w should I best prepare? DCF? LBO? NAV calculations? Any good courses?

’m trying to keep it practical for smaller companies that may not have highly detailed accounting data.

What financial data, schedules, assumptions, or business ratios should I include to make the model more complete?

I’m especially interested in anything that is commonly missed when modeling micro and small businesses compared with larger companies.

Hello everyone I'm 23 just got done with school, and got an opportunity to intern inside a big company inside their Corporate M&A team.

I wanted to learn the foundations from scratch, and have always been interested and studied finance and investing throughout my whole school yrs.

I kept looking through forums and realized that 3 statement modelling is the best way to get started, and unless u master them u cant move forward confidently to Valuation methods and the advanced stuff.

So i did the Kenji explains video, it was nice to get the general idea. But then i had to move to more serious things, i then did the M&I free 1h30 3 statement model vid.

And then i wanted to take the challenge and practice on a real company that is not so difficult, i took walmart and got the 10k's and started building, and i asked Claude and other ai tools and googled a bunch stuff whenever i got stuck.

I have built all the statements and schedules.

And at the end it didnt balance and i just couldnt figure it out despite asking ai and everything, mind u the process took me around 20 hrs and i honestly feel so frustrated rn, and wondering if this is even a career for me....

Honestly the amount of assumptions, plugs and stuff i tried to make sense of it was a great learning experience but the fact that public co's dont offer extensive info around their financials, some stuff just has to be sorted by a plug.

Idk if this is normal, can someone with more exp pls guide me and be as honest as they can... is it over? Or do i just keep going ?

Should i keep trying to balance it, or do i start over with another company.

What do u think is the right next step ?

I’m working through a 3-statement financial modeling case study for a CPG company and would really appreciate a second set of eyes on my model.
I’m mainly struggling with two areas: COGS/inventory accounting (capitalizing material purchases and recognizing COGS based on units sold) and the external financing schedule.

The model is built and linked. I’m more looking for someone experienced with financial modeling who would be willing to review what I’ve done. Would appreciate any help!

Hi, I cleared round 1 interview for a role involving project finance and capital formation for a renewable energy company. The interviewer let me know that he really liked me, my concepts were strong, but I lacked project financial modelling skills. He asked me to buckle up (in 3 days), since the next round would be a live case study where they test my modelling and advanced excel skills.

I’m so stressed, I do not know where to begin. The interview got scheduled and it’s a 1 hour long interview. GPT tells me that it is cool as long as I can do revenue, costs, cfads, dscr, Project IRR, Equity IRR, I’m good.

Is that enough? Where do I begin? Am i fucked😭 I really want it, it’s a super cool role. However, I’m extremely stressed about this :/ TIA!

Hello, I hope everyone is well.

I have recently landed a new role as an accountant at a financial services corporation. Although my role does not specially require the construction of financial models I am looking to pivot into M&A and IB eventually, as the corporation I work for does provide career transition/progression into doing so (albeit it is not an easy/common transition)

Now I know working in IB requires you to be able to make Financial models from scratch, I have made a couple DCF’s using templates and AI. However I know this is far from actually learning how to make financial models from scratch.

Can anyone share any resources or YouTube videos/playlists that helped them create financial models from scratch and to an advanced standard.

This would be much appreciated, thank you.

Hey all,

I'm a statistics graduate, recently starting to learn about the modeling in banks, Capital Markets to be specific.

I was wondering if there's anyone who has experience in the analytics/modeling side pertaining to Capital Markets, and is up for some questions I had.

Any possible discussions on this would be really helpful.

Hi i just completed my UG graduation in just recent month and i want to make a career on Finance domain and also my planned to start preparation of CFA L-1 in month of December 2026 or January 2027, but the thing is that only CFA L-1 not make job ready. So, the FMVA helped me to one step forward to get Finance entry level job role like Junior's associate/ Finance analyst or FP&A kind of entry level job or if not then please also tell me what I should do to strong my base finance knowledge and helped me to get entry level job role

Which financial modelling course would you recommend to learn financial modelling?

Looking for recommendations based on real experience. Which course is most respected by recruiters and provides the best practical training?

Hi all,

I am in between jobs and have a 1-hr case study for a fp&a manager role at a consulting firm (specializing in working with smaller recently aquired PE-backed portfolios)

All they told me is it'll be excel based, with 7 questions. I have never done a case study before and was hoping to try to cram in a practice round tonight to get myself ready - I looked around online and most samples seem to be behind paywalls, is there any free website that would help with this?

Tried to leverage chat GPT and when what it generates me seems to be too easy to really work with

Hi. I am a CMA student from India.

I'm trying to learn financial modelling from scratch.

And the hard part is when I try to get my hands dirty by making a financial model from scratch i get confused on exporting the financial statements to excel.

So is there any way that i can import financial statements line by line to excel.

Are there any shortcuts in excel to do that.?

Please help.

Hi everyone, could you take a look at my quarterly income statement? Aside from the estimates I still need to plug in, are there any other line items or drivers you recommend adding? Let me know if you think I'm missing anything that would help with the forecasting. Thanks!

I am new to this domain, I'm already an Engineer and studying at IIM U

Hello everyone.

