To become a financial planner, you first must know what their job profile is. Financial planners help in determining the financial resources required to meet the company’s operating program. They also help in forecasting the extent to which these requirements will be met by the internal generation of funds, and the extent to which they will be met from external sources. It’s the job of financial planners to develop the best plans to obtain the required external funds. They also help in establishing and maintaining a system of financial control governing the allocation and use of funds. Financial planners formulate programs to provide the most effective cost-volume-profit relationship. It’s the job of financial planners to analyze the financial results of operations, report the facts to the top management and make recommendations on future operations of the firm.

To do all these functions efficiently, financial planners first need to establish the financial objectives of the enterprise. Both long-term and short-term objectives should be established for the effective utilization of the financial resources. Then comes the next step of formulating policies. Policies are broad guidelines. Financial policies relate to procurement, administration and distribution of business funds. The next step financial planners have to do is to formulate procedures. Procedures are the specific order of doing things. They are formed for ensuring consistency of actions. In financial procedures, the financial executives decide about the control system, develop standards of performance and evaluate the performance. Lastly, they have to forecast the future. In order to take proper action to achieve the objectives established, it is necessary to know the future positions. This is facilitated by forecasting the future.

While doing these activities, financial planners must take into perspective the cost of finance and nature of business. In any assessment of the financial needs of the firm, the cost of finance is the basic criterion. This is so because only projects with net positive cash flow can be selected.