This is an introductory finance course that emphasizes basic financial concepts, tools and practices essential to managing a business. The topics introduced include the time value of money, basic asset valuation, financial analysis and planning, capital budgeting, cash flow analysis, operating and financial leverage, risk/return trade-offs, cost of capital and capital structure. Particular attention is paid to how firms acquire, allocate and control financial resources. The course complements its introduction of financial concepts and relationships with a strong focus on problem solving. At its essence, this course stresses the financial objective of a business which is to maximize firm value. Of course this objective is subject to many constraints including regulation, ethics, social responsibility and market conditions to name a few. Nonetheless, any significant business decision must ultimately be evaluated in terms of its effect on firm value. Students are taught to use net present value as the metric for this evaluation. Other metrics, in particular financial ratios such as "ROE", are of limited usefulness in addressing firm value or evaluating business decisions. This course relies heavily on financial accounting concepts and students are strongly advised to take it as soon as possible after completing ACCT2030. Credits: 3 credits

Prerequisites: ACCT2030 and MATH1010, MATH 2040, or MATH2070