Building a Spreadsheet Forecasting Model

(87 customer reviews)
by

This course explains how to build and operate spreadsheets for forecasting, planning and business models. It’s a practical guide, which takes a step-by-step approach to building, utilising and maintaining models.

£150 +VAT

4 CPD hours

365 days’ access

Use ACPD101 for 10% off any purchase.

Building a Spreadsheet Forecasting Model

(87 customer reviews)

£150 +VAT

4 CPD Course

365 days’ access

Use ACPD101 for 10% off any purchase.

Building a Spreadsheet Forecasting Model

(87 customer reviews)

This course is not currently available. To find out more, please get in touch.

This course will enable you to

  • Establish the ground rules for building a spreadsheet model, including guiding principles and the core elements
  • Build a model including input data, intermediate calculation and output data
  • Put together an executive summary of your model along with any appendices necessary
  • Use scenario planning and sensitivity analysis to improve your spreadsheet models
  • Apply a range of different techniques to assess the impact of potential changes in inputs or variables
  • Maintain a business model and use it to make decisions

About the course

Modern spreadsheets are very powerful tools, and it is easy to build a forecasting or business model. The problem is that the formulae can quickly become complex, and the structure of the model can get very unwieldy. When building a spreadsheet model, you may be able to navigate it well enough, but if other people have to use it they may find it impenetrable.

This course explains how to build and operate spreadsheets for forecasting, planning and business models. It’s a practical guide, which takes a step-by-step approach to building, utilising and maintaining models.

Contents

The foundations of spreadsheet models

The guiding principles of spreadsheet model building
The importance of spreadsheet forecasting models
The key elements in a spreadsheet model
Structuring your spreadsheet
Structuring your spreadsheet forecasting models
The purpose and scope of the model
Definitions, assumptions, and sources of data
Achieving version control

Building the model

Inputting data into a model
Understanding intermediate calculations
Core models
Executive summaries and model overview
Appendices and user guides explained
Using appendices

Scenario planning and sensitivity analysis

Model uses and what-if analysis
Understanding sensitivity analysis
Explaining scenario planning
Presenting the outputs of the model
The benefits of using sensitivity analysis

Building a spreadsheet model of your business

The key principles of building a business model
Using a business model to inform decision-making
Planning and decision-making
Keeping your spreadsheet models up to date
Maintaining the business model
Four key purposes

Author

Ross Maynard

Ross Maynard

Ross has worked as a consultant and trainer for over 20 years, specialising in finance processes, management information and performance measurement. He supports organisations to understand their processes; facilitates improvement teams; and supports staff to work together as a team to deliver tangible and sustainable improvements.

87 reviews for Building a Spreadsheet Forecasting Model

  1. Vishvaprem Punjabi –

    Brilliant course very useful.

  2. Allan Timmins –

    A very informative and interesting course using live spreadsheets that reinforce a best practice approach, using a standard, consistent format. The course also challenges your current knowledge and offers an opportunity to learn new items.

  3. Lynaire Kelly –

    A very helpful course on spreadsheet forecasting. I liked the examples where we had to adapt them with scenarios to get an answer. Guidance afterwards was also helpful and was detailed enough to show where errors may have crept in to my calculations.

  4. Elbert Tu –

    5, nicely presented

  5. Stephen Sotra –

    Not very engaging

  6. Sher Ali –

    informative in understanding the usefulness of spreadsheets for business planing

  7. Richard Davies –

  8. Juan Alberto Tosse Caipe –

    i highly recommend it. excellent content

  9. Ciaran Lynch –

    very practical and usefull

  10. Eileen Jenkins –

    Comprehensive and easy to follow

  11. Jing Liu –

    Good course with practical examples

  12. Bavani Mr –

    Good

  13. Ebenezer Kirk Eduku –

    Quality information for spreadsheet modelers

  14. Temitope Olaitan –

    good

  15. Yuming Shao –

    Good course

  16. Elliot Thornton –

    Most of the course was good, but the answer to the what if analysis in the 3rd part of the course was wrong. The parameters of the question said there was a maximum of 250 delegates per course, but you had 252 in your answer.

