Syllabus

Course description and goals

This course is a part of the Business Management Integrated Finance Emphasis program, and covers topics in corporate financial management. It is an application class more than a class to learn new materials. The goals of the class are for you to become the following:

  1. Issue Resolver: Identify and resolve issues in complex cases involving corporate financial management.
  2. Excel Modeler: Develop spreadsheet-modeling skills to understand and apply rules and principles of corporate financial management.
  3. Team Member: Work with a team to regularly prepare financial case analyses, and to prepare a finance Consulting Project (this course requires regular team meetings using Google Hangout On Air)
  4. Confident Communicator: Develop and expand finance-related vocabulary and literacy, and speak and communicate confidently in contributing to corporate finance case meetings.

Topics covered

The topics and their approximate length are:

  1. Lessons 01-04: Income Statement and Balance Sheet Forecasting, Working Capital, Statement Analysis
    • Harvard and other cases relating to topics
    • Teams present their Consulting Project forecast (using a real company, currently listed for sale)
    • Harvard Case Computational and Essay Exam
  2. Lessons 05-09: WACC, CAPM, Debt, Debt Ratings, Equity, Levered and Unlevered Beta, Capital Budgeting, Free Cash Flows, IRR, NPV, DCF Valuation
    • Harvard and other cases relating to topics
    • Teams present their Consulting Project with WACC, and IRR added
    • Harvard Case Computational and Essay Exam
  3. Lessons 10-13: Risk and Expected Value, Real Options Valuation (Decision Tree and Black-Scholes Models)
    • Harvard and other cases relating to topics
    • Teams present their completed Consulting Project, with real options added
    • Computational Cases Exam
  4. Lesson 14: Comprehensive Final Exam
    • Computational Exam

Prerequisites and required textbooks

The prerequisites are ACCTG 202 and ([B 212 and B 301] or [B 212 and B302] or ACCTG 301 or ECON 255).

There is no required textbook to purchase.

Grading

Your grades are displayed chronologically and grouped by lesson, but can be summarized in the point proportions below.  Be aware that they are subject to change.

  1. Preparation (about 10%): Preparation quizzes, case spreadsheets and case analysis questions.  Individual assignments associated with the cases. Note: no late preparation work is accepted.
  2. Teach one another (about 10%): Verbally contribute in team meetings and written communication in every case study, work with your team to complete the Consulting Project Case throughout the semester, complete weekly team accountability report. 
  3. Ponder/Prove (about 80%): Three Computation Exams, Final Exam

Percent score cutoffs are A 93%, A- 90%, B+ 87%, B 83%, B- 80%, C+ 77%, C 73%, C- 70%, D+ 67%, D 63%.

Due Dates

The due dates for this course are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 11:00 PM Mountain Time. This will be explained further in Lesson 01 of the course.

Internet Publishing

All work submitted by you is subject to anonymous publication on the internet, as public domain documents.

Disabilities

In compliance with applicable law, qualified students with a disability may be entitled to “reasonable accommodation.” It is the student’s responsibility to disclose to appropriate personnel in the Disability Services Office (DSO) any special need he or she may have and to provide the appropriate documentation of the disability.