Financial Modelling for Planning and Forecasting

A forecast model fails either because it is wrong or because nobody can check it, and the second is more common. A spreadsheet with numbers hardcoded inside formulas, no separation between input and calculation, and no way to see which assumption drives the answer cannot be reviewed, so it is trusted or discarded rather than challenged. This week is about structure first and forecasting technique second: a model built so the assumptions are visible, the logic is traceable, and the sensitivity to each input can be demonstrated.

It runs 7 times over the published calendar, in 6 cities and live online. Every date is the same programme with the same content and the same certificate.

• Structure a model so input, calculation and output are separate and traceable.
• Forecast a line from a driver rather than from a growth rate.
• Build the three statements so the balance sheet balances by construction.
• Run a sensitivity and a scenario, and tell them apart.
• Review somebody else's model and find where it breaks.

Finance analysts and business partners who build planning models, financial controllers who review them, and managers who have to rely on the output.

Short input, then work. Across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each, the balance sits deliberately with the second: a programme where the trainer talks for six hours produces notes rather than capability.

• Your own material

  Exercises run on situations delegates bring, not on a case study written for a different organisation in a different decade.

• A capped cohort

  Small enough that everybody is asked something. Executive programmes are capped tighter still.

• Practice under scrutiny

  The difficult conversation, the challenged assumption, the decision defended out loud. Judgement is not built by watching.

• Something to take back

  Each day ends with a thing you can use on Monday rather than a slide deck you will not reopen.

• A restructured version of one of the delegate's own models, with inputs separated.
• A driver based forecast for one significant line, with the sensitivity shown.
• A review checklist for a model arriving from somebody else.

A GATI certificate recording what you attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended.

Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record, which is what makes it worth holding. It records participation. This site will not imply one it does not have.