# Finance for Non-Finance Managers Course Projects: Six Decision Artifacts to Build

> Evaluate finance learning through six connected decision artifacts spanning statements, cash, budgets, unit economics, investment appraisal and executive recommendations.

- Canonical page: https://mtfinstitute.com/insights/finance-non-finance-managers-course-projects-decision-artifacts/
- Content type: Article
- Editorial category: Guides & Frameworks
- Publisher: MTF Institute of Management, Technology and Finance
- Author: MTF Institute Editorial Team- Published: 2026-09-17
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Language: English
- Topics: Financial Literacy, Cash Flow, Investment Appraisal, Budgeting, Finance for Non-Finance Managers

## Finance for Non-Finance Managers Course Projects: Six Decision Artifacts to Build

A useful finance course for non-finance managers should leave you with six reviewable decision artifacts: a three-statement operating bridge, a cash-conversion map, a driver-based budget, a contribution-margin decision sheet, an investment case and an executive finance memo. If a course teaches terminology but never makes you reconcile a number, defend an assumption or recommend an action, it has not yet converted financial literacy into managerial capability.

This guide gives you the **DECIDE-6 portfolio**: six connected projects, acceptance tests, a 100-point scorecard and a worked case. You can use it to evaluate a syllabus before enrolling, structure your own practice or turn completed coursework into credible evidence for an internal move. The projects use a fictional business, so learners can show judgment without exposing an employer's confidential data.

## What a finance course should enable a manager to decide

Non-finance managers do not need to imitate accountants. They need enough fluency to connect an operating choice to revenue, cost, cash, risk and value. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission explains that the balance sheet, income statement and cash-flow statement are related but not equivalent views of a business. Profit is not cash; a balance at one date is not a flow over a period; and no single statement tells the complete story. A manager who understands those links can ask better questions before approving headcount, discounting a product, committing to a vendor or proposing an investment.

The strongest learning sequence therefore moves through six decisions:

1. **Explain performance:** what changed, and where does it appear in the statements?
2. **Protect cash:** when will the economics become cash, and what can delay conversion?
3. **Allocate resources:** which drivers deserve budget, ownership and monitoring?
4. **Test unit economics:** does an additional sale, customer, order or service hour contribute enough?
5. **Evaluate investment:** do future cash flows justify the commitment under defensible assumptions?
6. **Recommend action:** what should management do, under which conditions, and who owns the next check?

DECIDE-6 turns each decision into an artifact another person can inspect.

## Use one connected fictional case

Disconnected exercises make it easy to obtain the right answer for the wrong reason. Use one case across all six projects so that assumptions must reconcile.

Our worked case is **Northstar Learning Services**, a fictional company selling annual team-learning subscriptions. It starts the planning period with these facts:

- 1,000 active subscriptions at $600 per year;
- 82% annual renewal;
- payment collected 30 days after invoicing;
- variable platform and support cost of $90 per active subscription;
- sales commission of 8% on first-year revenue only;
- annual fixed operating cost of $360,000;
- a proposed automation project costing $120,000 now;
- expected automation savings of $52,000, $58,000 and $62,000 over the next three years;
- estimated disposal value of $10,000 after year three;
- an 11% project hurdle rate supplied for the exercise.

Those numbers are not market claims. They are learning inputs. A good course should require you to document where real inputs would come from, who owns them and how uncertainty will be tested.

## Project 1: the three-statement operating bridge

The first artifact is not a full accounting model. It is a management bridge showing how one operating event moves through the income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow statement.

Start with five events: issue an annual invoice, collect the receivable, recognize one month of revenue, pay a vendor in advance and purchase equipment. For each event, record:

| Event | Income-statement effect | Balance-sheet effect | Cash-flow effect | Managerial question |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual invoice issued before service | No immediate full-year revenue | Receivable and deferred-revenue effects depend on terms | No cash yet | Is billing being confused with earned revenue? |
| Customer pays | No new revenue solely from collection | Cash rises; receivable falls | Operating cash inflow | Which accounts are delaying collection? |
| One month of service delivered | Revenue and relevant expense recognized | Deferred revenue reduces | Often no same-day cash effect | Does reported growth match delivery capacity? |
| Annual software prepaid | Expense recognized over the service period | Prepaid asset initially rises | Operating cash outflow | Is a cash commitment being hidden by monthly expense recognition? |
| Equipment purchased | Depreciation follows policy | Property, plant and equipment rises; cash falls | Investing cash outflow | Does the investment case include timing and useful life? |

The SEC's financial-statement guide is useful here because it distinguishes the statements and explains their relationship. The project should then use the fictional case to build a simple opening balance, monthly operating schedule and closing reconciliation.

**Acceptance tests**

- The balance sheet balances in every modeled period.
- Ending cash equals opening cash plus the modeled net change.
- Revenue recognition is not triggered merely by cash collection.
- Every model line has an input source or calculation trace.
- The learner can explain one profitable month with negative operating cash flow.

**Evidence to retain:** assumptions register, bridge table, reconciliation checks and a short explanation of one error found during review.

