Online Courses

The Online Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods course is delivered asynchronously and is broken down into three courses: First Steps, Before-Tax, and After-Tax. The courses must be taken sequentially.

Self–paced Asynchronous Online Courses

January 1 – June 30, 2023

July 1 – December 31, 2023

The Online Economic Evaluation and Investment Decision Methods course is delivered asynchronously and is broken down into three courses: First Steps, Before-Tax, and After-Tax. The courses must be taken sequentially.

Course Descriptions

1. First Steps

• This is an entry level course designed to familiarize the participant with evaluation terminology and the ‘time value of money’ concepts used in class.

2. Before-Tax

• Time Value of Money, Discount Rates and Decision Criteria

Concepts of time value of money are developed and applied to calculating rate of return (internal rate of return), net present value, ratios and other criteria. Other topics include understanding spreadsheet functions, graphical approaches illustrating the meaning of rate of return and net present value as well as methods used to determine an appropriate discount rate. Evaluating service producing alternatives will be presented including cost analysis and incremental calculations.

• Application of Decision Criteria, Introduction to Inflation

The application of decision criterion to mutually exclusive and non-mutually exclusive alternatives will be reviewed. This discussion will also introduce related problems concerning cash flow streams exhibiting a cost-income-cost pattern and the subsequent dual rates of return and the meaning of economic results.

• Inflation, Risk, and Sensitivity Analysis

Application of inflation as it relates to escalated (or current) and constant (or real) dollar analyses will be introduced. Continued discussion on inflation will focus on understanding how this important parameter may impact the type of dollars and the appropriate discount rate in escalated and constant dollar calculations. Sensitivity analyses addressing uncertainty are explored along with an introduction to quantifying risk through expected value calculations.

3. After-Tax

• After-Tax Cash Flow

Development of after-tax cash flow will focus on related tax deductions including costs that may be expensed, expenditures that are capitalized and deducted by methods such as depreciation, depletion, amortization or write-off’s and loss forward considerations.

• After-Tax Applications and Related Issues

The details of calculating after-tax cash flow and the related economics for a variety of investment scenarios will be discussed. Other topics include the impact of an investor’s financial position on economics and the handling of working capital. The conversion of before-tax operating cost savings into after-tax cash flow and the proper handling of sunk costs and opportunity costs will also be explored. We will calculate the before-tax market value of an asset by understanding the impact of taxes on the breakeven price. Breakeven and basic differences in financial versus tax reporting will also be addressed.

Online Course Fees