Should you use Macros in Financial Modelling?
Many aspiring modellers think that they need to be proficient in macro building in order to become serious financial modellers. Whilst it’s not a bad idea to have a working knowledge of macros—and the language they are built in, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)—it’s certainly not critical for a financial modeller to become a super VBA programmer. As we know, the best sort of financial model uses the simplest tools and introducing macros to a financial model brings a whole new level of complexity.
When people think about financial modelling or forecasting in Excel, what comes to mind is worksheets loaded with formulae, built in a report-focussed layout. Watch as Ken Puls showcases examples of using Excel’s Power Technologies to build Financial Models and Forecasts for clients. From data shaping with Power Query to DAX in Power Pivot, these tools play an essential role in modern financial modelling solutions.
The Full Stack financial modelling community have been working collectively to “solve” the problem of creating flexible rolling monthly forecasts that can cater for new periods of actuals. This is an area of modelling that thousands of businesses and modellers can relate to, and that many find extremely time-consuming and frustrating. 
Major improvements are being made with Microsoft Excel Online. It is completely free, works on any browser and is particularly useful if you need to share files and collaborate with others. It’s basically a slimmed-down version of Excel and although Microsoft is constantly working to improve the functionality, what we want to know is *can we use Excel Online yet for financial modelling?* 
Have you ever built a fantastic Excel model only to have the user “break” it almost straight away? Building a model widely available for anyone to use is very different process to building one for other modellers. If your model is going to be operated by non-Excel users, the challenge is to build a robust model that will stand the test of time but is simple for others to follow as well as bullet-proof so that they can’t mess it up. 
The COVID-19 crisis has made it even more obvious that companies that fail to plan and monitor their cash flow liquidity are planning to fail! Insightful, responsive and dynamic liquidity planning is a must-have for a robust business. Off-the-shelf software can be time-consuming and expensive to implement and does not always provide the necessary flexibility required for dynamic and transparent cash flow planning.