## Project 2: the cash-conversion map

The second artifact follows one sale from commercial commitment to collected cash. Map the stages: order, delivery, invoice, due date, collection and exception. Attach a measure and an owner to each transition.

For Northstar, compare two scenarios. In the base case, customers pay 30 days after invoicing. In a stress case, 20% of customers pay 60 days late while annual subscriptions continue to be recognized monthly. Profit may remain positive, but cash becomes constrained. The artifact should calculate the receivables increase, the resulting cash gap and the date at which a corrective action is needed.

Build a compact working-capital table:

| Driver | Base | Stress | Evidence owner | Trigger |
|---|---:|---:|---|---|
| Average collection delay | 30 days | 42 days | Finance operations | More than 35 days |
| Renewal rate | 82% | 76% | Customer success | Below 80% |
| Disputed invoices | 2% | 7% | Billing owner | Above 4% |
| Minimum cash buffer | $90,000 | $90,000 | Finance lead | Forecast below buffer |

The point is not to forecast perfectly. It is to reveal which operating condition creates the cash need. A course should make learners distinguish a timing problem from an economic-loss problem and specify an action for each.

**Acceptance tests**

- Collection timing changes cash without inventing revenue.
- The map includes at least one exception path, not only the happy path.
- The cash forecast shows weekly or monthly timing rather than one annual total.
- Each trigger has an owner, response and evidence source.
- The learner can state which assumption matters most and why.

## Project 3: the driver-based budget and forecast

A budget should express operating assumptions, not merely repeat last year's line items with a percentage added. Build Northstar's revenue from opening subscribers, renewals, new subscribers, price and timing. Build cost from active subscribers, first-year commissions, service capacity and fixed commitments.

Use a driver tree:

```text
Revenue
  = opening subscribers × renewal rate × price
  + new subscribers × price × in-year service fraction

Variable service cost
  = average active subscribers × cost per subscriber

First-year commission
  = new-subscriber revenue × commission rate

Operating result
  = revenue - variable service cost - commission - fixed operating cost
```

Then create base, downside and upside cases. Change coherent bundles of assumptions rather than moving every input independently. For example, a downside case might combine lower renewal, slower acquisition and a support-cost increase. An upside case should also include the capacity or acquisition cost required to produce growth.

Add a monthly forecast-versus-actual review with three columns that are often missing: **cause**, **decision** and **owner**. A variance is not resolved because it has been colored red.

**Acceptance tests**

- Volume, price, mix and timing drivers are separated.
- The annual budget reconciles to monthly phasing.
- The downside case is operationally coherent.
- A forecast change does not silently overwrite the original budget.
- Every material variance leads to a decision, investigation or documented acceptance.

## Project 4: the contribution-margin decision sheet

The U.S. Small Business Administration defines break-even units as fixed costs divided by price minus variable cost per unit. That formula is useful, but the hard work is classifying costs for the decision and time horizon. The artifact must therefore include a cost-classification register, not only a formula.

For a renewal subscription, suppose Northstar earns $600 and incurs $90 of platform and support cost. The unit contribution before acquisition cost is $510. For a new subscription, the 8% commission adds $48, so first-year contribution is $462 before fixed costs. If fixed operating cost is $360,000, a simplistic break-even estimate using renewed subscriptions is about 706 subscriptions. Using first-year economics produces about 780. The decision depends on whether the question concerns renewal capacity or new-customer acquisition.

Add a step cost: one support specialist costing $54,000 is required when active subscriptions exceed 1,150. The contribution on the next 100 subscriptions cannot be evaluated as if capacity were free. Show the decision in ranges:

| Active subscriptions | Incremental capacity | Relevant contribution question |
|---:|---:|---|
| Up to 1,150 | No new specialist | Does each subscription cover truly variable cost? |
| 1,151–1,300 | $54,000 step cost | Does the block of growth cover the new capacity step? |
| Above 1,300 | Review service design | Does another step or productivity change apply? |

External financial reporting and internal contribution analysis are not interchangeable. IFRS IAS 2 explains that inventory cost includes purchase, conversion and certain other costs, with fixed and variable production overhead allocated on specified bases. A manager's incremental-decision view may regroup costs for a particular decision, but it should never be mislabeled as a statutory gross-margin definition.

**Acceptance tests**

- The time horizon and decision unit are named.
- Every cost is classified with a behavioral reason.
- Mixed and step costs are separated or tested in ranges.
- The model reconciles to the financial ledger at a defined boundary.
- The recommendation changes when a relevant step threshold is crossed.

## Project 5: the investment case

Now evaluate the $120,000 automation project. Use incremental after-tax cash flows where the exercise supplies the necessary tax assumptions; do not substitute accounting profit. In this simplified teaching example, we use the supplied cash savings directly and omit tax to keep the mechanics transparent.

The cash flows are:

- Year 0: -$120,000
- Year 1: +$52,000
- Year 2: +$58,000
- Year 3: +$62,000 operating saving plus $10,000 disposal value

At an 11% hurdle rate, the present values are approximately $46,847, $47,074 and $52,665. Total present value is about $146,586, producing an NPV near **$26,586**. That supports proceeding only if the cash-flow definitions, implementation capacity and risks survive review.

