A finished FIN-350 Topic 1 finance function paper example, tracing one equipment purchase through accounting and finance and naming the decisions only the finance function makes. Searches like "fin 350 topic 1 assignment example", "fin350 topic 1 sample" and "fin-350 topic 1 example" land here.
What a finished FIN-350 Topic 1 finance function paper looks like
The finished paper works from one illustrative event, a 50,000 machine expected to last five years. The accountant spreads its cost as 10,000 of depreciation each year and reports profit on that basis. The financial manager sees 50,000 leaving the firm on the purchase date and a stream of cash savings arriving later, and asks whether those later dollars are worth more than the dollars paid now. The paper uses that contrast to set out the three decisions finance owns: which assets to invest in, how to pay for them, and how much cash to hold for day-to-day operations. It then argues that the goal is the value of the owners' claim rather than reported profit, since profit ignores when cash arrives and how uncertain it is.
How a FIN-350 Topic 1 example is structured
The paper is built around a single transaction viewed twice. It opens by introducing the composite firm and the machine it is considering, with the figures labeled as illustrative. The accounting view follows, showing the purchase capitalized and depreciated and noting what that treatment is designed to achieve. The finance view comes next, placing each cash movement on the date it occurs and asking what the whole pattern is worth today. A section then names the investment, financing and working capital decisions and assigns the machine question to the first of them. The paper turns to the goal of the firm, contrasting profit with shareholder value and explaining why timing and risk separate them. A passage on the conflict between managers and owners follows. The conclusion states what the finance function adds that the ledger cannot.
One machine seen two ways
Depreciation spreads the cost across five years for the accountant, while the financial manager records the whole 50,000 on the day it is paid.
Three decisions finance owns
Investing in assets, choosing how to fund them and managing day-to-day cash are named, with the machine assigned to the first of the three.
Value rather than profit
Reported earnings take no account of when cash arrives or how risky it is, which is why the paper rejects profit as the firm's goal.
Managers and owners not aligned
The interests of those running the firm and those who own it can diverge, and the paper names that conflict as a problem finance has to manage.
What the ledger cannot say
The closing section states which question about the machine accounting leaves open, and why answering it needs a date attached to every dollar.
Where marks go in FIN-350 Topic 1
Papers that define finance and accounting in general terms, with no transaction to test the definitions, lose most here, because the distinction only becomes clear when one event is recorded two ways. Counting the annual depreciation charge as money leaving the firm, in the finance view, mixes up the two disciplines the topic is separating. Stating that the firm's goal is to maximize profit, without addressing timing or risk, repeats the answer the course sets out to correct. Listing the three finance decisions without placing any example under them leaves the classification abstract. Omitting the conflict between managers and owners skips a standard part of the opening material in many sections. A conclusion that summarizes definitions, rather than saying what finance decides about the machine, ends the paper before reaching its point.
Get a FIN-350 Topic 1 example written to your instructions
Send the FIN-350 Topic 1 instructions and the rubric your classroom posts, along with any case or reading your section assigns. We write a custom example to those instructions, with one transaction traced through accounting and finance, the three finance decisions illustrated, value distinguished from profit and the agency problem addressed, in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
FIN-350 Topic 1 questions, answered
What is the main difference between accounting and finance?
Accounting records and reports what has happened, following rules that match costs to the periods that benefit from them. Finance looks forward and decides, using cash flows placed on the dates they occur and adjusted for risk. The same machine appears as an annual depreciation charge in one and as a single payment followed by future savings in the other, and both views are correct for their purpose.
Why not maximize profit?
Because profit says nothing about when money arrives or how certain it is. A plan producing large profits in year five can be worth less than one producing smaller profits next year, once timing and risk are counted. Maximizing the value of the owners' claim captures both, which is why finance texts and the course treat it as the firm's objective.
What is the agency problem?
The conflict that arises when managers, who run the firm, have interests that differ from those of the shareholders who own it. Managers might favor growth, job security or perks over value. Compensation tied to share performance, board oversight and the threat of takeover are the usual responses. Opening topics introduce it because it explains why the stated goal is not always the one pursued.