Working With Financial Models

Working with Financial Models teaches the principles and skills needed to work safely and effectively with financial models, including how to test and review them. The course is practical and hands-on, and suitable for all model types and business sectors. It includes ongoing post-course support from our team of expert modellers.

This course is available on an in-house, or live online basis.

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

What will you learn?

By the end of the course you will be able to:

Navigate and read models more effectively
Understand the best practices that models should follow
Perform technical reviews of models, including reviewing them for inconsistent formulas, embedded constants, unused inputs and workings
Build a best practice input structure including scenario and sensitivity functionality
Use Excel structures to maintain version control and an audit trail
Undertake high level analytical reviews of a model’s outputs and a more focussed review on targeted elements of the model

Who should attend?

This course is designed for professionals who need to work with and rely on complex financial models, either on an ongoing basis or to support a particular transaction.

The case study for the course is based upon a going concern but the principles and techniques we teach are transferable to all business sectors and all types of financial models.

CPD accredited training

Book your course

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Date

Format

Location

Duration

Instructor

Price

20 & 21 Mar

Live Online

Europe/Gulf timezones

6 hours

John Dimberline

$1,006

20 & 21 Mar

$1,006

Location

Europe/Gulf timezones

Instructor

John Dimberline

Duration

6 hours

Format

Live Online

Course Topics

Set up

setting up the file
setting up Excel
navigational shortcuts
maintaining audit trail

High level review and familiarisation

locating items in the model
analytical review of the financial statements
reviewing the model's inputs
further familiarisation

Review of how the model has been built

compliance with modelling best practices
identification of high risk features
setting minimum modelling requirements

Technical review of the model

using Excel functionality to identify technical errors
embedded constants
inconsistent (and missing) formulas
Excel errors
misplaced inputs

Targeted review

detailed review of standard calculations
using a template for checks and standard metrics
reviewing line items by interrogating formulas

Running scenarios and stress testing

adding a scenario structure
making changes and rationalising results
making changes to calculations

Concluding the review

keeping track of review points
checklist review

Find out more:

Working with financial models brochure cover

DOWNLOAD COURSE BROCHURE

Would you like us to come to you?

We can deliver our course exclusively to your company and at your own offices.

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Our clients

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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Course reviews

Very knowledgeable and helpful - course was well designed and the output products extremely useful!

T. A.

March 28, 2024

The instructor John had a very good explanation style, good pace and organised materials. I would recommend him and thanks a lot for the new insights!

T. S.

January 26, 2024

Great course! At points the pace was too fast for me, so had to ask for clarification.

S. B.

January 30, 2024

The delivery overall was excellent and the learnings were quite valuable. What I think can be improved upon:I would suggest that for more hands-on experience and participation by all participants, more time be allotted for the training.

Seplat Energy

November 28, 2023

Very helpful for any query and able to answer question. nice people

B. G.

November 22, 2023

Mr. Dimberline led the course in a very smooth and efficient way. Easy to follow explanation with hands on experience.

M. H.

September 26, 2023

There was no teaching assistant this time. I had already participated in other F1F9 courses with John and I really like his teaching style. He explains concepts in a very clear way, in a pace that is almost always good for me to be able to understand and repeat what he proposes. The course is rather fast, it's hard to grasp these concepts in just 1 day but up to us to put it in practice in our jobs. Thanks a lot!

J. L.

September 20, 2023

The course was very interesting and useful and John very talented. It might though be useful to increase some interaction between participants and provide more pre-course practice materials/exercises.

Ermal Baze

June 27, 2023

John is very pedagogue and interesting. He made the session interactive by asking regularly questions to the audience. Finally he took time to explain the concepts to everybody. He masters perfectly excel skills and adapts his teaching to french short cuts.

J-B G.

June 20, 2023

Very clear instructions and strong involvement. Good balance between questions to make people participate and explanations.

A. A.

June 20, 2023

Everything appeared useful for me and I hope to transfer the analysis of already created models into my day to day.

James Homer CA-CIB

September 16, 2021

Training pace very appreciated, was not slow and energy of the instructor keeps the attention. I personally also appreciate the fact that we were presented the whole structure and that we come back to this structure after each step, to see how we are going both on a global & detailed perspective. Thx.

N G

June 11, 2020