Read the passage given below and answer the question.

Mr. Rajesh Gulati is the Finance Manager of 'Health and Life Ltd.' a company dealing with health and organic food items. The company sells its products in smaller quantities in attractive containers. Moreover they have also decided to provide an additional layer of packaging for their products for the purpose of protections along with necessary storage, identification and even convenient transportation.

Keeping up with the latest packaging technology the company decided to upgrade its machinery. This, however, involved a major decision making as to how funds should be invested, so what the company is able to earn highest possible return.

Mr. Gulati estimated the amount of funds required for this purpose. He began with the preparation of sales forecast for the next four years.

He also collected the relevant data about the profit estimates in the coming years. By doing this he wanted to be sure about the availability of funds from internal sources. For the remaining funds he is trying to find out alternative sources.

Identify the concept of Financial Management being mentioned in the above case.

Financial Planning

The correct answer is Financial Planning.
A proper matching of funds requirements and their availability is sought to be achieved by financial planning. This process of estimating the fund requirement of a business and specifying the sources of funds is called financial planning. Financial planning takes into consideration the growth, performance, investments and requirement of funds for a given period. Financial planning usually begins with the preparation of a sales forecast. Let us suppose a company is making a financial plan for the next five years. It will start with an estimate of the sales which are likely to happen in the next five years. Based on these, the financial statements are prepared keeping in mind the requirement of funds for investment in the fixed capital and working capital. Then the expected profits during the period are estimated so that an idea can be made of how much of the fund requirements can be met internally i.e., through retained earnings (after dividend payouts). This results in an estimation of the requirement for external funds. Further, the sources from which the external funds requirement can be met are identified and cash budgets are made, incorporating these factors.