How to Practice Financial Modeling in 2023

The best financial modeling practices include inputs or assumptions, calculations, and using logic like MIN, AND, or MAX among others. Every financial analysis should comprise these methods.

Financial models come in a variety of forms and are used for a variety of purposes, such as business decision-making within an organization, investing in private or public companies, valuing securities, and conducting corporate transactions like mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or capital raises. The aim is to blend accounting, finance, and business variables to produce a futuristic, abstract Excel picture of a corporation.

In this piece, we will guide you on how to create the best Financial modeling practice. Even if you’re a novice, you will find our method useful.

What is Financial Modeling?

Financial modeling is the process of compiling a spreadsheet with a summary of a business’s costs and profits so that it may be used to estimate the effects of a choice or event that will happen in the future.

Why you should Practice Financial Modeling in your Business

For business executives, a financial model serves a variety of functions. It is typically used by financial analysts to assess and forecast the potential effects of upcoming events or management choices on a company’s stock performance.

How to Practice Financial Modeling

When developing your financial models, adhere to these six best practices:

• Plan ahead
• Structure your model’s metrics logically
• Keep the metrics of your model simple
• Don’t use values rather than formulas
• Cash flow forecasting estimates and balance sheets must be integrated
• Double-check your model for potential errors

1. Plan ahead

Asking yourself the following questions will help you get started on a financial model:

• What financial problem is the model supposed to address?
• Who will employ this model?
• What will be done with the model?
• What are the figures for your input, output, and process?
• How will you organize every input as you develop the model?

Throughout the process of constructing the model, a successful financial model requires a vision and a goal. This is beneficial when performing a sensitivity analysis or creating a future budget.

2. Structure your model’s metrics logically

These three fundamental components must be present in your model when you develop it:

• Inputs or assumptions. These numbers serve as your basic building blocks. For instance, what sort of revenue do you anticipate during that time?
• Calculations.
• Outputs. What numbers are the outcomes? What is the projected business footing if you have X, Y, and Z? 

3. Keep the metrics of your model simple

Anyone who utilizes financial models will tell you that they determine whether a model “works” for them in less than 30 seconds. The financial model will get more favorable feedback the simpler it is. Utilize your value metrics.

To make your cash flow statement and financial model straightforward, take into account the following dos and don’ts.

Do:

• No more than 15 assumptions should be used.
• Formula lengths should not exceed half the width of the formula bar.
• Avoid overusing cell names.

Don’t:

• Utilize various formulas across rows.
• Use a variety of formatting standards
• Leave out the executive summary

There are various tools in Excel that can be used to make financial modeling simpler. If you are having trouble coming up with an easy formula, think about splitting it up over numerous cells. Other techniques for simplifying Excel include:

• Utilizing flags
• keeping IF statements separate
• Utilizing several methods to make your IF statements simpler
• Using logics like MIN, AND, or MAX
• Using tools designed to simplify things, like VLOOKUP or INDEX 

4. Don’t use values rather than formulas

Hard values are not universally understood. Although it could initially save you time, it ultimately portrays you as undisciplined and jeopardizes the integrity and openness of your financial model. It will seem as though you haven’t done any financial analysis. When employing values rather than formulas in your forecasting model, the following problems can arise:

• The lack of explicit assumptions can be confusing to model users.
• Your justification isn’t as obvious.
• If your data’s source is unclear to somebody like your CFO, they might not trust it.

5. Cash flow forecasting estimates and balance sheets must be integrated

Important components of your model include your income statement, cash flow projections, and other financial documents like your balance sheet. You should never omit these documents, even though it could be tempting out of expediency.

To guarantee you are appropriately portraying things like capital expenditures, value-based pricing, tier pricing, stock turnover, private equity, debt dates, and creditor dates, proper financial planning requires that these be a part of your overall company model. End users need evidence of the results of your models before they will have confidence in them.

6.  Double-check your model for potential errors

Examine the accuracy of your financial model to make sure you’ve done your homework and everything is in order. Sanity-check your plan; if it doesn’t make sense on paper, it probably won’t in actuality.

Related: Personal Finance Planning Process

How Long Does it Take to Learn Financial Modeling?

Training in financial modeling can be obtained in a variety of methods, including through a training program at a financial institution or bank, an online course, a university, or on-the-job training. For professions such as economic analysts and in the finance industry, any type of training can be beneficial.

