Name: Financial Modeling Design Principles
Price: 140 CAD

What You'll Learn

check_circleUnderstand what financial modeling is and why it is important

check_circleIdentify best practice design principles for your spreadsheet models

check_circleUnderstand how to use best practice design principles in your spreadsheet models

check_circleLearn the differences between a properly designed model and a poorly designed model

check_circleLearn how to easily update actuals

About This Course

Welcome to Financial Modeling Design Principles, a hands-on course led by Paul Barnhurst ("The FP&A Guy") that teaches you the 10 essential design principles behind every well-built financial model. Because the number one reason models fail isn't bad formulas — it's poor design.

Plan and structure upfront — define your audience, map out inputs and outputs, and separate your file into clear sections before writing a single formula
Build in assumptions and scenarios — create a dedicated assumptions tab focused on key drivers and include base, best, and worst case scenarios
Use consistent color coding — follow industry-standard conventions so anyone can instantly tell inputs from calculations from links
Keep it simple and clean — avoid hardcoded values, replace nested IFs with lookup functions, and add navigation aids like cover pages and tables of contents
Manage file performance — save as XLSB, use Power Query, and limit conditional formatting to keep your models fast and lean

By the end of this course, you'll have a repeatable framework to build financial models that are flexible, auditable, and trusted by the stakeholders who rely on them.

Your Instructor

Paul Barnhurst

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Paul Barnhurst, The FP&A Guy, is a highly respected FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) professional, corporate trainer, consultant, and dynamic public speaker. As the founder of www.thefpandaguy.com, Paul is committed to sharing expert knowledge and resources in the field of finance, helping both individuals and organizations enhance their financial planning and business strategy capabilities. Paul’s academic credentials include a Master of Science in Information Management and an MBA in Finance. He also holds the prestigious FPAC (Financial Planning & Analysis Certified Professional) certification from AFP, and the FPAP (Financial Planning and Analysis Professional) from CFI and is recognized as an Advanced Finance Modeler (AFM) by the Financial Modeling Institute (FMI). These qualifications reflect his dedication to mastering the technical and strategic elements of financial planning. In addition, Paul has earned the elite distinction of Microsoft MVP for his excellence with Microsoft Excel, demonstrating his ability to harness and teach the advanced capabilities of the software, a key tool in the FP&A profession. As a recognized thought leader in the FP&A community, Paul regularly engages with his audience of over 100,000 LinkedIn followers, providing valuable insights, best practices, and tools to optimize financial processes. Paul has over a decade of hands-on experience in financial analysis, forecasting, budgeting, and business strategy. His real-world expertise and approachable teaching style have made him a sought-after trainer and mentor, helping professionals at all stages of their careers develop the skills needed to succeed in today’s fast-paced business environment. He is also the host of three popular finance podcasts that discuss FP&A, financial modeling, and the future of finance as it relates to finance and technology.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

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We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.