Page "Finance" Paragraph 17

Managerial or corporate finance is the task of providing the funds for a corporation's activities ( for small business, this is referred to as SME finance ).

Corporate finance generally involves balancing risk and profitability, while attempting to maximize an entity's wealth and the value of its stock, and generically entails three interrelated decisions.

In the first, " the investment decision ", management must decide which " projects " ( if any ) to undertake.

The discipline of capital budgeting is devoted to this question, and may employ standard business valuation techniques or even extend to real options valuation ; see Financial modeling.

The second, " the financing decision " relates to how these investments are to be funded: capital here is provided by shareholders, in the form of equity ( privately or via an initial public offering ), creditors, often in the form of bonds, and the firm's operations ( cash flow ).

Short-term funding or working capital is mostly provided by banks extending a line of credit.

The balance between these elements forms the company's capital structure.

The third, " the dividend decision ", requires management to determine whether any unappropriated profit is to be retained for future investment / operational requirements, or instead to be distributed to shareholders, and if so in what form.

Short term financial management is often termed " working capital management ", and relates to cash -, inventory-and debtors management.

These areas often overlap with the firm's accounting function, however, financial accounting is more concerned with the reporting of historical financial information, while these financial decisions are directed toward the future of the firm.