Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies

Turn your financial data into insightful decisions with this straightforward guide to financial modeling with Excel

Interested in learning how to build practical financial models and forecasts but concerned that you don’t have the math skills or technical know-how? We’ve got you covered! Financial decision-making has never been easier than with Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies. Whether you work at a mom-and-pop retail store or a multinational corporation, you can learn how to build budgets, project your profits into the future, model capital depreciation, value your assets, and more.

You’ll learn by doing as this book walks you through practical, hands-on exercises to help you build powerful models using just a regular version of Excel, which you’ve probably already got on your PC. You’ll also:

• Master the tools and strategies that help you draw insights from numbers and data you’ve already got
• Build a successful financial model from scratch, or work with and modify an existing one to your liking
• Create new and unexpected business strategies with the ideas and conclusions you generate with scenario analysis

Don’t go buying specialized software or hiring that expensive consultant when you don’t need either one. If you’ve got this book and a working version of Microsoft Excel, you’ve got all the tools you need to build sophisticated and useful financial models in no time!

Introduction 1

Part 1: Getting Started with Financial Modeling 5

Chapter 1: Introducing Financial Modeling 7

Chapter 2: Getting Acquainted with Excel 15

Chapter 3: Planning and Designing Your Financial Model 35

Chapter 4: Building a Financial Model by the Rulebook 53

Chapter 5: Using Someone Else’s Financial Model 71

Part 2: Diving Deep into Excel 97

Chapter 6: Excel Tools and Techniques for Financial Modeling 99

Chapter 7: Using Functions in Excel 131

Chapter 8: Applying Scenarios to Your Financial Model 173

Chapter 9: Charting and Presenting Model Output 195

Part 3: Building Your Financial Model 227

Chapter 10: Building an Integrated Financial Statements Model 229

Chapter 11: Building a Discounted Cash Flow Valuation 263

Chapter 12: Budgeting for Capital Expenditure and Depreciation 273

Part 4: The Part of Tens 291

Chapter 13: Ten Strategies for Reducing Error 293

Chapter 14: Ten Common Pitfalls to Avoid 303

Index 315

Danielle Stein Fairhurstis a Sydney-based financial modeling consultant who helps her clients create meaningful financial models for business analysis. She is regularly engaged around Australia and globally as a speaker and course facilitator. She received the Microsoft MVP Award in 2021 in recognition of her technical expertise and contributions to the community.

Turn heads with stunning financial models

It’s not the kind of modeling where you get to strike a pose, but it can still be fun, we promise. Financial Modeling in Excel^® For Dummies is your no-hassle guide to using the Microsoft^® Excel^® application to build beautiful financial models of all shapes and sizes. Project finance, pricing, valuation, reporting—it’s all in here, as we show you how to generate answers using Excel’s powerful functions and features. Together, we’ll make sure those numbers add up. We’ll even help you present the output so that your boss will understand it.

Inside…

• Find Excel’s best functions
• Plan and design your model
• Use templates or build your financial models from scratch
• Follow along with case studies for common modeling tasks
• Avoid errors and pitfalls
• Chart and graph your results