The essentials of financial modeling in Excel : a concise guide to concepts and methods

This book provides a concise introduction to financial modeling in Excel. It aims to provide readers with a well-structured and practical toolkit to learn modeling “from the ground up”. It is unique in that it focuses on the concepts and structures that are commonly required within Excel models, rather than on Excel per se. The book is structured into six Parts (containing twenty-one Chapters in total): Part I introduces financial modeling and the general factors to consider when designing, building, and using models. Part II discusses the core features of Excel that are needed to build and use models. It covers operations and functionality, calculations and functions, and sensitivity and scenario analysis. Part III covers the fundamental structures and calculations that are very frequently used in modeling. This includes growth-based forecasting, ratio-driven calculations, corkscrew structures, waterfalls, allocations, triangles, and variations of these. Part IV discusses economic modeling, measurement, and evaluation. It covers the analysis of investments, interest calculations and compounding, loan calculations, returns analysis, discounting, and present values. Part V treats the core applications of modeling within corporate finance. It covers the cost of capital, the modeling of financial statements, cash flow valuation, and ratio analysis. Part VI covers statistical analysis, as well as data preparation, manipulation, and integration