Agenda at a Glance
08:30am Registration and Welcome Coffee
09:00am Course Starts
10:40 - 11:00am Morning Tea
12:45 - 1:30pm Networking Lunch
3:00 - 3:20pm Afternoon Break
5:00pm Course Ends
The following sessions will be covered over the two-day interactive workshop
INTRODUCTION TO FINANCIAL MODELLING
Brushing up on Excel skills
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Key Excel functions, functionalities, features and shortcuts
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Time series analysis: determining the forecast period and periodicity
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Key concepts of “Best Practice” modelling
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Understanding the factors that govern the model structure
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Case study: laying out a financial model
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Why templates don’t work
ACCOUNTING ISSUES IN CONTEXT
Why accounting is important
Understanding accounting policies
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Explaining the three primary financial statements:
o Income Statement
o Balance Sheet
o Cash Flow Statement -
Case study: three-way integrated financial modelling
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Importance of the Opening Balance Sheet and associated adjustments
MODELLING CASE STUDY
Development of a basic model from a blank slate
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Scoping the transaction and the model
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What should the financial statements look like in our models?
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Building in error, sensitivity and alert checks
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How can we incorporate alternative debt structures and interest during
construction into the model? -
Continuing the case study example
Model construction 101
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How scoping and outputs determine the order of construction
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Layout of a model revisited:
o Why financing approach is important
o Presentation method
o What-if ideas
o Other output considerations -
Methods of building model assumptions
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Building a working analysis from history
Capital considerations
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Considering needs as well as sources and uses
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Why working capital is so important to the success of the acquisition – and to financial modelling
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Comparing different working capital modelling techniques and
understanding the potential traps to watch out for in modelling -
Working capital vs. depreciation – a subtle modelling point
Capital expenditure modelling
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Capital assets and depreciation without acquisition
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The traps in capital expenditure modelling: why depreciation calculations are often wrong
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Smoothing capital expenditure
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Revisiting accounting adjustments
THE ROLE OF DEBT IN A FINANCIAL MODEL
Modelling debt
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Returns on capital
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Returns of capital
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Financing the acquisition
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Servicing debt: calculating interest using mathematics, without using
circular references
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Debt and financial structure; orchestrating debt scheduling
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Issues with modelling multiple debt facilities:
o Risk
o Return
o Ranking
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Incorporation into financial statements
TAXATION
Modelling tax
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Key principles behind accounting and taxation assumptions: understanding the rational for the similarities and differences
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Basic tax computations
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Permanent versus timing differences: the implications for deferred tax
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Modelling tax depreciation
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Modelling tax losses
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DISCUSSION
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Neural networks, LLMs, ChatGPT, GPTs and Copilot
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Importance of prompt engineering
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Existing AI: what it can and cannot do
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Alternatives to AI
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Reliability, hallucination and calculation issues
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Document processing, data analysis, pattern recognition and
financial modelling impacts
