Financial Modelling from Scratch

Our comprehensive Best Practice Financial Modelling certification program teaches the essential skills needed to build robust forecast models for companies, and prepare you for careers in investment banking, private equity, corporate finance, and business valuation.

• Essentials of financial model construction and design principles

• Flexible time frameworks, forecasting operations, and linking historical data

• Working capital modelling from an analyst perspective

• Depreciation, debt structuring, interest expenses, and tax modelling

• Key analysis techniques like DuPont Analysis and Discounted Cash Flow

• Sensitivity analysis, scenario modelling, credit, and liquidity analysis

• Certificate Upon Successful Completion

This course is designed for delegates familiar with the basic functionality of Excel. We will help them develop higher level Excel, design and modelling skills sufficient to allow them to build and sensitise integrated, company forecasting models suitable for credit analysis, debt sustainability analysis, capital budgeting and company valuation. As well as the techniques and challenges involved in this particular modelling application, delegates will also learn solid best practice in the construction of any time series forecasting in Excel.

Delegates will progressively build an integrated balance sheet, profit and loss, and cash flow forecasting model, suitable for financial analysis, company valuation, debt structuring and capital structure optimisation.

The training will develop Excel skills to allow delegates to develop rigorous financial models and be in a position to get the most out of the peer/third party models. A number of key skills will be addressed such as scenario management techniques; switches and text strings to make models clear and flexible; and data validation to control inputs.

Specifically, delegates will:

• Improve their speed and fluency in Excel when modelling

• Understand design principles, time series best practices and how to “build in balance”

• Understand and be able to use Excel’s basic logical formulae and also a range of lookup and referencing formulae for scenario management;

• be able to use a range of basic cash flow valuation techniques and functions in Excel and know their shortcomings Have a clear method for building reliable, robust and flexible models

• Be able to build and troubleshoot their own and third-party models

• Be efficient in spotting inconsistencies when auditing other people’s financial models

• Have a set of tools for analysing and sensitising financial models.

Who this course is for:

• Any finance professional involved in using or building financial models. Even if you don’t have to build models, working through this course will give you the ability to review with more insight and understanding of models you see, and how to spot inconsistencies and errors.