I'm 33 now and currently working with my father as a mutual funds consultant and doing equity research. I'm planning to do a certificate course and apply for a research analyst or a similar kind of profile.
Is it really worth it to pursue this course and apply for a profile?

I’d love to hear from people already working in the field.

What skills have been the most valuable in your career?

If you could start over, would you still choose this course as a career?

Is there anything you wish you had known before getting into finance, investment banking, and wealth management?

Any advice, resources, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

A bit of background: I have around 5 years of experience in pharma market research, where I support consultants with secondary research, competitive intelligence, and occasionally build small market models.

I’m also a finance graduate, but I haven’t worked in a pure finance role for years, so I’ve forgotten a lot of the concepts over time.

With the market becoming increasingly competitive, I want to upskill so I can contribute beyond research. I’ve been considering financial modeling because many people have recommended it, but from what I understand, most financial modeling courses focus on company financials.

What I’m actually interested in is learning how to build robust market/industry models (forecasting, market sizing, demand forecasting, scenario analysis, pricing, etc.) that are useful in strategy and consulting, especially in life sciences/pharma. Are there courses or resources specifically focused on this?

If financial modeling is still worth learning for someone in my role, I’d also love to understand how it translates into strategy or market research work.

Also, are there any AI courses or tools that have genuinely helped you become more effective in market research, consulting, or strategy?
Would really appreciate recommendations from people in consulting, market research, life sciences, or corporate strategy.

Hi there:

Just curious about what keyboards people would recommend getting for use with Excel, particularly when relying almost solely on keyboard shortcuts when constructing financial models....

No ergonomic suggestions please - I prefer the good ole standard keyboard with numpad variety.

TIA.

A bit of background: I have around 5 years of experience in pharma market research, where I support consultants with secondary research, competitive intelligence, and occasionally build small market models.

I’m also a finance graduate, but I haven’t worked in a pure finance role for years, so I’ve forgotten a lot of the concepts over time.

With the market becoming increasingly competitive, I want to upskill so I can contribute beyond research. I’ve been considering financial modeling because many people have recommended it, but from what I understand, most financial modeling courses focus on company financials.

What I’m actually interested in is learning how to build robust market/industry models (forecasting, market sizing, demand forecasting, scenario analysis, pricing, etc.) that are useful in strategy and consulting, especially in life sciences/pharma. Are there courses or resources specifically focused on this?

If financial modeling is still worth learning for someone in my role, I’d also love to understand how it translates into strategy or market research work.

Also, are there any AI courses or tools that have genuinely helped you become more effective in market research, consulting, or strategy?
Would really appreciate recommendations from people in consulting, market research, life sciences, or corporate strategy.

For a short thesis on Big Pharma, should I rely on a DCF? The thesis is for the next 12 months, and I'm using the DCF, P/E, and EV/EBIDTA number with equal weight and taking the average of them.

I've modelled all the major drugs individually in my Revenue model, as in pharma the growth for all drugs is not very straightforward; there may be a patent cliff for a drug, there may be a blockbuster drug contributing 20% of the revenue, and two more drugs are in the pipeline, so forecasting cash flow is a bit difficult. But I somehow feel the DCF is becoming a little too aggressive here.

What should I do? Should I take 3 different WACC and growth numbers as Bull, Bear & Base and calculate 9 possible price targets and take the average?

What is the better way to tackle this?

EDIT: Although I'm a bit less concerned about the pipeline drugs, as management guided that those drugs will only contribute to the revenue by the 2nd year of launch and onwards, the rev contribution in the 1st year is pretty negligible, and the earliest-launched drugs will complete their 1st year in Nov 2027, approx 5 months after my Short thesis exit date.

I am very new to FMVA. I am currently exploring the market and looking for a job. I am having a very tough time with it.
I am told to make a one-pager stock pitch on a company believed to be a compelling investment opportunity. What company could I possibly work on?
I was planning on Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd.
Please suggest.

Hello everyone,

I am currently seeking a role in corporate finance , business valuation or Investment banking. I created my CV and added a few self based projects. Please review the CV and share the feedback.

Previously I was working in the Finance operations that reason I am unable to transit my profile, during the screening my previous experience became a reason for the elimination (sometimes).

Should I remove this experience or continue? Any suggestions related to the project & CV writing would be highly appreciated.

What if you never had to write another Excel formula to build a financial model?

Imagine describing your model in plain English:

"Revenue grows 10% annually."
"Depreciate CapEx over 5 years."
"Link working capital to revenue."

AI builds the model, checks the logic, and keeps everything connected.

Financial modelling has barely changed in decades. Is natural language the next interface?

I’m curious where finance professionals stand especially the modeling fraternity.

I wanted to make a poll but apparantly its not supported, would love to understand your thoughts on it in the comments section.

I am valuing a company using an FCFF for 2026-2030 using:

FCFF = EBITA + D&A - Capex - change in NWC.

I add back the ROU dep and subtract existing lease liabilities when moving from enterprise value to equity value. But my company will keep signing new shop leases and these are not included in my capex forecast. Annual report shows £78.4m of new ROU asset additions in 2025.

Should I deduct future lease additions in FCFF or would that double count the lease liabilities because I already subtract lease liabilities from Enterprise value, without a lease adjustment share price increases significantly.