FNCE 371 (Applications in Corporate Finance) is a three-credit upper-level finance course that will have students applying fundamental concepts in corporate finance (from FNCE 370 (Overview of Corporate Finance)) to a variety of areas in corporate finance such as short-term financial management, lease management, and international concerns. With the assistance of case studies, students will apply corporate finance concepts to real-life situations, and, through videos, students will see how managers in real businesses apply corporate finance models in their firms’ financial management systems. To take FNCE 371, students must first take its prerequisite, FNCE 370 and this course is not available for challenge.
For students who are planning to transfer this course to a Professional Accounting designation (i.e., CPA), you are required to achieve a grade higher than the minimum passing grade. See the Professional Accounting Designation Website for details.
Applications in Corporate Finance is made up of nine lessons, three assignments weighing ten percent each, a midterm examination worth thirty percent, and a final examination that weighs forty percent of the course grade. The nine lessons within this course cover interesting topics such as short-term finance and planning, leasing, credit, cash and liquidity, and risk management. Students’ final grade in FNCE 371 is based on three assignments, one Midterm Examination, and one Final Examination. To receive credit for FNCE 371, students must achieve a minimum grade of fifty percent on the Final Examination and an overall course grade of at least “D” (fifty percent). Both the midterm and final examinations for this course will be written in the traditional pen and paper format.
Students should note that you are required to have a type of spreadsheet software (MS Office Excel or compatible) for this course. Also, a financial calculator is essential to your success in this course. You may bring one of the following financial calculators with you when you write the exams: Sharp EL-733A, EL-738, EL-738C, EL-738F, EL-738FC, Casio FC-200V, HP 10BII+, HP 12C (including Platinum series), HP17BII+, or Texas Instruments TI-BA II Plus. No other calculators are allowed unless written permission is given by the course coordinator prior to the examination.
Eve Daneva transferred to Athabasca University in November of 2018 and is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Commerce program. She provides a bit of an introduction, stating “Hello! My name is Eve and I transferred to Athabasca University after completing a three-year college diploma. I am now working on obtaining the last few credits toward my bachelors before moving on to CPA certification. I am currently working at a small local accounting firm here in Barrie, Ontario, with my main work revolving around corporate NTRs, corporate tax returns, some bookkeeping, and personal tax return preparation. I work full-time in between AU semesters and part-time during semesters.”
When asked to explain FNCE 371 to students, she states “This course covers the second half of the textbook used for FNCE 370. It builds on basic corporate finance concepts, like time value of money, NPV calculations, risk and return, etc. Main topics covered include cash budgets, credit policy, international finance concepts, leasing, risk management, and derivative securities.”
As for the structure of the course, Eve explains that “Assignments one and two are made up of three cases each, while assignment three is two cases. The cases present a scenario and then ask about ten questions, both qualitative and quantitative, which require you to use knowledge from the textbook to answer. Assignments are generally way tougher than the exams and require general accounting knowledge from other courses, however, they are also not very harshly graded. My tutor mentioned that the cases were written by the course coordinator to help prep students for CPA cases, so they are much more involved than anything on the exams, however, they are very good practise to help you study for the exams. The midterm examination is made up of three cases which are similar format to the assignments, but easier. If you do well on the assignments, you should easily be able to do well on the midterm. The final examination contains multiple-choice questions, short answer questions, and calculation questions, and it is longer and harder than the midterm. The best practice for the final is going through the practice exam that is available on the course homepage.”
Eve recommends this course to other students, stating “I really enjoyed this course as I love corporate finance! The assignments were the toughest part. The midterm I found the easiest.”
As for any tips or tricks on completing this course, she states “Budget your time really well for the final exam. Even with doing my best to allocate enough time based off points, I still ran out of time on a few things near the end. Key is to make sure you complete everything worth the most points and then it is not that big of a deal if you do not have time for some smaller questions because they are not worth a huge amount.”
When asked how communications with her tutors were for this course, she explains that “Exams and assignments are graded quickly. The tutor was a little frustrating to communicate with over the student study centre, especially when I was asking more complex questions relating to the assignments, however, I did get in touch over the phone and that worked out much better.”
Whether FNCE 371 is a degree or program requirement of yours, or the topics mentioned above are of interest to you, this course will have you learning interesting material surrounding the topic of corporate finance.