The artifact should include more than the answer. Add a one-way sensitivity table for implementation savings and a scenario in which launch is delayed by six months. Ask whether the hurdle rate matches the currency, inflation basis and risk of the cash flows. NYU Stern's valuation resources repeatedly emphasize consistency between cash flows and discount rates; a model can be arithmetically correct and economically inconsistent.

**Acceptance tests**

- Only incremental cash flows are included.
- Working capital, implementation cost and residual value are considered explicitly.
- Cash-flow and discount-rate bases are consistent.
- The base case is not the only case.
- The recommendation includes conditions, a post-investment review date and an accountable owner.

## Project 6: the executive finance memo

The final artifact compresses the work into a decision. Use one page plus appendices.

```text
Decision requested
Approve, revise or reject the Northstar automation investment.

Recommendation
Approve conditionally, subject to an implementation owner, verified savings baseline
and a six-month benefits review.

Economic evidence
Base-case NPV: approximately $26,586 at the supplied 11% hurdle rate.
Primary value driver: realized annual labour and vendor savings.

Cash and capacity
Initial cash outflow: $120,000. Minimum cash buffer must remain intact.
Implementation capacity is not included in the headline savings and requires confirmation.

Downside
A delay or savings shortfall can materially reduce value. Stop if the verified baseline
falls below the approved threshold before contracting.

Owners and next evidence
Operations: baseline and process design.
Finance: model review and benefits measurement.
Technology: implementation estimate and control plan.
```

The memo should link every material number to the model, distinguish fact from assumption and tell decision makers what evidence could change the recommendation.

**Acceptance tests**

- The decision is explicit in the first paragraph.
- The memo states the base case, downside and stop condition.
- Numbers trace to version-controlled model cells or schedules.
- Risks are connected to owners and evidence, not presented as a generic list.
- The recommended action is proportionate to uncertainty.

## Score a course or portfolio with DECIDE-100

Use this before enrolling or before presenting your work.

| Dimension | Weight | What earns full credit |
|---|---:|---|
| Decision relevance | 15 | Every artifact supports a named management decision |
| Evidence traceability | 15 | Inputs have source, date, owner and status |
| Connected statements and cash | 15 | Profit, balance-sheet movement and cash timing reconcile |
| Incremental economics | 15 | Relevant costs, unit economics and investment cash flows are correctly separated |
| Downside and sensitivity | 15 | Coherent downside cases and decision-changing thresholds are visible |
| Integrity and controls | 10 | Checks, versioning, confidentiality rules and limitations are present |
| Decision communication | 10 | Recommendation, conditions, owners and next evidence are clear |
| Review and reflection | 5 | Learner records defects found and how judgment changed |

Set three gates: at least 80/100 overall, at least 10/15 for evidence traceability, and no unreconciled cash or balance-sheet error. A polished dashboard cannot compensate for a broken model.

## Questions to ask a course provider

Ask for concrete answers:

- Will I build connected projects or only complete quizzes?
- Are assumptions supplied, researched or both?
- Does an instructor review the logic as well as the calculation?
- Will I model cash timing, mixed costs and downside conditions?
- Are examples clearly fictional or authorized?
- Can I export a portfolio-safe version without confidential data?
- Does the investment project include a benefits-review plan?
- How are AI tools used, checked and documented?
- Is the certificate based on attendance, assessment or reviewable work?

Avoid courses that promise mastery through a spreadsheet download alone. A template may accelerate setup, but it does not show that you can choose inputs, challenge assumptions or explain a decision.

## A 30-day build plan

Week 1: create the case assumptions register and three-statement bridge. Reconcile every movement before adding complexity.

Week 2: build the cash-conversion map and driver-based budget. Add one operational stress case.

Week 3: complete the contribution-margin sheet and investment case. Ask another person to find one defect without guidance.

Week 4: write the executive memo, run the scorecard and remove unsupported precision. Preserve a clean portfolio version, a calculation version and a short change log.

The finished portfolio should tell a coherent story: an operating assumption changes a statement, creates a cash consequence, affects unit economics, shapes an investment choice and ends in a controlled management decision.

## Go deeper with a relevant programme

The [Professional Certificate in Finance for Non-Finance Managers](https://mtfinstitute.com/programs/finance-for-non-finance-managers/#enroll) is the relevant MTF pathway for learners who want structured practice with P&L, cash flow, budgets, unit economics and internal investment decisions. Use DECIDE-6 to evaluate the fit and to turn learning into evidence you can explain.

## Sources

- [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Beginners' Guide to Financial Statements](https://www.sec.gov/about/reports-publications/investorpubsbegfinstmtguide)
- [U.S. Small Business Administration: Break-even point](https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/calculate-your-startup-costs/break-even-point)
- [IFRS Foundation: IAS 2 Inventories](https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/ias-2-inventories/)
- [NYU Stern: Aswath Damodaran valuation spreadsheets](https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/New_Home_Page/spreadsh.htm)

*Prepared on 17 September 2026. The worked case is fictional and educational. It is not accounting, tax, investment or legal advice; apply your organization's policies and obtain appropriate professional review for real decisions.*



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