Spring 2027

Financial Modeling in Excel

Technical skills course teaching construction of an error-free, well-structured, user-friendly integrated three-statement company model in Excel, a key skill for financial analysts.

offering recorded1 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Sunny SUN

Summary

What you’ll be able to do

  • Navigate and utilize the Excel interface, including optimal settings for financial modeling

  • Utilize Excel keyboard shortcuts most common to financial modeling

  • Understand and utilize best practices to build a financial model that is error-free, well-structured and user-friendly

  • Understand and utilize best practices related to error prevention while modeling

  • Construct an integrated income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement

  • Incorporate circular references via interest expense and interest income, and manage them with a “circuit breaker”

  • Construct a three-statement integrated financial model with a cash sweep and waterfall debt schedule

  • Build a model from scratch using corporate historical financial statements as a starting point

  • Understand various approaches to developing a top-line forecast

  • Apply error checking and correction techniques to completed model to ensure accuracy

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades

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Prerequisites

Course map

ACCT I S 100 or 300

FINANCE 205

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Professors

Spring 2027

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Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 750
LEC 002Online Only0 / 750

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

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Student experience

the class

A technical skills course in which you will learn how to construct an error-free, well-structured and user-friendly integrated three-statement company model. Constructing a financial model in Excel is a key skill for success as a financial analyst.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Integrated three-statement company modeling
  • Excel interface navigation and settings for financial modeling
  • Error prevention and correction techniques
  • Circular references and circuit breakers
  • Cash sweeps and waterfall debt schedules
  • Building models from corporate historical financial statements
  • Top-line forecasting approaches

Skills

  • Constructing an integrated three-statement company model in Excel
  • Navigating and utilizing the Excel interface for financial modeling
  • Utilizing Excel keyboard shortcuts for financial modeling
  • Applying best practices for error prevention in financial models
  • Managing circular references using a circuit breaker
  • Building models with cash sweeps and waterfall debt schedules
  • Developing top-line forecasts

Grades

Instructor

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Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

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Catalog observation history

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Selected offering source records
FINANCE 205 · Spring 2027

Financial Modeling in Excel

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:233:026128",
    "course_id": "FINANCE 205",
    "course_uid": "course_7cc13e49f2b46ac60ef7ae60",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026128",
    "source_subject_id": "233",
    "title": "Financial Modeling in Excel",
    "credits_min": 1,
    "credits_max": 1,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
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Madgrades

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "cd8ab9cdbf8650c2f381b030f8554a143eca409912251266883dd87c8a5c9e02",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}