In this chapter well look at the process of corporate financial planning: The process of planning the major financial aspects of a corporation over long periods of time, such as 3-5 years. Of course, you must consider both short-term planning and long-range planning. Short-term financial planning emphasizes the cash budget and projections of cash balances, because cash planning is essential to the sustained liquidity of the business. Long-range financial planning focuses on the entire balance sheet and is essential to the judicious procurement and deployment of resources.

For your initial post this week list some reasons you must keep quick access to money in the short term, and what financial vehicles you might use to ensure that you have the cash you need on a day-to-day basis. (Keep in mind that it's not the best use of capital to hold everything in cash.) You also must list some reasons you need to have long term access to capital, what financial vehicles you can use here, and how and when you might convert long-term funds to short-term funds (or vice versa).