Training

We offer bespoke training courses on financial modelling, company valuation and advanced data analysis in. As a visiting lecturer at City University, Simon created the highly successful Financial Modelling in Excel course and has taught Financial Modelling & Corporate Finance courses for Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Citigroup, The Investor Relations Society, Nomura and RBS
Our training courses can be tailored to your needs but have at their core a focus on building models that are simple, robust, flexible and transparent. These courses tend to be 10-20 hours in length and can be delivered as intensive study our spread out over a number of weekly sessions. We can travel to any UK location to deliver training. We have listed below 3 course outlines below as an illustration of the training we can offer.

Illustrative outline for Financial Modelling Course

1) Using Excel efficiently and modelling best practice

Course Structure:
Setting Excel Defaults
Custom Number Formats
Using styles within Excel
Keyboard shortcuts
Customising the Quick Access Toolbar
Modelling Best Practice: Design consistency,
Modelling Best Practice keeping unique formulae to a minimum; Limiting formulae complexity;
Separating inputs, calculations outputs;
Using Range Names

2) Forecasting the Income Statement and Balance Sheet

The Structure of the IS
Revenue Patterns
Different revenue drivers for different industries
Cost Behaviour
Lookups ( VLOOKUP, INDEX & MATCH)
The structure of the balance sheet
Forecasting PPE
Forecasting Working capital
Working Capital Days

3) Forecasting the cash flow and modelling complex debt structures

The Structure of the Cashflow
The interest calculation and the circularity issue
Adding in forecasts for taxes, depreciation & dividends
Recap on financial statement forecasting
Building in error traps into the model
Sumif Formula with an inexact condition
Data validation
Modelling Complex Debt Structures: The debt hierarchy.
Modelling Complex Debt Structures: Creating debt rules
Modelling Complex Debt Structures: An LBO model
Modelling debt covenants and debt headroom

4) Sensitivity analysis

Models, best estimates and the flaw of averages
An introduction to sensitivity analysis
Different forecast scenarios
Using Data Tables
Tornado diagrams
A brief introduction to Monte Carlo Simulation

5) Advanced modelling techniques

Introduction to macros
Using the camera tool
Macros: Basic Security issues
Using Solver & Goal seek
Using user forms

Illustrative outline for course in Data Analysis & Visualisation using Microsoft Excel

1) Thinking about data:

Classifying data into numerical, ordinal, categorical, date and string data types

2) Sourcing & Extracting Data:

Importing data from external databases
Web scraping

3) Organising Data:

Tables in Excel
Range Names
Dynamic Range Names

4) Cleansing & Validating Data

Using Text Functions to extract information from data strings
Cleansing Dates
Data Validation

5) Manipulating Data:

IF Statements and Boolean alternatives
Sumif(s), Countif(s) and Averageif(s) formulae. Creating equivalent formula for
Maxif(s)
Pivot Tables
Power Pivot
Lookup Functions
Data Sorting & Filtering
Data Mining add in
What if Functionality (Goal Seek & Data Tables)
Using Solver for Optimisation problems
Array Formulae

6) Classifying Data:

K means clustering in excel to segment data populations

7) Predicting & Testing Data

8) Visualising Data

From Florence Nightingale to Steven Few: A very brief history of data visualisation
Gestalt Principles of data visualisation
Data Visualisation in Excel: Using Excel charting functionality in Excel 2013 and
earlier versions
Using add ins and workaround to tackle visualisations not possible in Excel 2013 and
earlier versions (waterfall charts, treemaps)
New visualisations in Excel 2016

Illustrative outline for course in Valuation Modelling/Corporate Finance

1) Financial modelling best practice:

Some basic rules for making your model transparent and user friendly

2) The model starting point: An integrated set of P&L, Balance Sheet & Cash Flow forecasts

The Structure of the P&L
Revenue Patterns
Cost Behaviour
The structure of the balance sheet
Forecasting PPE
Forecasting Working capital
Working Capital Days
The Structure of the Cashflow
The interest calculation and the circularity issue
Adding in forecasts for taxes, depreciation & dividends
Recap on financial statement forecasting
Building in error traps into the model

3) An overview of valuation methodologies: Absolute & Relative approaches to valuation

4) Absolute valuation methodologies – The discounted cash flow:

The constituents of an enterprise discounted free cash flow: What is included what is not
Coming up with an appropriate discount rate
Sense checking the numbers: What does the cash flow tell us about predicted returns on capital? Is this realistic?
Choosing a terminal growth rate

5) Relative Valuation approaches:

An overview of possible relative valuation metrics to use (Sales based, cash flow based, profit based, asset based)
What metric is most appropriate for your business
What timeframe to look at
What reference points in terms of companies and indices to use in relative valuation
When to use asset based multiples