Top 12 Financial Modeling Concept Checkers | Complete Guide (2024)

5. How to do Financial Projections and Analysis?

The basic financial statements of any company are Income statements, Balance sheets,s and Cash flow statements.

In Forecasting, the important things are assumptions, also called Drivers, as these drivers cause the projections of financial statements. Drivers are calculated based on historical information. These assumptions include growth rate, Costs incurred, capital expenditure, etc.

In Financial Modeling, we have to create independent Schedules like Depreciation schedules, Shareholder’s Equity schedules, Shares Outstanding Schedules, and Debt Schedules. Creating different schedules allows easy access to project information required for linking elsewhere.

To calculate expenses, we group them by departments according to the industry we are modeling. General categorizations of expenses include General and Admin Expenses, Research and Development, and Sales & Marketing Expenses.

Based on Key Ratios, benchmarking of projections can be done.

Sensitivity analysis is a way to check for the impact of changes in major assumptions.

6. What is Revenue Buildup?

A revenue buildup schedule is prepared for estimating a company’s sales. For forecasting the revenue of companies, various factors can be considered. One of them is geography.

With revenue buildup, you get an idea of where your projections are coming from and their potential variance.

7. How are Costs Projected?

A cost sheet is a document that reflects the cost of the products or the services required for a particular project or the department for the performance of the business. The cost sheet consists of DIRECT COSTS like the cost of materials, purchase of stock in trade, etc., and INDIRECT COSTS likeemployee benefits and other expenses.

These historical costs are computed as a percentage of sales, and based on historical values, assumptions are made, and future costs are projected.

8. What is Working Capital?

Networking capitalis the difference between non-cash current assets and non-debt current liabilities.

These net working capital components are often projected as percentages of sales or COGS.

Here, we have imputed important ratios such as accounts receivable days, accounts payable days, inventory days, and inventory turnover.

9. What is Depreciation?

In business, we have assets that last for more than a certain amount of years, e.g., Buildings, machinery, equipment, furniture, computers, and outdoor lighting, but these assets will not last indefinitely.

The company uses up a portion of the cost of these assets during each accounting period, such as a year, quarter, or month. This portion is reported as Depreciation Expense on the income statement.

Depreciation transfers a portion of an asset’s cost from the balance sheet to the income statement each year of the asset’s useful life.

Following is a rough guideline on the preparation of the Depreciation schedule:

a. Create the required line items
b. Reference net sales as the driver
c. Enter past capital expenditures
d. Project capital expenditures estimated over the forecast period
e. Reference past PP & E balances
f. Depreciation Expense

– Forecasted depreciation from existing PP & E
– Forecasted depreciation from new Capex
– Calculate the Total Depreciation Expense

g. Complete Net PP & E table

h. Calculate relevant ratios

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i. Consider the Capex and PP & E and make adjustments (smoothen the curve!) as required

j. Link up the following in the model

– Depreciation Expense to Income Statement

– Depreciation and Capex to Cash Flow Statement

– Net PP & E to Balance Sheet

10. What is Amortization?

Amortization is similar in concept to depreciation. This term is used with mortgage loans. The lender often provides the borrower with a loan amortization schedule. With the amortization schedule, the borrower can see how the loan balance will be reduced over the life of the loan.

Following is a rough guideline on the preparation of the Amortization schedule:

a. Create the lines items

b. Reference net sales as a driver

c. Fill in details of past additions to intangibles

d. Forecast estimated additions to intangibles

e. Reference past intangibles balances

f. Amortization expense

-Forecast amortization from existing intangibles

-Forecast amortization from additions to intangibles

– Calculate total amortization expense

g. Complete the amortization table and calculate the required ratios

h. Link up the following

– Amortization to Income Statement

– Amortization and additions to intangibles to Cash Flow Statement

– Intangibles to Balance Sheet

11. What is Shareholder’s Equity?

Shareholders’ equity includes the firm’s total assets minus its total liabilities. Another way to calculate stockholders’ equity is to add share capital and retained earnings and then subtract treasury shares.

Shareholders’ Equity = Total Assets-Total Liabilities

Shareholders’ Equity = Share Capital + Retained Earnings – Treasury Shares

Share capital, net worth, or stockholders’ equity are alternative terms used to refer to the same concept.

Following is a rough guideline on the preparation of the Shareholder’s Equity schedule:

a. Equity Schedule Overview

b.Set up the line items and input past information

c. Forecast
– Share Repurchases
– Option proceeds & new shares issued for exercised options
– Dividends
– Future equity balances

d.Link up
– Ending balances to Balance Sheet
– Repurchase, options and dividends to Cash Flow Statement

12. What Amount of Debt is Required?

When the company requires funds, it borrows them from lenders as an obligation the borrower owes to the lender of funds. We call this Debt, which includes the principal amount and the associated cost, known as Interest Expense. The debt can be bonds, mortgages, or bank loans.

General steps to be performed for making debt schedule:

a. Calculate Cash Flow Available for Debt Repayment
-Reference in past information on Long Term Debt
-Make sure to enter the mandatory Long Term Repayments (refer to repayment schedule provided in the Annual Report in the discussion on Debt Section)
-Calculate forecasted Long Term Debt Repayments

b.Calculate Cash Flow Available for Revolver
– Revolver = Cash Sweep

c. Calculate Interest Expense/ Income
– Refer to average debt balances
-Revolver interest expenses
– Long Term interest expenses
– Cash Balance for Interest/ Income

d. Link Up
-Forecasted interest expense/ income to Income Statement
-Forecasted debt repayments/ borrowings to Cash Flow Statement
-Forecast debt balances to the Balance Sheet

Top 12 Financial Modeling Concept Checkers

Learn the juice of this article in just a single minute Top 12 Financial Modeling Concept Checkers Infographic.

Also, have a look at this Financial Modeling Course. This course is a bundle of 10+ Sector Financial Modeling tutorials.

You can also learn Financial Modeling here.

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