Training Courses
How Our Training Courses Work
Interactive, instructor-led and built on a single modelling standard that has been taught to more than 20,000 people.
See dates & pricesSend enquiry- Hands-onYou build the model,
not watch one being built - CoachedIndividual coaching through
every exercise - 6 themesOne methodology underpinning
every course we run - Take awayThe completed model files
and templates
Our approach
You learn modelling by modelling
Forvis Mazars Financial Modelling designs and delivers financial modelling, valuations and project finance courses for professionals and teams in infrastructure, energy, natural resources and real estate.
Interactivity and individual coaching are the core of how we train. Through step-by-step, instructor-led case studies, you develop skills that last a career.
Our facilitators are drawn from our global team of financial modelling, advisory and tax specialists, several with fifteen to twenty years of modelling experience across hundreds of transactions. They build and audit models as their day job.
Most of the course is you at a keyboard, building, with a trainer watching your screen and coaching you.
What a course day looks like
- Short concept introduction, the principle and why it matters, not a lecture
- Guided build, you construct the section yourself, step by step, alongside the trainer
- Individual coaching, the trainer works the room while you build
- Checkpoint, everyone reconciles to the same position before moving on, so nobody is left behind
- Application, an exercise using the technique on a realistic structure
- Take-away files, the completed model, yours to keep and re-use
The methodology
Six guiding themes
Every course teaches the same standard. These six themes are the foundation of the Forvis Mazars financial modelling methodology, and they are what makes a model built our way recognisable to a lender, an auditor or a colleague who joins in three years.
THEME 1/6
Accessible
Excel can be readily understood by an interested party if presented clearly and structured in a human-readable format. We design models that can be used, read and understood by the end user.
THEME 2/6
Responsive
We expect models to be used live, supporting transactions, presentations and decision making. Use the right functions and structure to keep the model nimble and give fast feedback to the user.
THEME 3/6
Tailored
You cannot build a model from a short description, empathy is needed. Make the model resonate with the end user by understanding their needs and experience.
THEME 4/6
Keep it simple
A model should do what is required of it and no more. Additional complexity and functionality creates clutter that interferes with the user experience.
THEME 5/6
Get it right
Our techniques help ensure models are as close to the truth as possible, and communicate problems clearly and as soon as they arise.
THEME 6/6
Allow for change
Excel is easy to change, and not only by the person who built the model. Rather than second-guess the future with excessive optionality, we build models that can be changed safely.
Formats
Three formats
PUBLIC
Public courses
Scheduled courses across most major cities and our digital online classroom, with participants from multiple organisations. Published prices, published dates, register online. The best route for individuals and small groups of one to five.
PRIVATE
In-house delivery
Any course delivered privately for your team, tailored to your sector. Priced per delivery day, which usually makes it better value from around eight seats.
ANNUAL
Capability partnership
An annual agreement covering a whole team, in-house clinic days, a model helpdesk and capability assessment measured at the start and end of the year.
Practical details
What to expect
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Length | Most courses run one or two days; a few specialist courses are longer. |
| Prerequisites | Stated on every course page. Most assume working confidence in Excel rather than expertise. |
| Preparation | Excel introductory material is sent on registration, so course time is not spent on shortcuts and basics. |
| Group size | Kept small enough for individual coaching through exercises. |
| What you take away | Completed model files, course materials and the underlying templates. |
Free resources
Try the method
We have published written tutorials, each with a downloadable Excel file. They are extracts from these courses.
Start with the DSCR tutorial. It is the most downloaded, it covers a technique every project finance analyst needs and it takes about ten minutes.
Browse the tutorialsAlso free
- Recorded webinars on debt sizing, delay modelling, operational models after financial close and quarterly valuation trends
- Articles covering technique, sector reflections and our published research on AI in financial modelling
- Excel shortcut reference, the productivity list we give our own analysts
What participants say
What the method feels like in the room
“Forvis Mazars Financial Modelling is the gold standard of financial modelling training. One does not attend this course hoping to just get another financial model template. Rather, one attends to learn the underlying concepts of financial modelling, and ultimately have a deeper appreciation of the essential drivers of cash flow and risk in any particular industry or transaction.”
ANZ
“I got the chance to dive deep into financial modelling techniques for project financing renewable assets, and it was a total game-changer. Packed with examples from Australian renewable projects. Over the two days we developed the financial model for a commercial wind farm, through construction, operations, debt and equity financing.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed the digital course. I was a bit hesitant at first. I had taken the Best Practice course face to face previously, and after having done both I prefer the digital approach. The class was small and the trainer did a fantastic job. Something about being online allowed me to be more free to ask questions compared to a physical class.”
Western Australian Treasury Corporation
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Dates, cities, formats and prices are published.
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