r/financialmodelling

I am currently preparing a DCF model from scratch for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. This is for a job interview. I am doing this for the first time. I would appreciate if anyone could help me by reviewing my model and giving some insights. Thanks in advance.

Hi, I know this questions has been asked many many times but I would like to enquire from those who have taken either of these two courses. As I am a student and my school does not offer these courses for free, i have to front it out of pocket. I want to take these courses for the knowledge as well as the credibility of the certificate, i know that hiring managers will not hire based on one certificate but i would also like to have the more credible certificate, which i believe is the Wallstreet Prep certificate. However, I am not able to fund the premium package and will only be able to purchase the basic package due to a lack of funds.

Question: Is the FMVA or WSP basic better if i can only get one, in terms of credibility.

Thank you!

i am thinking of joining fintech but i didn't study science instead i choose computerscience + management is it good for fintech . please any feedback would help

Recently got an offer to join a big4 modelling team as a manager. I am moving from a different background. I would like to know:

• Does anyone have experience working in such teams? If so, what was it like?
• Advice ahead of moving into the role? I don't have a modelling background, just taught myself enough to pass their technical case interview
• What are the exit opportunities like?

I have a interview for real estate financial modeling entry level role,what topics should I focus on and how to prepare in short time?

_

Hello,

Hope everyone is well.

I was curious if someone would be able to assist me in a modelling work I have been working on.

Its a model for an ASX company Coles Group Limited, ASX:COL.

Details:

So far I have input last 2 years of historical data, but I am not sure if I have spread them correctly. I have used their FY 25 [June 24- July 25] financials. Attached are the actual financials & my model.

Confusions with my spreading:

Profit & Loss:

1. Cost of Sales has Depreciation, I have separated Depn from COS. Is this correct?
2. Administration Exp has Impairment Exp, which I have separated now. Is this correct?

Balance Sheet:

1. I have separated all the fixed assets into different categories, including the intangible assets(?)
2. RoU assets and Lease liabilities were very confusing, I just read about the online, and it seems we can either model Lease Lability as debt [Australian Accounting standard] or treat it as operating expense. Coles have treated it as a debt as per AASB (?)
3. Provisions in liability section, I am not sure how to model these as most of the provisions are for employee leave & benefits (?)

Next Steps I am thinking:

1. Model revenue based on foot traffic and online traffic as Coles sells items in store & online. Online sales growing strongly. So, I will use a growth, may be historical rate for online growth and for on-site may be an economic growth rate for Australia?
2. I think I can easily model the operating working capital, but with fixed assets including intangibles, do I model& treat them similar to CAPEX, with maintenance CPAEX & growth CAPEX? [Land, Buildings, Plant & Equipment, Leasehold Improvs, ROU Assets, Goodwill & Licenses, Software (?)
3. With interest bearing liabilities, I found that they have bonds and external debts, so I will model them (?)

Appreciate the help!

https://preview.redd.it/8duatrrgle1h1.png?width=876&format=png&auto=webp&s=dd94ca7d8629f24e6677fa0147dd30769a109e8f

https://preview.redd.it/9ysf7w4ile1h1.png?width=757&format=png&auto=webp&s=702839a78c648dab84548890339d3d53d5eb132f

https://preview.redd.it/v2jkibgjle1h1.png?width=881&format=png&auto=webp&s=c95af3e69e53347a1043e57341a4ca5a933ff572

https://preview.redd.it/iq7a0svwle1h1.png?width=879&format=png&auto=webp&s=98416e8070cd601d2f74eb576ca000d3b2729fcd

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Nowadays whenever people talk about finance careers, it feels like CFA is portrayed as the ultimate thing, like if you don’t clear CFA then you can’t make a career in fund management, equity research, portfolio management, etc.

I wanted to ask honestly from people already in the industry:Is CFA really THAT necessary?

I’m someone who genuinely likes finance, markets, valuation, equity research, analyzing companies, making reports, working on Excel, practical market-related work, etc. I can spend hours doing practical finance work in a flow state.

But when it comes to heavy theory, long reading sessions, memorizing formulas, and studying from books continuously, I struggle badly. Currently I’m preparing for CFA and I’m honestly questioning myself a lot because of this.

So I wanted realistic opinions:Can someone still build a strong finance career without CFA if they’re more practical-skill oriented than academic/book oriented?

Or in today’s finance world, is CFA almost compulsory for long-term growth?

Here me out, there is straight forward way to calculate beta using CAPM, but realistically this thing get unusable when Rsquared is low.

I am here to ask how do we realistically use reasonable alternative, is it industry peers? What if the company is small and comparable peers Rsquared also low? Is it using other more suited benchmark, if yes then what equity risk premium can we use? Do we have to calculate it? How?

I am trying to build a DCF for a clearing corporation/ depository, the question I had is what steps should i follow for its forecasting of revenue? I am always doubtful while forecasting the future cash flows. Any Insights?...

So I was tryna create an M&A model just for the sake of learning. I was going to model a hypothetical deal of a real listed company acquiring the other and was really stuck at the forecasting part of financial statements. Forecasted Income statement somehow using averages and all but I have no clue for Balance sheet and the cashflow statement. Also the main issue being that theirs much noise in data, like the PPEt is not equal to PPEt-1+Capex-depreciation some how similarly working capital changes calculated from CFS is different from that of Balance sheet
Any sort of guidance or recommendation of resource I can use would be really really helpful 😭🙏Please guide this guy.

Hi everyone, I’d like to understand how analysts model a stock dividend in the equity schedule or retained earnings schedule.

Since this transaction transfers value from retained earnings to common equity without affecting cash, I’m not sure how it should be reflected in the model. Should I adjust something in the model with this?. Most of the resources I found only explain cash dividends, not stock dividends.

Thank you very much for answering this one

in short the problem is

I have calculated ebitda and now I want to subtract interest to find taxable income and then tax.
but to get interest I need debt schedule.
for debt schedule I need CFADS
And I am unable to calculate CFADS without subtracting tax?

I’m just a beginner building my first model so really appreciate some help

Would really appreciate any resources, PDFs, guides, or pointers. Thanks in advance!

Interview has 2 rounds

Curious how you think about MacBooks vs Windows now that Claude and other AI tools are getting better.
I work in finance / FP&A, and until recently I would never have seriously considered a MacBook. Excel on Windows was just the obvious choice: shortcuts, Power Query, Power Pivot, multiple screens, and the general “finance setup” all worked better.
But over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed that I’m using the traditional Excel workflow less and less. Not because AI is perfect, but because it can already get a model from zero to maybe 70–80%, especially when it comes to structure, formulas, and first drafts. That alone changes the workflow quite a bit.
It feels like the value is shifting more toward knowing what the model should do, checking the logic, challenging assumptions, and interpreting the output — rather than manually building everything cell by cell.
I still think Windows is probably the safer choice for heavy financial modelling. But I’m starting to wonder whether the gap matters less than it used to, especially in FP&A or corporate finance roles where the work is becoming more strategic and less purely about Excel speed.
Has anyone here switched from Windows to Mac recently while working in finance, FP&A, consulting, or analytics? Did you regret it, or has it been completely fine?