ICAEW.com works better with JavaScript enabled.

Intro to Financial Modelling

This series from the Excel Community's Financial Modelling committee works through the chapters of our Financial Modelling Code and explain how each element translates into practice.

Displaying 1-19 of 19 results
Alistair Hynd
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 1: Model definition and purpose
  • 23 Jan 2020
  • Alistair Hynd
The development and use of financial models in Excel continues to proliferate, as does the variety of approaches and methodologies adopted. Without a universally accepted set of agreed principles, it can be difficult to know what good looks like in financial modelling terms.
Kyle Chaning-Pearce
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 2: Layout & Structure - Laying out a model
  • 20 Feb 2020
  • Kyle Chaning-Pearce
The layout and structure of a model is arguably the most important piece of a model. It is the foundation on which the rest of the model is built: the model infrastructure.
Alexander Carse
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 3: Layout & Structure - Navigation
  • 19 Mar 2020
  • Alexander Carse
In this instalment of the blog series, I will be talking about the principles covered in page 5 of the Financial Modelling Code, “Make Navigation Simple”.
Andrew Paw
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 4: Layout & Structure - Managing Inputs
  • 23 Apr 2020
  • Andrew Paw
Following from last month’s blog on Layout Structure – Laying Out a Model, we continue with this theme and examine some common ways to manage model inputs.
Alexander Carse
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 5: User interface and transparency
  • 21 May 2020
  • Alexander Carse
In this instalment of the blog series, I will be talking about the principles covered in page 6 of the Financial Modelling Code, “User interface and transparency”. User interface and transparency sit together as a section of the financial modelling code because they are two sides of the same coin, by striving to enhance either one of these you will go a long way towards achieving the other.
Jo Hayes
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 6: Formula blocks and consistency
  • 18 Jun 2020
  • Jo Hayes
In this instalment of the series, we talk around the principles covered in page 8 of the Financial Modelling Code, "Use consistent formulas".
Jonelle Johnson-Turner
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 7: Consistency - Timeline
  • 23 Jul 2020
  • Jonelle Johnson-Turner
In this instalment of the series, we examine the “Use consistent placement” principles, as covered in page 9 of the Financial Modelling Code. The previous article explained the importance of consistency in formula blocks. Here we consider the need for consistent structure in models, specifically timelines.
John Yeldham
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 8: Clarity - Use of formatting
  • 12 Aug 2020
  • John Yeldham
The ICAEW’s Financial Modelling Code includes a sensible set of guidelines to help you prepare financial models that work for you and the model user. When preparing a model, one can use formatting to guide the user’s eye, to give context to the contents of cells, to make the model easy to read and provide the right level of detail.
Andrew Paw
INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 9: Clarity - Labelling & explanation
  • 17 Sep 2020
  • Andrew Paw
This article focuses on the fundamental aspects of adding labelling and explanations to Excel models and examples of how this can be achieved to ensure model risks are managed.
Jo Hayes
Exclusive INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 10: Clarity, Units and sign convention
  • 22 Oct 2020
  • Jo Hayes
Continuing under the “clarity” chapter of the financial modelling code, we arrive at the guidance on units and sign convention. When building a model, if we aren’t clear about these, we are setting ourselves up for a world of confusion, and potential modelling catastrophe!
David Lyford-Smith
INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 11: Clarity and Named Ranges
  • 19 Nov 2020
  • David Lyford-Tilley
In this instalment of our continuing blog series on the ICAEW’s Financial Modelling Code, Alistair Hynd, partner at RSM, and his colleague Brandon Maysey explore the main principles behind named ranges: how and when to use them; key points to consider when creating a named range; and how these principles can be extended to VBA when creating macros.
John Yeldham
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 12: Error reduction - Constructing error checks
  • 21 Jan 2021
  • John Yeldham
While it is true that a financial model is never fully right (but is sometimes useful), there are degrees of not rightness and those degrees matter to the users of the model. This article will help you to think about risk and checks when building models.
John Yeldham
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 13: VBA
  • 25 Feb 2021
  • John Yeldham
It is a common request among those that aspire to be great modellers, that they want to "learn" VBA. But just as knowing your debits and credits doesn't make you good at business, knowing VBA doesn’t make you good at modelling. It is more difficult, but more useful, to learn how to structure your models to reduce or eliminate the need for VBA altogether.
Kyle Chaning-Pearce
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 14: Error reduction - Common pitfalls
  • 19 Mar 2021
  • Kyle Chaning-Pearce
In last months post, John Yeldham covered Constructing error checks. In his post he points out that a model is never right – and “there are degrees of not rightness and those degrees matter to the users of the model”.
Jonelle Johnson-Turner
INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 15: Error reduction - Common pitfalls
  • 19 Apr 2021
  • Jonelle Johnson-Turner
In this ICAEW modelling good practice blog instalment, I will be examining basic good practice for calculation techniques, as covered in page 16 of the Financial Modelling Code.
Ben Ducker
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 16: Calculation Techniques - Flags and Masks
  • 21 May 2021
  • Ben Ducker
In this ICAEW modelling good practice blog instalment, I will be taking a closer look at flags and masks and how they can be used to improve your models, as covered in pages 16 and 17 of the Financial Modelling Code.
John Yeldham
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 17: Calculation Techniques - Loan Calculations
  • 23 Jun 2021
  • John Yeldham
A look at how to perform loan calculations, as part of our series on financial modelling.
Alexander Carse
INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 18: Sensitivities and Scenarios
  • 23 Jul 2021
  • Alex Carse
As the penultimate blog in this ICAEW modelling good practice blog series I will be moving away from the guidelines in the code and discussing how using sensitivity and scenario analysis is a key part of any financial model.
Andrew Paw
TECH NEWS INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 19: Wrap-up
  • 19 Aug 2021
  • Andrew Paw
This final post summarises what's been covered in this series on the key components of the Financial Modelling Code, as well as what’s next for the application and use of the guidance.
Displaying 1-19 of 19 results

Search the Excel Community archive

This archive of Excel Community content from the ION platform will allow you to read the content of the articles but the functionality on the pages is limited. The ION search box, tags and navigation buttons on the archived pages will not work. Pages will load more slowly than a live website. You may be able to follow links to other articles but if this does not work, please return to the archive search. You can also search our Knowledge Base for access to all articles, new and archived, organised by topic.

Search the archive Access the knowledge base
Excel polaroid