  17. David Machin –

    Very informative

  18. Lizzie Porteous –

    Good course

  19. Jeffrey Norman –

    I do have experience in this area. This update is well structured and is ideal for a business analyst to provide critical review of projects and ongoing total business development.

  20. Maryann Efstathis –

    great!

  21. Jonathan Bradshaw –

    .

  22. Dermot Hughes –

    Course presented in a very understandable and meaningful way

  23. Sanooj Pullarote –

    Very informative

  24. Linda Schreurs –

    Course was good. To the point. Good notes. To add to the experience it may be good to have more examples of building models step by step

  25. Gordon Oswald –

  26. Miriam Cox –

    It was informative and useful learning. Some of the spreadsheets didn’t have much explanation and when it came to answering questions it wasn’t clear how they arrived at their answer.

  27. Frances Coffey –

    A very informative course with good resources. Very useful.

  28. Kimberley Alexander –

    good

  29. John Hickson –

    Fairly simple overview, a few minor glitches/crits NOT market leading super quality here but then again not bad and not flashy either. Overall if new to topic okay and if old hand then maybe save your money. As learnt much of this stuff as i went along and a long time ago, i just wanted to make sure hadn’t missed or lost something along the way! These things are irritatingly slow at times but at least this one you can whizz along the content if it is familiar. (Some ones organisation have inflicted this type of trainng i have seen on people that are so painful with no way to accelerate and become more akin to mental torture.) This was clean, simple and had the basics. VFM? – doubtful for me but was reassured from doing!

  30. Sonia Pritchard –

    Not much examples of the scenarios. The course gives a scenario and the workings sheet but not an answer on the best way to complete the spreadsheet model.

  31. Keng Yat Chan –

    Clear and comprehensive explanation of the purpose of spreadsheet models. Easy to understand examples on how to build and interpret spreadsheet models.

  32. Cherrie Chan –

    This course allowed me to know more about the useful of spreedsheet

  33. Julie Ireland –

    It was a good practical course and gave me some ideas to use

  34. James Brammeld –

  35. David Ayres –

    .

  36. Martin John Cope –

    Very interesting

  37. Andrew Parry –

    It is an excellent course to help the finance function to add value to the business

  38. Tat Ying Mary Chua –

    Great examples

  39. Clare Gordon –

    Great intro to spreadsheet modelling, with “real” model examples in excel to work through

  40. Rod Wigbout –

    Nothing to revolutionary. Final module checking in question 3 – is the answer correct – most people didn’t think so.

  41. Sue Cobley –

    It’s fine

  42. Michael Gainlall –

    Some of it assumes greater knowledge of working in specific sectors but in other sectors it not used as much

  43. Christine Landers –

    There are excellent examples. I certainly need to do more work with forecasting as I haven’t had a lot of experience with this.

  44. Ivana Hrnciarova –

    The case study used was about cashflow, while I was looking for forecasting revenue and expenses. However, I still can use some of the information provided.

  45. Bryony Stephen –

    Some of the points were quite basic, I think it would have been useful to go more in depth about actually creating the model and be more specific to Excel spreadsheets. I also think more videos would be helpful.

  46. Freddie Seruwooza Musoke –

    This is an excellent course especially for the visual leaners. I only wish it incorporated alongside the narrative, tutorials/videos to cater for the more auditory learners. The quizes and down loads are superb. Thank you very much. FSM

  47. Neil Arnold –

    I learn tips that will be helpful inbuilding models I want to use to assist in the organisation. Good to see I have back up where I try to use several simpler formula instead of 1 complex one

