Banks, private equity firms and corporate finance teams often test candidates with a timed model: a case with a few pages of figures and somewhere between an hour and a few hours to build a three-statement model, a DCF or an LBO. Some give you a template, some a blank workbook.
This lesson is a short version: a 30-minute DCF case in four parts, using what you have practiced so far. Work the way you'd in a timed test:
- Read the whole case first, so you know what the final answer is before you start.
- Build in order: forecast, free cash flow, valuation, then the extra question. Each part feeds the next.
- Link, don't type. Inputs live on the Inputs sheet; the Model sheet only links to them.
- Keep it simple under time. Interest on opening balances, no circular references, formatting at the end.
- Check as you go: margins that look sensible and a value per share in a believable range.
Finish a smaller model that works before you add anything to it.