If you want to have a solid setup with everything aligned and perfect records of everything, you will definitely require Financial modeling training in the beginning when you have finished with financing and started your own business. An actual program’s completion time ranges from 20 to 1 month, and how well you learn it depends on you.

List of Financial Modeling Courses

The top eight financial modeling courses are listed here, with descriptions of each course that range from basic to advanced. CFI offers more than 24 courses that can be used to develop anyone into a top-notch financial analyst.

Building a 3 statement financial model course

The course is geared toward beginners and teaches the fundamentals of creating a financial model.

Goals for learning:

• Make connections between the three financial figures using Excel formulas and computations.
• Produce an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement using drivers to create a financial projection based on assumptions.
• Learn the key calculations and operations needed to create a dynamic model.

The business valuation modeling course

This course teaches students how to create a discounted cash flow (DCF) model from scratch, building on the three-statement model.

Goals for learning:

• Calculating public business trade multiples through comparative company analysis
• Analyzing prior merger and acquisition (M&A) deals to determine a company’s value
• How to determine a company’s intrinsic value based on its intrinsic value using DCF modeling

Sensitivity analysis course

One of our most popular courses is this one. It teaches students how to add scenario analysis and sensitivity analysis on top of a DCF model.

Goals for learning:

• Make three distinct scenarios: a base case, an optimistic case, and a pessimistic case.
• Utilize Excel’s CHOOSE function to create a scenario chooser and “live case”
• Perform sensitivity analyses in direct and indirect ways.

Mergers and acquisitions financial modeling course

In this course on advanced financial modeling, analysts learn how to simulate a merger or acquisition (M&A).

Goals for learning:

• Make the following assumptions: takeover premium, synergies, and cash sources and uses.
• Make a pro forma model that merges two companies into a single entity.
• Analyze the accretion and dilution of important share measures, such as earnings per share (EPS)
• Analyze how the M&A deal will affect the acquirer’s stock price.

Leveraged buyout financial modeling course

Learn how to create a Leveraged Buyout (LBO) model from scratch in this advanced course for analysts.

Goals for learning:

• Create an established DCF model for the target company.
• Add a lot of debt in different tranches with a lot of leverage.
• Create important transactional hypotheses based on factors like debt/EBITDA, interest rates, covenants, etc.
• Determine the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for various types of investors.

Real estate financial modeling course

Users will learn how the economics of a real estate development project operates by taking this industry-specific financial modeling course.

Goals for learning:

• Discover how to evaluate a building using the cap rate and net operating income (NOI)
• Create a development cash flow model that takes land purchase, building, and sales into account.
• Create a cash flow and IRR waterfall for GPs and LPs by investment type.
• Make a one-page summary and a development pro forma.

eCommerce financial modeling course

Anyone considering launching their own online business or who works for an eCommerce company should take this well-regarded financial modeling course.

Goals for learning:

• Establish the essential presumptions and drivers for the online store.
• Future-proof the three financial statements
• Calculate crucial consumer metrics, including unit economics and lifetime value (LTV).
• Value the company and produce graphs and charts

Advanced financial modeling and valuation course

The case study that forms the basis of CFI’s advanced financial modeling course shows how to evaluate Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) using a variety of valuation techniques.

Goals for learning:

• Determine each business segment’s Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Amazon and its market share.
• Create a historical 3-statement model using actual financial statements.
• Set up all the drivers and assumptions needed to complete the DCF model.
• Make a 10-year business prediction for Amazon.
• Discover more about complex subjects including segmented revenue, stock-based pay, and capital leases.
• Utilizing Capital IQ and PitchBook Data, do comparable business analysis (Comps).
• Execute a SOTP valuation (sum-of-the-parts).
• Create many operational scenarios to investigate various results and values for the company.
• Run sensitivity analyses on important hypotheses, then evaluate the transaction’s overall impact.

Financial Modeling Practice Problems

The top 10 most prevalent issues in financial modeling are as follows:

• The balance sheet does not match up.
• When they shouldn’t be, there exist circular references.
• Some of the model’s assumptions and drivers have no bearing on anything.
• There are other places where the same assumptions might be entered.
• The model has #REF mistakes.
• The cash balance decreases.
• There are both good and bad signs.
• Dates are incorrect
• Realistic assumptions are absent from the modeling.
• The color coding of hardcodes and formulas is incorrect.