  48. Ivett Hirling –

  49. Linnette Daniels –

    Good overview of the principles of building a spreadsheet model

  50. Joshua Howarth –

    Very informative & detailed

  51. Sue Moore –

    I found this module extremely frustrating. I understand the concepts of the forecasting models and the business models – that part was fine. The spreadsheet was useful but I’m on a laptop with a small screen and partial eyesight and I found it immensely annoying to adjust someone else’s sheet and try and do the exercises within the 4 hours. I have been at it for over 5 hrs. I found the exercise data to be unclear, ambiguous even and consequently made incorrect adjustments or couldn’t understand what the questions were asking. I’m far from stupid but add in a question like – how would you calculate this – and that says to me what arithmetic did you employ to do it. And yet the data was already given to us. Then, when the answers were given to the exercises there wasn’t enough audit trail to discover how it got to that figure. If it says ‘costs are the same’ I assume the same % of sales – but you might have meant ‘exactly the same whatever the volume’. Be clear please.

  52. Jonathan Vaccaro –

    Excellent course explaining in a very clear way how to construct spreadsheets which explain financial information in a very clear and useful way.

  53. Hannelie Watkins –

    The content was super useful and although I had a good understanding of spreadsheets before starting, having step by step guidance on best practice, in addition to working models, helps to focus one on the task in hand

  54. Malcolm Comerford –

    An excellent course i learned a lot

  55. Jenette Stanley –

    I enjoyed completing the course – Building a Spreadsheet Forecasting Model. It was above my expectations as it was very thorough. I learnt a lot and I will be able to use it in the future. I would definitely recommend this course to other ACCA Accountants.

  56. Agnieszka Russell –

  57. Christopher Wright –

    Pitched at the right level I think

  58. Sandy Heng –

    The available spreadsheets for download to study and interact with along the way.

  59. Ka Yi Chan –

  60. Christopher Carson –

    Provided a well presented course about using spreadsheets to build models to examine profitability of products under nominated scenarios.

  61. Sarah Holloway –

    Videos – calm explanation stressing need for simplicity and need to ensure other users can explain the models

  62. Sylwia Wyborska –

    It summarized the core principles.

  63. Richard Kabwe –

    It has made made understand the preparation of a business model and its benefits to the organisations and a few of its downside issues that need be aware such as danger of of inaccurate information output if not updated regularly. So much to capture , great stuff.

  64. Cheuk Wing Kwan –

    I think just using articles without enough demonstration on the actual building process of the model make it hard to understand the overall procedures

  65. Khang Ning Lim –

  66. Mark Quinn –

    Use models in my current role so very useful

  67. Anna Maio-Price –

    It has given me a good framework for developing a Spreadsheet forecasting model for work.

  68. Mark Casson –

    Succinct coverage of topic with practical examples

  69. Michelle Jex-Brown –

    Clear business model examples

  70. Michael Hill –

  71. Niamh Young –

    Structure to planning and modelling

  72. Neil Traynor –

  73. Amadee Pelgrim –

  74. David Corral Aragon –

  75. Helen Rathbone –

    It was really good and informative

  76. Mahdieh Farahnak –

  77. Joseph Fernandes –

  78. Seewoosagur Domun –

    Gave me a good understanding on how to plan and structure the model

  79. Clive Gard –

  80. Ka Po Wong –

    I can learn the principles of some basic spreadsheet modelling/

  81. Agnieszka Desmond –

    It clearly explains how to built the spreadsheet models so they meet their purpose

  82. Fut Hua Lee –

    Very good course explained in details

  83. Gillian Downes –

  84. Sarah Ellis –

    Helped me understand how to present information in a model and make it more user friendly, and easier to follow the logic behind it.

  85. Melvin Ferry –

    Course was generally poor level of content and seems out of date when considering the functionality available in excel to develop forecast models.

  86. Mica Whittock –

    Provided suggestions & explainations of creating a thorough & reliable forecasting model for business & project purposes

  87. Martin Jones –

    Naturally, this is an area I have fairly wide experience. But this this did set-out good ways of making a model meaning for others who have had input to it and need to react to its findings.

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