Best Practice Financial Modelling

Best Practice Financial Modelling Course

Best practice financial modelling taught using the FAST Standard

This course teaches the core financial model design and construction techniques that every professional should know. It is designed for those working with financial models in the corporate, business modelling, banking, treasury, financial advisory, government and infrastructure sectors.

In-person participants will receive post-course access to the online version of the course. Online access and post-course support is ongoing.

Our public courses are run in London and Dubai. The course is also available live online.

Book and pay online for your place below, or contact us to request an invoice.

What will you learn?

We will work closely with you, sharing insights and putting into practice core financial modelling techniques as you model a case study based on a business acquisition.

You will learn to create the step-by-step calculations required to forecast the three primary financial statements — income, balance sheet, and cash flow. More advanced topics will include a valuation of the equity in the case study company (based upon the present value of forecast dividends).

Participants can expect detailed instruction and hands-on practice with a focus on developing and working with a financial model that they have built from scratch.

Post-course, you will receive full and ongoing access to the online version of the course as well as online support from our team of modelling experts.

Who should attend?

Best Practice Financial Modelling is designed for professionals who need to build, modify or run financial models.

For those with limited experience, the course is an excellent introduction to best practice financial modelling. Experienced modellers find the quality and productivity of their modelling improves through the introduction of a standardised approach to model design and construction.

If you would like to do the course online, you can find an online-specific brochure and details here.

CPD accredited 2022-204

Book your course

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Date
Format
Location
Duration
Instructor
Price
13 & 14 May
Classroom Based
Dubai
2 days
Omar Shaker
$2,419
4 & 5 Jun
Classroom Based
London
2 days
Andrew Berkley
$2,419
24, 25 & 26 Jun
Live Online
GMT timezone
12 sessions
Andrew Berkley
$2,030
1 & 2 Oct
Classroom Based
London
2 days
Andrew Berkley
$2,419
Any
Video Based
online
25 hours
Andrew Berkley
$503
As requested
In House
As requested
As requested
Any
$ - Variable

Course Topics

Building the primary financial statements:
  • the accounting equation
  • tracking retained cash and retained earnings
Revenue:
  • price
  • demand / volume drivers
  • flags / placeholder flags
Operating costs:
  • fixed costs
  • variable costs
Escalation / indexation / inflation:
  • day counts
  • date functions
  • data picks: VLOOKUP vs INDEX / MATCH vs LOOKUP / SUMIFS
  • ISNA
Deferred tax:
  • tax expense vs tax paid
  • tax losses carried forward
Non-current assets:
  • balances: initial, BEG and END
  • corkscrews
  • accounting depreciation
  • look back functions: OFFSET vs HLOOKUP vs SUMIFS
  • capital expenditure
Tax effects of non-current assets:
  • tax depreciation
Working capital:
  • accounts receivable
  • accounts payable
  • inventory
Equity finance:
  • share capital
  • dividends
Debt finance:
  • simple scenario selection: nested IF vs CHOOSE vs OFFSET vs INDEX
  • debt principal repayment
  • debt interest
Key outputs / analysis:
  • sensitivities and scenario managers
  • equity valuation: NPV vs XPNV
  • equity returns: IRR vs XIRR
  • performance ratios / lender ratios
Quality control:
  • track sheets
  • checks and alerts
Model finalisation:
  • placeholder management
  • flag management
  • relocating inputs
Find out more:
Best practice financial modelling brochure cover

Our clients

Asset Alliance Group logo
Energia logo
Drax logo
I use my new found skills on a daily basis and can’t speak highly enough of the course and what it has given myself and my colleague. It has changed how we do all of our modelling in the company and has received really positive feedback from everyone that has used the model or reviewed the model.
Sally Brierley, Financial Modeller, FCC Environment
We were stunned at the difference that a standardised approach made. Our new Excel models can provide information that just isn’t accessible through an ERP.
Philip Whittingham COO (and former FD), Virgin Trains
The course was great. I learned so much and really enjoyed it. I’m looking forward to using it in my own work. I would be very happy to recommend the course.
Eric Eastlund, Head of Analytics, SCIO Capital
From start to finish the team were very professional and demonstrated considerable experience in what they were doing. The end result is an exceptionally powerful tool, which is straightforward to use, and now forms the backbone to our forecasting process. I would have no hesitation in recommending F1F9.
Douglas McArthur, CA Group FD, Asset Alliance
[The instructor] was enthusiastic about the material and the course itself which created good engagement in class. I particularly liked the fact that we were consistently taking part in the course, rather than being "taught" we were facilitated.
Andrew Dias, Finance Business Partner, Stansted Airport
The Enterprise model is great value for money. We compared it to the other standard reporting systems available such as Sage and Oracle but the F1F9 solution was much cheaper and also gave us the flexibility to change the way we report our business as it grows and develops. It has halved the time our month end reporting process takes. We started out wanting a model for budgeting purposes only but when we saw what the model could do we decided to use it for actuals reporting as well as our rolling forecasts.
Charles Carolan, Senior Financial Analyst, Skrill
[The instructor] was absolutely excellent. Everything was extremely clear, the pace of the class was spot on. I thought I would come away being slightly better at reading models but actually now I would feel completely confident starting my own.
Emma Paterson,  SSE/ Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Limited 
The team at F1F9 were responsive, hardworking and helped us upgrade our model to be fit for purpose post acquisition. F1F9 took the time to understand our needs early in the process, met deadlines and were professional in their approach.
Investment Manager, UK Private Equity House
Thanks for the excellent academy which has so boosted my own modest modeling skills. F1F9's strong customer service culture is a big help.
Geoffrey Finch, Resident Adviser for Infrastructure Finance for the US Treasury Office of Technical Assistance - Government of Paraguay, Ministry of Finance
I particularly liked the setup of the online training, and the portions provided in each section. The ability to go back and review and exercise with the models after each training and even after a few training provided an excellent opportunity to really 'learn' the skills. The setup allowed for my own pace of learning and the time I was able to dedicate besides work to complete the training. I highly recommended the training to colleagues.
Hartmut Weissmann
Very useful tips and tricks, certainly helped me a lot in understanding and 'simplifying' the enormous models. Thank you very much!
Julie de Bock, Senior Advisory / Corporate Finance, BDO

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