Introduction to Financial Modelling

A financial model has become a critical tool used by organisations to understand business risks and make important strategic decisions. An effective model is robust and flexible, yet user-friendly, so that it can be used to analyse the impact of operational parameters on the value and viability of a business.

With a good understanding of the key steps involved in financial modelling, participants will be able to build a well-structured and robust model and use it to solve important business problems. Participants will able to appreciate the use of the financial model as a powerful tool to communicate complex financial analyses and simulation results to stakeholders.

This workshop will cover the basic financial modelling principles, introduce best practices in financial modelling and demonstrate Excel functions through practical examples and short case studies. Participants will also learn how to use model auditing tools to check for model errors.

Who should attend?

Finance professionals involved in budgeting and investment analysis or anyone who uses financial models for business decisions, financial planning and analysis.

Workshop Agenda

Financial Modelling Overview

• Understand the common uses of financial models and the key design considerations of a model.
• Understand that a financial model is comprised of 3 distinct sections, namely data inputs, calculations and model outputs.
• Appreciate the process involved in developing a financial model.

Best Practices of Financial Modelling

• To be aware of the best practices used in building clear and auditable financial models.

Useful Excel Functions in Modelling

• To be familiar with the use of basic Excel functions (if, or, and, sumproduct, etc), conditional formatting and array lookup functions (index, match, lookup, vlookup, hlookup and offset).

Case Study

• Building up profit and loss statement
• Building up other tools necessary to perform a Free Cash Flow and Discounted Cash Flow Analysis
• Creating basic graphical & data visualisation tools