FIN 320 Principles of Finance sample papers, module by module

Reviewed by Portia Lambrick, MBA Principles of Finance Southern New Hampshire University Free custom samples in 24–48h

FIN 320 grades the sentence after the calculation, and that is the sentence most drafts leave out. These samples show a finance report where every ratio ends in a judgment about the company rather than a restated number.

How this shelf works

Send the exact assignment or rubric from your classroom and a custom sample written to it lands in 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. FIN 320 is SNHU’s Principles of Finance course. It centers on reading a company's financial statements closely enough to judge decisions, turning ratios, cash flows and cost of capital into a recommendation. Searches like "fin 320 module 4 assignment example", "FIN320 sample paper", and "FIN 320 module samples" land on this page.

What FIN 320 is really about

FIN 320 is where a lot of business students meet the math they avoided, and the shape of the course is deliberately practical rather than theoretical. You work through the statements first, then liquidity, solvency and profitability ratios, then time value of money, then cost of capital and the tools for deciding whether a project earns its keep. Roughly half the graded work happens in a spreadsheet and the other half in a report explaining what the spreadsheet found. Adults returning to school tend to fear the formulas and then discover the formulas were the easy part, because a calculator handles those. What the rubric actually pays for is the explanation sitting beside each figure.

The deliverables use SNHU's module labeling, which is why searches run on strings like 6-2 Assignment instead of the name of a reading or a chapter. In many sections FIN 320 pairs a workbook with a written analysis and builds both across the term, with statement and ratio work early, valuation and capital budgeting later, and the assembled report near the close. Placement moves between terms and instructors, so nothing here should be read as your schedule. The steady demand is that the spreadsheet and the report agree with each other, and that the report says what the numbers mean to someone deciding where the money actually goes.

What FIN 320’s assessments ask for

Discussion items ask you to take a position on a financing or investment question and answer someone who read the same statements another way. The graded assignments run on a real company's filings: compute the ratio set, compare it against the industry or against last year, price a bond or an annuity, run a net present value and an internal rate of return on a proposed project. Milestones deliver the report in pieces, commonly the financial statement work first and the valuation or budgeting section afterward, with the instructor's comments expected to show up in the next piece. The final report is graded as one document, so the ratios in the early section and the recommendation at the end have to tell the same story, and every figure needs a source and a formula a reader can follow.

Where students lose points in FIN 320

The most expensive habit in FIN 320 is arithmetic without a verdict. A current ratio of 1.4 gets calculated correctly, formatted neatly, and then described as a current ratio of 1.4, which the reader could already see. Two questions turn a table into an analysis. Compared to what: the prior year, the industry median, the covenant the lender wrote? And so what: can this company cover payroll through a slow quarter, and would you lend to it? The same applies to a positive net present value, which is not a conclusion until you say fund the project and name the assumption that would reverse the answer. Points here follow interpretation, not effort, and a clean workbook with a silent report scores in the middle.

FIN 320 grading scale at SNHU: how the work is graded, from SNHU Assignments
How SNHU grades FIN 320, visualized by SNHU Assignments.

The FIN 320 drawers

Module 1

FIN 320 Module 1 Financial Manager Discussion example

A module 1 discussion on the financial manager's job and the goal of the firm: a pet retailer's chief financial officer choosing between new stores and a share buyback, read from the balance sheet first. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 2

FIN 320 Module 2 Financial Statement Analysis Paper example

A module 2 statement analysis: the pet retailer's income statement and balance sheet restated as common-size percentages for two years, every figure compared against something, and the story the shifts tell. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 3

FIN 320 Module 3 Project Milestone One example

Project Milestone One: the pet retailer introduced as the project company, then judged on liquidity and solvency with working capital, current, quick, debt and interest coverage ratios for two years. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 4

FIN 320 Module 4 Time Value of Money Assignment example

A module 4 time value of money assignment: three decisions at the pet retailer, taking a supplier's early-payment discount, sizing a term loan payment and comparing a lease with a purchase, each with the discounting step shown. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 5

FIN 320 Module 5 Project Milestone Two example

Project Milestone Two: the pet retailer compared with a year earlier on profitability, efficiency and market ratios, a DuPont breakdown of return on equity, and a weighted average cost of capital with every input sourced. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 6

FIN 320 Module 6 Capital Budgeting Analysis example

A module 6 capital budgeting analysis: an automated distribution center for the pet retailer, eight years of incremental cash flows including freed inventory, NPV at 9.5 percent, IRR, payback and a sensitivity test. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 7

FIN 320 Module 7 Risk and Return Discussion example

A module 7 discussion on risk and return: an investor holding only the pet retailer's stock, what beta does and does not measure, and why diversification removes risk the market will not pay for. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Module 8

FIN 320 Module 8 Final Project Financial Analysis Report example

The final financial analysis report on the pet retailer: health across five ratio groups, why returns fell, the cost of capital, the distribution center investment and a recommendation for the board. Full sample paper, annotated.

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Different?

Your classroom shows something else?

Southern New Hampshire University revises courses; module counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.

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Using a FIN 320 sample the right way

Read a sample with a highlighter on the verbs. Every place the writer says the company can, cannot, should or should not is a place the rubric is paying, and the calculation before it is only the setup. Count how many of those sentences your own draft has. If the answer is none, the fix is not more math. Hand us the instructions and rubric from the classroom and the first custom sample is free, back in 24-48h and built around that specific brief. It shows the reasoning pattern rather than supplying an answer, since the company you analyze, the comparison you choose and the call you make are the graded part.

How these samples are written

Method, in one line: rubric first, structure from the rubric, milestones that assemble, format exact. Datasets and scenarios are handled from your course's actual materials. Your free request is drafted against what Brightspace actually shows.

FIN 320 questions, answered

Do I need industry benchmarks, or is the company's own history enough?

Either gives you a comparison, and a comparison is what makes a ratio mean something. Prior year trends are easier to source and show direction; industry figures show position. Using both is stronger, and where you cannot find a benchmark, say so and interpret against the trend instead. What loses points is a ratio presented alone, with nothing for the reader to weigh it against.

How much of the grade sits in the workbook versus the writing?

No one outside your section can quote a split, and we will not invent one. What is consistent is that the written interpretation is where most lost points live, since correct numbers are close to expected while the paragraph explaining what a falling margin means is the part that separates letter grades. Build the workbook first, then write as though the reader will never open it.

Do I have to show the formulas, or just the results?

Show the work. A number with no visible route to it cannot be checked, and graders treat unverifiable figures as unsupported. Label the inputs, keep the formula in the cell rather than pasting a value over it, and in the written report state the method in a clause before the result. That habit also protects you when one input changes late and every dependent figure has to move.