How do Beginners Learn Financial Modeling?

Like an anthill’s inner sanctum, financial modeling is a topic with as many directions for exploration as there are financial data points in the ether. Despite this, the first step to learning is relatively simple: start exploring basic financial concepts. While you’re at it, you can start messing around with Microsoft’s user-friendly spreadsheet tool, Excel. From there, you can start implementing industry-standard practices and if you decide you’re up for it, consider joining a class. Don’t forget that no matter your learning journey, you’ve got this. 

Getting Started with Financial Modeling

To make your learning process as fluid as possible, set yourself up for success beforehand by ensuring that you have all the right technology to get started. In addition to a standard computer, you’ll need access to financial modeling software. While many different software tools can be used for financial modeling, Excel is the most beginner-friendly option. 

It may seem obvious, but you’ll find it easier to learn financial modeling if you already have basic computer literacy. Additionally, having a middle-school understanding of mathematics (or higher) will also be essential to working with numerical data in Excel. To create the smoothest learning experience, experts recommend going into financial modeling with a strong understanding of accounting principles.

The First Steps When Learning Financial Modeling

Despite being an incredibly deep skillset that often requires years of study to fully master, your financial modeling is still within the grasp of beginners. Before you start building financial models of your own, however, it’s worth taking some time to strengthen your knowledge of financial concepts and terms. From there, you can begin learning how to use Excel, where you can generate your first financial models and start learning how to apply industry-standard techniques to guarantee quality. 

Step One: Develop Financial Literacy

The most important thing you can do in the early stages of your financial modeling journey is to familiarize yourself with foundational finance concepts. As your financial literacy grows, so will your ability to create insightful financial models. The world of finance is vast, but common topics that may be beneficial to explore while learning financial modeling include the stock market, financial statements and reporting, valuation, and financial metrics. Remember that you don’t have to make sense of these concepts all at once. As long as you’re continually working toward greater knowledge, you’ll eventually reach your goal. 

Step Two: Learn to Use Excel

Excel is the number one technical skill that any beginner should start with when learning financial modeling. This commonplace office tool is not only user-friendly and code-free but will help students get comfortable performing basic financial modeling tasks. In addition, Excel will prepare users to easily master other finance software tools such as Tableau, Quickbooks, Oracle BI, Hyperion, SAP, and Mosaic. 

Step Three: Study Financial Modeling Best Practices

As you practice technical skills, you should also familiarize yourself with industry standards. By following age-old guidelines that include appropriate assumptions, careful documentation, and error-checking methods, you can create more accurate, cohesive, and easy-to-read models. Although there are many skills to learn in financial modeling, ensuring that you have these basics down first can save you a lot of time and frustration. 

Free Financial Modeling Tools for Beginners

If you want to start exploring basic financial modeling at home, many free education resources can provide a foundation you can build on. Public libraries afford plenty of free written advice while the Internet supplies a bounty of readily accessible educational content in a variety of formats. Free finance seminars make it easy to get reliable training in a short format, while financial modeling video tutorials allow instructors to show you how to create a model on their screen. Meanwhile, digital forums enable you to crowdsource information when your projects bring up new questions. 

Even if you don’t have any difficulty locating free learning materials through the Internet, there are a few tricks to finding the most reliable options. Rather than choosing the most readily available or eye-catching content first, aim to choose free financial modeling resources published by established finance or education companies. This strategy swaps content by creators at your same skill level for content created by experts. To give it a try, check out the content on Noble Desktop’s Financial Modeling Blog or view their free Stock Market Fundamentals course. 

Live Financial Modeling Training for Beginners

At some point, you may discover you’ve dug through so many free resources that you’re ready for more. Short introductory financial modeling courses can provide you with the hands-on training you can’t get from an Internet resource. With help from an instructor, you can go much further than you could on your own, and that’s all thanks to personalized feedback and answers from a real finance expert. 

In an introductory financial modeling course, you won’t need any past financial modeling experience to succeed. These courses provide a relaxed environment where you can develop basic skills suitable for personal financial modeling projects (as opposed to developing a comprehensive skill set in preparation for a career). While Excel is the most popular topic covered in beginner courses, you can also find financial modeling classes exploring topics like Tableau, fundraising, budgeting, and the stock market. Due to their calm environments and relative affordability, short introductory classes can serve as a solid proving ground for determining whether you’re interested in attending a vocational training course. 

