Spreadsheet Models for Managers


Getting Access to Spreadsheet Models for Managers


If Spreadsheet Models for Managersyou use Excel to model businesses, business processes, or business transactions, this course will change your life. You’ll learn how to create tools for yourself that will amaze even you. Unrestricted use of this material is available in two ways.

As a stand-alone Web site
It resides on your computer, and you can use it anywhere. No need for Internet access.
At this Web site
If you have access to the Internet whenever you want to view this material, you can purchase on-line access. Unlimited usage. I’m constantly making improvements and you’ll get them as soon as they’re available.

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Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, one month" by credit card, for USD 69.95 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, on-line edition, three months" by credit card, for USD 199.00 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.
Order "Spreadsheet Models for Managers, downloadable hyperbook edition" by credit card, for USD 199.00 each, using our secure server, and receive download instructions by return email.

To Order by Mail

Make your check payable to Chaco Canyon Consulting, for the amount indicated:
  • For the download: USD 199.00
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  • For access online for one month: USD 69.95
And send it to:
Chaco Canyon Consulting
700 Huron Avenue, Suite 19C
Cambridge, MA 02138

To use the course software you’ll need some other applications, which you very probably already have. By placing your order, you’re confirming that you have the software you need, as described on this site.

Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Basics of financial models 8/2
Session Links
  • Financial models tell you about companies or their parts
    • Typically of interest to investors and creditors
    • Attributes that are modeled are almost always in monetary units
    • Both internal and external models
      • Internal: used for financial management
      • External: three standard financial statements
    • Income Statement (Revenue and Expenses for a given period)
    • Balance Sheet (Financial Position at the end of the period)
    • Cash Flow (Statement of Changes in Financial Position during the period)
  • Relevance to course project
    • If you choose to model an entire company you’ll find it helpful to express the model in terms of these three financial statements

This is the first of three sessions that explore financial models. They should be helpful to you if your course project entails modeling a business or business unit. But these next three sessions will also be helpful to you in another sense. They build to a punch line that shows how to model some very complex transactions — lease transactions — using sophisticated techniques that make the models relatively easy to understand. That is a theme of this course — we deal with complexity by using powerful techniques that reduce the complexity and make it comprehensible, once you understand the techniques.

We won’t get into much detail in the financial end of things, because this isn’t a course in finance. But we’ll show you how to model a simple financial structure using the powerful techniques we’ve been showing you so far.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 27-Apr-2016 04:15:26 EDT

Using Named Formulas

In the demonstration for this session, we installed a formula for depreciation that looked pretty complicated. It does save maintenance trouble, though, when the depreciation term changes for any reason. But what happens when the depreciation schedule changes in a more radical way? What if the depreciation schedule is made to be some form other than linear?

The end of this session’s demonstration gives an example of an alternative schedule, but as you can see, its formula is very different. If we’re developing a complex model with several applications of depreciation formulas, and the depreciation formulas must be changed, we would have a significant maintenance task on our hands. To avoid that kind of labor, we can define a user-defined name that contains the depreciation formula. For more about this technique, see the tip box in the narrative for this session’s demonstration.