Your Finance Department is primarily concerned with five issues:

• Acquiring the capital needed for company activities. Capital can be acquired through:
  
  • Current Debt
  • Stock Issues
  • Bond Issues (Long Term Debt)
  • Profits
• Establishing a dividend policy that maximizes the return to shareholders.
• Setting accounts payable and accounts receivable policies (which are entered on the Marketing spreadsheet).
• Driving the financial structure of the firm, its relationship between debt and equity.
• Selecting and monitoring performance measures that support your strategy.

Tip: Finance decisions should be made after the other departments have entered their decisions. When the management team decides what the company needs to be successful, the Finance Department can decide how to pay for it.

Tip: One of the Finance Department’s fiduciary duties is to verify that sales forecasts and product prices are realistic. If prices and forecasts are too high, the cash flow they predict might not materialize. The department should challenge Marketing to defend their forecasts and pricing decisions.