FIN 320 Final Project Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

This milestone is the first in a series of connected assignments leading up to your Final Project. In Milestone One, you’ll analyze and evaluate a business’s financial health and recommend financing options that can improve it. Use the Final Project Business Options List to choose the business that you’ll examine in your Final Project. Then use Mergent Market Atlas to locate the latest quarterly financial statements for the business: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement.

Scenario

The CFO of your company has asked for your support in preparing a report for the business’s board of directors. Many of the board members are new, and some of them have little background in finance. With this in mind, you will need to write a report that all board members can easily understand.

Directions

Write a short paper that introduces the business you chose for your final project.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

• Business Selection: Select a company from the Final Project Business Options List and describe the business you chose, including the business name and what the business offers consumers.
• Financial Statements: Using Mergent Market Atlas, look up the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement for the latest fiscal quarter for the business you chose. Use these statements to accurately report the following values:
  1. Total assets
  2. Total liabilities
  3. Current assets
  4. Current liabilities
  5. Net income
  6. Shares outstanding
  7. Earnings per share (EPS)
  8. Total revenue
  9. Shareholders' equity
• Financial Statement Role: Explain why financial statements are important to a business and how they help a business determine its financial health.
• Cash Flow Management: Use a financial news story from the past two months as an example to explain why cash flow management is important to a business and its financial health.

What to Submit

Your submission should be a 4- to 5-paragraph Microsoft Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. All sources should be cited using APA style. Include the Balance Sheet and Income Statement from Mergent Market Atlas with your submission.

Final Project Milestone One Rubric

CriteriaMeets Expectations (100%)Partially Meets Expectations (70%)Does Not Meet Expectations (0%)ValueBusiness SelectionDescribes the business chosen, including the business name and what the business offers consumersShows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include describing in more detail the business chosen, including the business name or what the business offers consumersDoes not attempt criterion15Financial StatementsUses the financial statements for the latest fiscal quarter for the chosen business and accurately reports the values requestedShows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include accurately reporting the values or not reporting all the values requestedDoes not attempt criterion15Financial Statement RoleExplains why financial statements are important to a business and how they help a business figure out its financial healthShows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include explaining in more detail why financial statements are important to a business and how they help a business figure out its financial healthDoes not attempt criterion25Cash Flow ManagementUses a financial news story from the past two months as an example to explain why cash flow management is important to a business and its financial healthShows progress toward meeting expectations, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include using more detail when using a financial news story from the past two months to explain why cash flow management is important to a business and its financial healthDoes not attempt criterion25Clear CommunicationConsistently and effectively communicates in an organized way to a specific audienceShows progress toward meeting expectations, but communication is inconsistent or ineffective in a way that negatively impacts understandingShows no evidence of consistent, effective, or organized communication10Citations and AttributionsUses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with few or no minor errorsUses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with major errorsDoes not use citations for ideas requiring attribution10Total:100%