Professionals working in a finance team might build beautiful reports or financial models which we are enormously proud of, as we have usually put a huge amount of work into. These models are not helpful, however, if other people are not able to actually use or understand them and their messages and use them to make decisions. One of the things – and often the missing piece – for financial modellers is having the skills to present the output of the model in a way that is useful and easy for others to interpret.
Recently our friends at Full Stack Modeller conducted the biggest ever survey of the financial modelling profession, and the results were published in February 2021. What are financial modeller’s biggest frustrations? How much do modellers earn? What add-ins and tools beyond Excel do modellers use? Covering tools, standards, risk management and more, the 2021 survey paints a picture of the current state of play in financial modelling.
I’ve been consulting, writing, training and speaking about the use of Excel for analysis, building financial models, budgets and dashboards for many years now and I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been contacted by software providers who’d like “my opinion” on their new software or add-in to Excel which is so much better than plain or, as I like to call it, “vanilla” Excel. Seriously, I get messages about this All. The. Time. So I thought I’d sit down and explain my views on why I stick to Excel.
Having written several books on the subject and hence committed a large part of my career to the use of Excel, I’ve had to seriously consider that perhaps I’m too stuck in my ways to consider any of these new tools. The title of my first Wiley Finance book which has been revised and published three times and sold thousands of copies was “Using Excel for Business Analysis,” so I guess you could say I’m pretty invested in the success of the software.
We used to be able to simply look at last year’s actuals, apply growth trends and the seasonality to build budgets and forecast going forward but we just can’t do that anymore! It’s never been more important to have the skills to be able to build robust, flexible and dynamic budget models to accurately predict budgets and forecasts for future periods.
I am very much looking forward to my new LIVE and ONLINE sessions on one of my favourite topics – budgeting and forecasting! During the many years I’ve been working as a finance & analytical consultant, I’ve built, overseen, implemented and reported against scores of budgets and forecasts across a multitude of industries, but forecasting has never been as much of a challenge as it is at the moment.
Personally, I’ve never been particularly interested in entering any of the financial modelling championship competitions – I suppose I never felt the need to prove anything and it all seemed rather high-stress and hyper-competitive, with the questions being released at all hours of the night. When the new Financial Modeling World Cup launched last month with a small entry fee and a two-hour commitment, I entered more out of curiosity than anything and found it actually quite stimulating and challenging. Being my first attempt and not taking it seriously (admittedly taking a phone call and then making myself tea and toast during the allotted time probably wasn’t wise). I completely bombed, and was rather relieved to see the names are not shown publicly for those who do poorly. Despite my pitiful results, I did find the challenge quite addictive and I took it far more seriously in the second round. I actually made it onto to the leader board at #34, although I am not sure if this rank takes into account my first attempt. I do hope so, as it means I’ll have a better chance at improving!
Happy Halloween! I have been meaning to write about phantom links for a while, and Halloween is a good time to talk about hunting down and exorcise this ghoulishly annoying phenomenon from your financial models.
The Balance Sheet can be one of the trickiest financial statements to model, as several line items are the result of decisions you make for the other financial statements. Most importantly, getting your balance sheet to balance (and stay balanced!) can be quite a challenge.
Here are a few tips to help you master the balance sheet:
If you’re planning to pursue a career in financial modelling, there is no shortage of free resources to help you improve your financial modelling skills.
There are also hundreds of financial modelling training courses to choose from; most will give you a certificate of attendance, and an opportunity to claim Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points from your professional body.
Some will even give you a Certificate of Completion (note the capital C!)
Professionals working in a finance team might build beautiful reports or financial models which we are enormously proud of, as we have usually put a huge amount of work into. These models are not helpful, however, if other people are not able to actually use or understand them and their messages and use them to make decisions. One of the things – and often the missing piece – for financial modellers is having the skills to present the output of the model in a way that is useful and easy for others to interpret.
Recently our friends at Full Stack Modeller conducted the biggest ever survey of the financial modelling profession, and the results were published in February 2021. What are financial modeller’s biggest frustrations? How much do modellers earn? What add-ins and tools beyond Excel do modellers use? Covering tools, standards, risk management and more, the 2021 survey paints a picture of the current state of play in financial modelling.
We used to be able to simply look at last year’s actuals, apply growth trends and the seasonality to build budgets and forecast going forward but we just can’t do that anymore! It’s never been more important to have the skills to be able to build robust, flexible and dynamic budget models to accurately predict budgets and forecasts for future periods.
Personally, I’ve never been particularly interested in entering any of the financial modelling championship competitions – I suppose I never felt the need to prove anything and it all seemed rather high-stress and hyper-competitive, with the questions being released at all hours of the night. When the new 
Happy Halloween! I have been meaning to write about phantom links for a while, and Halloween is a good time to talk about hunting down and exorcise this ghoulishly annoying phenomenon from your financial models.
The Balance Sheet can be one of the trickiest financial statements to model, as several line items are the result of decisions you make for the other financial statements. Most importantly, getting your balance sheet to balance (and stay balanced!) can be quite a challenge.
If you’re planning to pursue a career in financial modelling, there is no shortage of free resources to help you improve your financial modelling skills.
