Financial Management Essay: Prospa's Forecasting Benchmark.

1.financial management forecasting benchmark(take any company as reference)1. A statement of the problem, research aim, objectives and research questions

2. Justification and potential output of the research

3. Conceptual framework

4. Methodology, organisation of the study, project budget and schedule

5. Accurate referencing, use of correct English and logical sequences between sentences and paragraphs and a good introduction.

The advent of the modern era has seen the growth of small and medium enterprises in the global economy during the past few years. These firms are not only regarded as the main driving force of economic enhancement but they are even considered as a significant driver for continuous growth in most of the economies (Brigham & Ehrhardt 2013). Additionally the small and medium enterprises are main source of employment and they have the ability to create vital domestic and international income, welfare of the economies, and significant tool for the reduction of poverty and contribute to the development of health of the economy where it operates.  

Even though these enterprises have so many roles to play, it is seen that these enterprises face various issues and problems. Financial management has been considered to be one of the suited way of analysing the performance of a firm and proper implementation of the management services can be helpful for the sustainable growth of the companies (Saunders & Cornett 2014). The paper is therefore constructed in order to undertake financial management forecasting thereby creating a benchmark that would improve the operations of the small and medium enterprises.

The background of the paper concentrates on the performance and the operations of Prospa, which is a small and medium enterprise functioning in Australia. The company is a financial company that provides business loans to the organizations. The company has been growing in stature along with time and they have the vision to transform the way owners of the small businesses experience regarding taking finance. The company is a online lender to the small business and unlike the conventional lenders, Prospa has the knowledge regarding small business owners therefore provide faster solutions thereby helping the firms to undertake decisions faster and gain the opportunities that are available in the market (Prospa. 2017).

Despite the prosperity of the firm, it is seen that there are several financial management issues that are having an impact on the proceedings of the firm. These issues require various assessment and evaluations that can improve the functions and the performance of the organization (Koh et al., 2014). The vibrant economic environment in the current time has compelled the company to rearrange themselves in order to operate in the market with the help of successful management process and efficient financial planning methods.

It has been evaluated that the companies that have a formal planning model are seen to be more profitable than the ones who are without them and therefore it is recommended that every firm implements such plans. The companies in order to stay competitive in the market require staying updated and rethinking their strategies with respect to the changing taste and preferences in the market. Bodie (2013) has indicated that the lack of resource financing and experience regarding the financial management is presently one of the serious issues as ineffective management system can lead to reduction in the profitability of the firm and as a result will make the operations of the company more complex. The maintenance of a proper financial planning and management will enhance the profit of the firm and will even help the companies in overcoming the difficulties related to the firm.

Research Problem

The concept of financial planning is a sustainable process of allocating the directing the financial resources to meet the objectives and the goals that are strategic in nature. The financial planning outcome can be regarded as a budget. The budget is helpful for the recognition of the pattern and trend and the transformations that can be taken in order to retain their market share (Marti & Scherer 2016). Financial planning and management is helpful in understanding the previous performances and interpret those information in to targets that are forward looking and thereby line up business outcomes with the corporate strategies. The budget is suggested as the benchmark that will enhance the operations of the firm by setting a target for the firm and even surpass it (Hill et al., 2014). The construction of an effective financial planning and performance measure will improve the problems that are associated with the poor financial management of Prospa.

Financial planning and management has been deemed to a significant mechanism for both the corporate and the small and medium enterprises. It has been seen in various researches that inadequate and lack of proper financial planning is one of the significant factors that has resulted in the failure of a firm (Renz 2016). Financial management is helpful for the firms in assisting them in the process of decision making, management of risk and performance management that are directly associated with the performance of the firm.

Financial management has various implications and has been discovered to be positively and strongly associated with the growth of the small and enterprise industries. It is even seen that studies with respect to the financial management and the planning of the business has been very less and therefore, in order to understand the pertinent problems that are linked to the financial management of Prospa, it is vital for the evaluation of the financial management and suggest various that can improve their performance in the market.

There construction of the paper has mainly been for the understanding the issues and the problems that are inherent in the financial management process of Prospa and therefore, it is seen research questions with respect to the topic has been prepared  in order to undertake the research. The research questions have been given below:

Q1. Are there any financial management benchmarks that are available the Prospa?

Q2. What is the impact of financial management on the financial performance of Prospa?