How to Build a Financial Model

The process of financial modeling is iterative. Before you can completely bring everything together, you must gradually improve various parts.

Here’s a step-by-step overview of where to start and how to eventually connect everything.

Historical results and assumptions

The historical performance of a corporation forms the basis of every financial model. Three years’ worth of financial statements is obtained and entered into Excel to start creating the financial model.

The next step is to reverse engineer the historical period’s assumptions, which involves figuring out things like the rate of revenue growth, gross margins, variable and fixed costs, AP days, inventory days, and AP days, to mention a few. The forecast period’s assumptions can then be entered as hard codes from there.

Start the income statement

The top of the income statement, which includes revenue, cost of goods sold, gross profit, and operating expenses, can be calculated using the forecast assumptions. This results in EBITDA. Depreciation, amortization, interest, and taxes must be calculated afterward.

Start the balance sheet

The balance sheet can now be completed once the top of the income statement has been established. Calculate the revenue and COGS functions for accounts receivable (AR) and inventory (IN), as well as the assumptions for AR and IN days. Completing accounts payable, which depends on COGS and AP days, comes next.

Build the supporting schedules

A schedule for capital assets like Property, Plant & Equipment (PP&E), as well as for debt and interest, must be made before the income statement and balance sheet are finished. The PP&E schedule will use the historical period as a starting point, adding capital expenditures, and deducting depreciation.

The debt schedule will also take information from the past and adjust for debt growth while deducting repayments. The average debt balance will serve as the basis for interest.

Complete the income statement and balance sheet

The balance sheet and income statement are finished using the data from the accompanying schedules. Link the debt schedule and the PP&E schedule to the income statement’s depreciation and interest sections.

You can figure out your pre-tax income, taxes, and net income from there. The closing PP&E balance and closing debt balance from the schedules should be linked on the balance sheet. 

Pulling forward the ending amount from the previous year, adding net income and capital raised, and deducting dividends or share repurchases will result in the completion of the shareholder’s equity.

Build the cash flow statement

You can construct the cash flow statement using the reconciliation approach once the income statement and balance sheet are finished. Cash from operations is calculated by starting with net income, reversing depreciation, and adjusting for changes in non-cash working capital.

The PP&E schedule’s capital expenditures determine how much money is used for investing, and the assumptions made about generating debt and equity determine how much money is used for financing.

Perform the DCF analysis

After the three-statement model is finished, the time comes to determine free cash flow and conduct the business valuation. Discounted back to today at the firm’s cost of capital, the company’s free cash flow (its opportunity cost or required rate of return).

Add sensitivity analysis and scenarios

The model should now include sensitivity analysis and scenarios after the valuation and DCF analysis sections have been finished. The goal of this analysis is to ascertain how changes in the underlying assumptions will affect the company’s value (or some other indicator).

This is highly helpful for determining the risk of an investment or for establishing a business (for instance, will the business need to obtain capital if sales volume declines by x percent?)

Build charts and graphs

Financial analysts who can clearly communicate their findings stand out from those who are merely competent. Charts and graphs, which are covered in-depth in our advanced Excel course as well as many of the specific financial modeling courses, are the most efficient way to display the outcomes of a financial model.

Charts are far more successful because the majority of executives lack the patience or time to examine the model’s inner workings.

Stress test and audit the model

You still have work to do after the model is finished. The model will then be put through its paces in a series of stressful circumstances to see if it responds as predicted. Additionally, it’s crucial to use the auditing tools presented in our financial modeling fundamentals course to confirm their accuracy and that all of the Excel formulas are functioning effectively.

Conclusion

Financial modeling is the use of spreadsheet software to describe basic arithmetic relationships between variables in the income, balance sheet, and cash flow statements of the company as well as to define the links between the different financial statements.

The main goal of using financial modeling techniques is to develop a computer-based model that will make it easier for the acquirer to comprehend the impact of changing a few operating variables on the firm’s overall performance and valuation.

People also search for How to Prepare Cash Flow Statement

FAQs on How to Practice Financial Modeling

References

• https://www.investopedia.com
• https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com
• https://baremetrics.com
• https://zabeelinstitute.ae
• https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com
• https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com

Recommendations

• How to Prepare Cash Flow Statement 
• What is Strategic Financial Management?
• Personal Finance Planning Process
• How to Detect a Fake Bank Account Balance Prank
• How to Find Outstanding Checks on a Bank Statement