Financial Modelling in Microsoft Excel/Overview

Financial models need to be: useful – they need to assist the user in solving the business problem This needs good business analysis and design skills accurate – they must do exactly what they say they do This needs correct logic, accurate calculations & relevant results flexible, so they can evolve throughout the analytical process and beyond provable – the inputs, calculations and results can all be verified This needs clear layout, good documentation, data validation & results testing. A good guiding rule is to keep things as simple and as clear as possible, for example: using common functions rather than complex or rarely used functions keeping formulae short not being "clever", which may just confuse other people separating the spreadsheet into clearly marked sections Code Complete, the classic book on programming by Steve McConnell, says that managing complexity is the major imperative.