Financial Modelling Workshop

¡Hola! It seems like you're looking for a structured approach to learning financial modelling, with a focus on improving the readability and robustness of your models. Here's a brief overview of how you can approach each module based on the outline you provided:

Module 3: Financial Statements (Recap)

• Understanding the Basics: Revisit the key components of financial statements, including the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. Understand the relationship between them and how each statement complements the others.
• Real-World Transactions: Learn how to represent various transactions within these statements, ensuring you can accurately depict business activities in your model.

Module 4: Model Structure & Flow

• Model Organization: Study the typical structure of a financial model and understand where each component fits. This includes understanding the flow between different sections such as assumptions, drivers, calculation blocks, outputs, and charts.
• Logical Layout: Learn best practices for organizing your model in a way that makes sense to both yourself and other users who may review or use the model in the future.

Module 5: Model Timeline

• Choosing the Right Timeline: Determine whether an annual, quarterly, monthly, or even daily timeline is most appropriate for your model's purpose.
• Model Construction: Apply leading practices to construct a timeline within your model that accurately reflects the business cycles you are modelling.

Module 6: Data Validation

• Input Assurance: Learn how to apply data validation to the inputs in your model to ensure accuracy and prevent errors that could lead to incorrect outputs.
• Hands-On Practice: Implement data validation techniques in your model to make it more reliable.

Module 7: Timing Flags

• Understanding Timing Flags: Get to grips with what timing flags are, where they can be applied (e.g., at the start of a period or transaction), and their benefits for accurate cash flow forecasting.
• Calculation Techniques: Learn how to calculate timing flags using the drivers in your model and understand how they can highlight issues like overlapping or deferred payments/receipts.

Module 8: Integrated Financial Statements

• Building a Cohesive Model: Set up your financial statements within the model so that they reference the calculated forecasts and update automatically.
• Ensuring Accuracy: Verify that the relationships between different parts of the financial statements are correctly represented and that the sums tie out as expected.

Module 9: Control Accounts

• Control Accounts Explanation: Understand the role of control accounts in a financial model, which serve as a check on your calculations.
• Building Control Accounts: Learn how to build control accounts using forecast drivers and adhere to leading practices. This will help you maintain the integrity of your financial model over time.

Module 10: Working with Historical Data

• Adjusting for New Data: Understand how to update a financial model with new historical data in a way that is robust and manageable.
• Maintaining Model Integrity: Learn techniques to ensure that incorporating new data does not disrupt the existing model structure or integrity.

Module 11: Checks

• Automated Checks: Identify different types of automated checks you can build into your model, such as balance checks and timing checks, to ensure consistency and accuracy.
• Model Health Monitoring: Construct checks that monitor the health of your model and flag any inconsistencies or errors that may arise during use.

Module 12: Post Course Exercise

• Capstone Project: Apply all the knowledge and skills you've acquired throughout the course to a comprehensive project. This will help solidify your understanding and demonstrate your ability to create a professional financial model.

Remember, each module builds upon the previous one, so it's important to grasp the concepts as you progress through them. Good luck with your learning journey! If you need further assistance or have specific questions about any of these modules, feel free to ask.