The standard aim and objective of the paper is to evaluate the financial management services that were utilised by the Prospa who is functioning in Australia. The paper particularly tries to:

• Construct a financial management process that is used by Prospa in Australia.
• Construction of the manipulation of financial management and planning processes that are utilised on the financial performance of Prospa in Australia.  

It is seen that Prospa has been discovered to be one of the leading small and medium enterprise firm that has been operating in Australia since its inception. The company has been discovered to be lender of business loans to small businesses and they try to resolve the problems that are faced by the small firms so that their performance can improve and the organizations can increase their revenue with time (Moffett et al., 2014).

Research Questions

The justification of the research states that because of several issues that are arising in the economy there have been various changes in the taste and preferences in the market. It is even seen that because of lack of supervision and management the employees of the firm, the financial management structure of the firm has become very weak and therefore, the company has not been able to gain the potential revenue that it desired to accomplish (Titman & Martin 2014). The construction of the paper is significant in understanding the problems and the issues that are pertinent with Prospa and thereby prepare significant plans in order to improve the financial management and tighten the market share of Prospa.

It is seen that proper supervision on the financial management of the firm will help to improve the performance of the firm and will influence the firm to construct various financial planning models that will help the firm to fulfil their strategic goals and objectives. The construction of the financial planning models are in regards to the short term and long term goals and these goals are helpful in establishing a proper management structure that can enhance their performance (Waring 2016).

The potential output of the research is the developments and the improvements in the financial management structures that can improve the performance and increase the profit of the firm.

The conceptual framework for the preparation of the report is in respect to the financial management of Prospa that will develop their performance and operations with respect to finance and other functions of the firm. The paper takes help of several literatures that are associated to planning and their impact in the financial performance and management of the firm. This section of the paper represents and undertakes explanations about the conceptual and theoretical end results of the paper.

It is seen that finance theory has undertaken significant advances in understanding how the capital markets function and how the financial assets that are risky in nature are valued. The mechanisms that have been depicted in the financial theory specifically with the discounted cash flow evaluation is broadly utilised (Petty et al., 2015). There are various modern financial management theories that have been constructed with respect to the financial theory and the process of decision making with respect to finance.

The theory of agency is in respect to the individuals who are the owners of the business and all the other stakeholders who are associated with the business. The theory of agency suggests that the day to day operations of a business firm are undertaken by the managers who have been appointed by the entrepreneurs of the business. This theory provides effective knowledge into the matters regarding the small and medium enterprise financial management and reveals effective path of how the SMEs should perceive and practice the process of financial management (Bartlett et al.,2014). This theory is even helpful for the researchers and the practitioners to undertake the strategies that could be helpful in sustaining the growth and expansion of the SMEs.

Research Aim and Objectives

The theory of signalling is dependent on the interpretation and the transfer of the information that is available regarding the operations of a business to the capital market and confiscating of the concluding perceptions into the terms with respect to which the level of finance is available to the organizations. It can be said that the flow of finance is dependent on the flow of information among the business and the capital market. Lusardi & Mitchell (2014) discusses about the capability of the small firms to signal their value to the probable investors and signals of the disclosures of an income that have been forecasted to be discovered optimistically and crucially associated to the value of a firm with respect to the equity percentage retained by the owners, the net proceeds that is increased by the an issue of equity and the selection of the financial consultant to an issue. The signalling theory has been discovered to be an insightful component for the financial management of the SMEs.

Financial management is regarded as a fundamental section of the total management. It is related to the duties of the finance managers who are operating in the business. Financial management is related to the efficient funds management in a firm and it is seen that financial management has been found to be a significant part of the total management that is related directly with the several functional departments with respect to marketing, production etc and surrounds a wider region with the help of the multidimensional processes. Financial management has even been considered to bring firth profit maximization and the wealth maximization in the organizations (Finkler et al., 2016). It is seen that financial management and managerial experience are looked upon to be significant in explaining and understanding the failure and success of a company.

The process of financial performance looks to aid the businesses to evaluate their operations from the financial outlook and provide helpful information that is necessary to undertake efficient management decisions. It is impossible to assume and forecast all the factors that manipulate the final result of any decision regarding a firm. It is even not possible to gain all the information that would be superlative. However, it is seen that the process of decision making can be improved with the help of the use of the available information and with the help of the efficient financial planning and evaluation. Gruis & Nieboer (2017) has suggested that suggested measures for the financial assessment has been collectively grouped into five broad sections namely solvency, liquidity, financial efficiency, repayment capacity and profitability.

