WSP Financial Modelling
Why do you never want to re-enter the same input more than once in your model? -
Answer- Bc. you want your model to be dynamic
Components of a financial statement model? - Answer- Income statement
Balance sheet
Statement of cash flows
Both historical results and forecasts
What colour text should you use for:
Hard-coded inputs
Formulas
Links to other worksheets
Links to other files
Links to data providers - Answer- Hard-coded inputs -> blue
Formulas -> black
Links to other worksheets -> green
Links to other files -> red
Links to data providers -> dark red
Should you hide rows? - Answer- No, grouping is better
Should you merge cells? - Answer- No, centering across selection is better
Footnotes vs comments? - Answer- Footnotes will show up when model is printed
Comments for internal purposes
If you want to delete a worksheet and want to know if there are any links to that
worksheet, how can you do this? - Answer- Ctrl + F
and then search for the name of the worksheet you want to delete
What documents would you gather prior to starting to model? - Answer- Latest
annual report and corresponding 4th quarter press release and earnings call
transcript
Latest equity research & EPS consensus estimates
Last 6 months news run (stock splits, acquisitions and other material changes)
For quarterly models and LTM calculations...
-also get latest 3 quarterly reports and corresponding press releases & earnings calls
Why pay attention to press releases and earnings calls? - Answer- Available weeks
before the relevant annual/quarterly report -- if you ignore the press release, you
could be ignoring an entire quarter of availabe results
Why do you never want to re-enter the same input more than once in your model? -
Answer- Bc. you want your model to be dynamic
Components of a financial statement model? - Answer- Income statement
Balance sheet
Statement of cash flows
Both historical results and forecasts
What colour text should you use for:
Hard-coded inputs
Formulas
Links to other worksheets
Links to other files
Links to data providers - Answer- Hard-coded inputs -> blue
Formulas -> black
Links to other worksheets -> green
Links to other files -> red
Links to data providers -> dark red
Should you hide rows? - Answer- No, grouping is better
Should you merge cells? - Answer- No, centering across selection is better
Footnotes vs comments? - Answer- Footnotes will show up when model is printed
Comments for internal purposes
If you want to delete a worksheet and want to know if there are any links to that
worksheet, how can you do this? - Answer- Ctrl + F
and then search for the name of the worksheet you want to delete
What documents would you gather prior to starting to model? - Answer- Latest
annual report and corresponding 4th quarter press release and earnings call
transcript
Latest equity research & EPS consensus estimates
Last 6 months news run (stock splits, acquisitions and other material changes)
For quarterly models and LTM calculations...
-also get latest 3 quarterly reports and corresponding press releases & earnings calls
Why pay attention to press releases and earnings calls? - Answer- Available weeks
before the relevant annual/quarterly report -- if you ignore the press release, you
could be ignoring an entire quarter of availabe results
