Corporate finance is primarily concerned with maximizing shareholder value through long-term and short-term financial planning and the implementation of various strategies. Everything from capital investment decisions to investment banking falls under the domain of corporate finance.

Short-term issues include the management of current assets and current liabilities, inventory control, investments and other short-term financial issues. Long-term issues include new capital purchases and investments.

The decision process of making capital investments is mainly concerned with capital budgeting, a key corporate finance procedure. Through capital budgeting, a company identifies capital expenditures, estimates future cash flows from proposed capital projects, compares planned investments with potential proceeds, and decides which projects to include in its capital budget. Poor capital budgeting that causes over-investing or under-investing could put a company in weaker financial condition, either because of increased financing costs or having an inadequate operating capacity.
Corporate finance is also responsible for sourcing capital in the form of debt or equity. A company may borrow from commercial banks and other financial intermediaries or may issue debt securities in the capital markets through investment banks. A company may also choose to sell stocks to equity investors, especially when raising long-term funds for business expansions. Capital financing is a balancing act in terms of deciding on the relative amounts or weights between debt and equity. Having too much debt may increase default risk and relying heavily on equity can dilute earnings and value for early investors. In the end, capital financing must provide the capital needed to implement capital investments.