probable earning capacity (NYSSCPA, 2024). o How this is used: This concept is a fundamental part of financial planning and risk management actions. This is one of the most important, popular, and influential techniques for valuing investment opportunities. References CFI Team. (2023, December 5). GAAP . Corporate Finance Institute. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/gaap/ Jain, A. (2022, March 29). What are the four basic financial statements for businesses? . Capterra. https://www.capterra.com/resources/four-basic-financial-statements/ NYSSCPA. (2024). Accounting terminology guide - over 1,000 accounting and finance terms . Accounting Terminology Guide. https://www.nysscpa.org/professional-resources/accounting-terminology-guide#letter

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Vipond, T. (2023, October 27). What does a financial analyst do . Corporate Finance Institute. https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/career/what-does-a-financial-analyst-do- day-in-the-life/