Finance & Business Operations Topics
Financial management, budgeting, ROI analysis, and business operations. Covers financial forecasting, valuation, and operational metrics.
Payment and Transaction Support Fundamentals
Covers customer facing payment and transaction issues and the operational knowledge needed to investigate and resolve them. Topics include payment flow basics, interpreting failed transaction and gateway error codes, declined payments, refunds and reversals, chargebacks and dispute handling, payment method compatibility, privacy and compliance considerations, and criteria for escalation to payments or finance teams. Candidates should know what information to collect, how to validate transaction state, and basic fraud awareness.
Business Case Development and Financial Analysis
Skills and practices for building persuasive business cases and performing financial analysis to justify investments and prioritization. Topics include enumerating and estimating cost categories such as implementation, licensing, development, infrastructure, deployment and ongoing support; quantifying tangible benefits such as cost savings, revenue uplift, productivity improvements and efficiency gains; and accounting for intangible benefits such as risk reduction, flexibility and employee satisfaction. Financial techniques include total cost of ownership, simple return on investment, payback period, net present value using discounted cash flows, internal rate of return, lifecycle cost analysis and build versus buy comparisons. Candidates should be able to construct cash flow timelines, separate capital and operating expenses, perform sensitivity and scenario analysis, estimate ranges and confidence, model procurement and vendor tradeoffs, and state assumptions clearly. Practical communication skills include tailoring the financial narrative and level of detail for finance leaders, procurement partners, technical stakeholders and executive sponsors, showing break even and sensitivity charts, defining success metrics and timelines, and describing how to track and report realized outcomes after implementation.