For convenience, short introductory financial modeling classes are available in several formats. You can browse live online and in-person financial modeling classes in your city by visiting Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me tool. In addition, you can complete an intro-level financial modeling class in under one week (usually just a few hours). In other words, you definitely won't need to quit your job to start learning. 

The Next Step

When you’re ready to graduate from the beginner phase, there are two main ways to approach your next step. Which approach you select will likely be determined by why you’re learning financial modeling. If you’re bent on a finance career, you’ll benefit from joining an immersive vocational program like a career certificate or college degree. However, you won’t need to anticipate quite so much rigor if you only plan to use financial modeling for personal projects such as managing your home budget or increasing your small business profits.

Short Advanced Classes (For Amateur Modelers)

Advanced classes take the skills that you learned in your beginner courses and build on them, allowing you to grow your skill set over time. In just a few hours, you can learn advanced Excel, and Tableau, or even introduce coding languages like SQL into your financial modeling projects. Like beginner classes, short advanced classes slot easily into a hectic schedule, making it possible to learn new skills while keeping your lifestyle.

Because these courses are so short, they often condense material and aren’t comprehensive enough to provide career expertise. For the same reason, these classes often skip over soft skills needed for finance careers (such as professional communication). At the same time, the small scope of these short classes can be an advantage in situations where you’re working on an existing financial modeling project and discover you need to solve a unique problem. In contrast to beginner courses, advanced classes often cover niche topics such as creating a model designed to clarify business decisions and utilizing financial models in fundraising. 

Before hopping into an advanced class, it’s always wise to check that you’ve taken all the prerequisite beginner courses. While not all classes have specific requirements, you don’t want to find yourself paying for a class where you have absolutely no clue what’s going on. 

Certificate Granting Programs (For Aspiring Finance Professionals)

Want to launch your finance career without going to college? In addition to costing less than most finance degrees, certificate-granting courses can get you into the workforce sooner by helping you develop marketable skills through rapid, hands-on training. Consequently, these vocational training programs are widely viewed as one of the most efficient ways to prepare for a career in finance. If you participate in a full-time study program, you can complete your training in as little as a few weeks, but part-time training is also available if you need more flexibility. 

One of the reasons that expert-led financial modeling certificates are so effective is that the projects you take on in these classes will teach you skills and give you experience simultaneously. What’s more, the material you generate in these programs can become part of your job portfolio helping you stand out. 

Since financial modeling career needs come in many different flavors, so do financial modeling certificates. As a result, two courses that have the same name might not cover the same content. 

Some courses aim to offer comprehensive training in multiple skills so that you only need to take one class during your career preparation. For example, Noble Desktop’s Financial Analyst Training Program will use Excel and corporate finance to give you skills like accounting, valuation, market forecasting, and financial reporting. In this course, you’ll work alongside experts in creating detailed financial models for real businesses. In addition to giving you plenty of top-notch material for your portfolio, this course will provide you with career perks like one-on-one mentorship. 

There are also good reasons to choose a bootcamp that covers fewer skills at a time. You may already have a fair amount of beginner knowledge behind you, and if that’s the case, joining a class like Noble Desktop’s Financial Modeling Bootcamp might be a shorter, less costly alternative. Providing you have an intermediate understanding of Excel, you can level up your skill set by adding advanced Excel and corporate finance to the mix. In other words, this course will take you from an intermediate Excel user to having the skill set of an entry-level Financial Analyst. 

Another reason to choose a certificate with a slightly smaller scope is if you simply want to learn financial modeling on a slower timeline. For this purpose, many bootcamps focus on comprehensive mastery of one overarching skill, making it possible to spread your training out over a longer span. Noble Desktop’s Excel Bootcamp is a great option when starting from scratch, as it offers beginner-friendly technical training that will set you up to learn other financial skills more easily. While a course like this one might not be enough to form your entire career, it becomes more substantial when combined with classes like the Financial Modeling Bootcamp. 

These types of classes can also be useful as a way to make your job application more competitive. For instance, while many financial modeling certificates offer training in numerous skills, very few provide coding training. As a result, taking part in an SQL Bootcamp or Python Bootcamp can help you stand above other entry-level job candidates.