The internal and the external factors are helpful to the managers with the base to construct a budget, which functions simultaneously with the financial management. The owners of SMEs can make use of financial management and budgeting in order to gain finance externally from the banks and the investors. There are various companies who require finance externally for the growth of their activities. As small firms do not have strong history regarding finance, financial management and budgeting aids the banks and the investors to review the business strictly.  

Justification and Potential Output of the Research

Financial management is necessary in order to supervise and monitor and explain the financial ability of a firm with respect to time thereby profitably function the company. The entrepreneurs look to maximize the profits without looking at the status of the tax of a firm, investor owned or not for profit (Hörisch et al., 2014).

A company is required to supervise their progress with the help of the budgets on a frequent basis that provides a patent mechanism of control. The frequent supervisions helps the managers to identify initially in the operations whether some expenditures are going out of control and thereby undertake necessary actions that will be useful for the firms.

The research methodology explains properly the process of the research that is particularly implemented in the region of evaluation. It is seen that the current part of the paper comprises of the hypothetical assessment of the several processes as well as the ideas that are related with the paper. The current topic of the paper comprises of the research design, the research approach, the philosophies, and the process of data collection that is collectively referred to as the organization of the study and lastly the budget of the project and the project schedule.

The paper that has been taken into consideration makes use of the positivism philosophy that supports the construction of the financial management structure. The positivism philosophy tries to focus on the data that are authentic and are obtained with the help of adequate knowledge that have been identified as fundamentally scientific from the perspective of the research topic (Dudin et al., 2014).

The researcher has made use of the deductive approach of research f0or the current paper. In this respect, the use of the deductive process is discovered to be fundamental as this mechanism supports the developmental process that is based on the current ideologies (De Massis et al., 2014). The research approach that is deductive in nature helps in the process of designing and developing an accurate plan for the paper that aids in the path of the evaluation.

The undertaking of the process of the research is important in order to make sure that the methodology that was implemented is accurate and precise. This section of the paper analysed the method of the research and how it was utilised. The methodology focuses on the research design as it is useful for the construction of the paper and directing the paper to the correct path.

There are various research designs that can be implemented by the researchers with respect to the topic and the research problem with which the researcher frames the paper. Starkey (2015) has explained that descriptive design acts as a mixture of the research aims like the explanation of the consequences or the features that are related with the population of the respondents regarded in the paper, information with respect to the population, forecast of the segments of the population that have the features and the discovery of the relationships between the various variables. With respect to this paper, it is seen that descriptive study has been implemented as it will be helpful in evaluating the answers of the respondents that have been taken for the paper. The information that is available from the respondents are evaluated with the help of the statistical tools that will be useful for bringing out the accurate results of the study.

It is seen that with respect to this paper, the researcher has to collect both primary and the secondary sources of the data as it is helpful for the preparation of the precise and accurate results. It is seen that primary data is collected with the help of a questionnaire that comprises of the questions that are relevant to the financial management issues that are pertinent to the research problems of Prospa. The collection of the primary data is important as it helps in obtaining the fresh and in hand information that are relevant to the firm from the existing employees and the consumers who are associated with the firm (Verbeke & Tung 2013). The questions are all close ended questions and thus aid the respondents to answer them accurately.

  The secondary data is collected with the help of the various research paper, electronic journals, books and articles with respect to the same topic so that an idea can be framed with respect to the problem and proper improvements can be introduced (Lasher 2013). Information is even collected from the internet so that a wider range of information can be used for the evaluation of the paper.  

The paper has been organised with respect to the research problems and it can be seen that the research methodology primarily considers the research philosophy, followed by the research design, the research approach and the process of data collection that and lastly the budget of the project and the project schedule (Karadag 2015). The paper has been prepared in such a way in order to aid the researcher and the practitioners to understand and complete the paper.

The project budget assumes the cost the project that has to bear in order to undertake the project and complete the project effectively. It is seen that the project has an estimated budget of $ 8000 within which all the activities with regards to the paper will be completed.

Task	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Selection of topic and search for justification	Yes
Constructing literature		Yes
Selecting appropriate methods			Yes
Data collection			Yes	Yes

Reference:

About Prospa. (2017). Prospa. Retrieved 30 May 2017, from https://www.prospa.com/about

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