The majority of Excel® users is self-taught. They often know
some of Excel®’s advance features such as macros, lookup
functions, array formulas, pivot tables, and data management, yet fail
to understand how to use them in the context of performing business
analysis. Some do not even realise they are already building their own
financial models for managing risk, planning projects, preparing
business proposals, or evaluating opportunities. In a new book by
Danielle Stein Fairhurst, ‘Using Excel®
for Business Analysis: A Guide to Financial Modelling Fundamentals’
is dedicated to the principles of best modelling practice to help them
save a lot of time, effort and anguish in the long run.
‘Using Excel® for Business
Analysis: A Guide to Financial Modelling Fundamentals’ is
designed for professionals of all backgrounds and levels of experience
looking to become familiar with financial modelling, whether they are
seeking to improve their skills to perform better in their current role,
or getting a new and better job.
“When I started financial modelling in the early nineties, it was not
called ‘financial modelling’—it was just “Using Excel for
Business Analysis”, and this is what I’ve called this book,” says Stein
Fairhurst, a Sydney-based consultant specialising in financial modelling
and analysis. “It was only after the new millennium that the term ‘financial
modelling’ gained popularity and became a required skill often
listed on analytical job descriptions,” she said.
‘Using Excel® for Business
Analysis: A Guide to Financial Modelling Fundamentals’ presents
the key strategies for minimising errors, rebuilding an inherited model
and offers other techniques for ensuring accurate robust models. It also
covers the often-neglected task of presenting model output—the area
where many modellers spend days or weeks on the calculations and
functionality—to judge the usefulness of the model.
‘Using Excel® for Business
Analysis: A Guide to Financial Modelling Fundamentals’ is a
concise, step-by-step guide that presents how a spreadsheet can fulfill
a variety of purposes, for example, setting out a business case,
evaluating potential opportunities, or building reports and models using
Excel. It covers both the essential concepts behind financial modelling
and the practicalities of performing complex analysis.
The book is bundled with a companion site (www.wiley.com/go/steinfairhurst)
containing additional materials to supplement the information in the
book. More updated materials in the companion site will be available at
Plum Solutions website at: www.plumsolutions.com.au/using-excel-business-analysis.
It is now available in soft cover and e-book formats. For details to
purchase online at Amazon China and Japan, Kinokuniya, MPHOnline.com or
Wiley.com, visit www.wiley.com/buy/9781118132845.
Stein Fairhurst also conducts training seminars and online Financial
Modelling and analysis courses in Excel® that correspond to
the book. For more information, visit: www.plumsolutions.com.au.
‘Using Excel® for Business
Analysis’ free sample chapter is available for download at:
http://bit.ly/MBUah0.
