Our Top 10 Favorite Financial Modeling Articles

If you’ve searched “how to build a financial model” on the Google machine recently, you’ve already seen an information overload on conflicting strategies, repetitive information, and perhaps some dubious guides to success. The team at Forecastr rounded up a few of our favorite credible resources, from detailed how-to guides to best tips and tricks. Whether you are a startup founder building your first financial model or a seasoned entrepreneur, check out our top ten articles on building financial models for startups.

Advanced Financed Modeling Best Practices

Alberto Mihelcic Bazzana is a private equity executive known for his consulting engagements in nine countries. This finance expert specializes in profitability management through modeling, financial impact analysis, and organizational restructuring are his strong suits, where he provides simple solutions to complex financial issues.

In this article, Bazzana provides a step-by-step approach to building a cohesive financial model. From formatting the model to carving out advanced Excel tips, this article creates a great opportunity for novice and pro financial professionals to learn new insights and best practices for building financial models. In particular, check out this article to understand streamlined strategies behind forecasting scenarios for universal understanding.

Building a Startup Financial Model That Works

Mike Preuss is a Co-founder and CEO of Visible.vc. as well as a consulting expert in the venture capital space. Preuss writes brilliant articles for founders from fundraising advice to financial how-to guides. If you are an entrepreneur looking to up your game, check out his content, and impress your investors.

In this article, Preuss not only shares critical resources for building a financial model, but also the most common mistakes that founders make in the process. He also discusses the best startup financial model structures and how to build a startup model that works. In particular, we like his high-level breakdown of the bottoms-up financial model and projections approach.

Slidebean: Financial Modeling for Startups

This article comes from the Slidebean team, a company that uses artificial intelligence to build stunning slide decks with the click of a few buttons. You can select from hundreds of beautiful templates and create a pitch deck that will wow your investors and save tons of money on a graphic designer.

In this article, Slidebean shares pivotal details on the common financial model terms and formulas that you need to build a successful financial model. This post breaks down the technical details you need to develop an action plan for your startup finances.

Startup Financial Modeling Part 1

Both authors of this article, Will Little and Troy Henikoff, are dedicated startup experts and business moguls. Little is a partner at Prota Ventures, a successful operator-investor group that helps founders build and grow their startups. Henikoff is a managing director at MATH Venture Partners and an education expert in entrepreneurship and innovation.

This article describes the meaning behind financial resources including management, cash flows, balance sheet, customer retail tabs, and customer detail tabs. Part one details the “why and what” of financial modeling and proves the necessity behind building your own financial model from scratch, rather than using a downloadable template.

How to Create a Bulletproof Financial Model in 7 Easy Steps

Joe Neely has written a series of blogs for startups and entrepreneurs on how they can improve their business reach and increase the client pool.

This article shows founders how to select the right business model for your startup in a few practical steps. Neely specifically addresses game-changing issues for small business owners’ including financial planning, budgeting, projections, data analysis, and revenue modeling.

Luke Harris: Financial Modeling for Startups

Luke Harris is an entrepreneur, corporate finance consultant, and engineer. He is a partner at Fivecast Financial and has enjoyed a career as an investment banker with 30+ successful investment banking transactions. With a graduate degree in Mathematics and Finance, Luke has been CFO of many companies and founder of several successful startups.

This article explains the structure of a business model with the help of a downloadable example PDF. Harris addresses all the heavy-hitting metrics within a solid financial model and designs his discussion toward the capital raise you need to consider as you construct your model.

The SaaS Financial Model You’ll Actually Use

Jaakko Piipponen is the founder of a SaaS model software company, Flightpath Finance, that helps founders build financial forecasts, track key performance metrics, and track cash.

The article provides a detail-rich, deeply structured guide on building an accurate financial model. Piipponen cites all the specifications behind building a SaaS financial model, from Customer Lifetime Value to acquisition costs, and other SaaS value metrics.

CFI: Financial Modeling for Startups

The Corporate Finance Institute provides online financial education courses, including an in-depth guide on how to build a financial model for startups.

The article highlights some intricacies involved in making a finance business model, such as sensitivity analysis, bookkeeping, and evaluation methods. Click on a question to find out more about the details of each subject.

Air CFO: Financial Modeling for Startups

AirCFO is a CFO consulting firm serving founders to effortlessly address their finance-operational needs. This company provides holistic bookkeeping, accounting, and tax services to startups without the stress or expense of a full-time finance staff.

The article provides a high-level overview of three financial modeling options. They also describe how founders can use the models to build a business and make pivotal decisions.

Ben Murray: Saas Startup Financial Model

Ben Murray is a financial advisor and SaaS expert. Murray specializes in financial performance, SaaS/subscription metrics, revenue forecasting, and SaaS operations.

The article discusses SaaS financing modeling for startups with details on headcount planning, recurring revenue models, and operating expense models. You can also download a SaaS P&L template at the end that helps you keep a tab on your input and output managerial resources.