Skip to content
Intermediate · Self-paced2026 Edition

Financial Modelling — Build a 3-Statement Model + DCF

The course a bank makes you sit before you touch a live model — built from a blank sheet. Over twelve modules you construct a complete, integrated three-statement model on Sokoni, a recognisable African business, and value it: an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow that link and balance to the cent, and a DCF that hangs off them and survives a stranger's review. Every number is traced, every schedule built by hand, every error deliberately broken and fixed. Extremely practical, industry-ready, and shadowed by two LeadAfrik tools — the interactive DCF model and the downloadable, formula-driven Excel workbook you rebuild here cell by cell.

12

Modules

~11h 15m

Reading time

Intermediate

Level

Self-paced

Format

§

Syllabus

  1. 01

    What a financial model is

    One source of truth — the single discipline that separates a professional model from a spreadsheet — and the company you'll build on.

    ~35 minModule 01
  2. 02

    Excel for modelling — the cardinal rules

    One formula per row, the colour conventions, absolute anchoring, and the tab structure that makes a model auditable instead of a liability.

    ~45 minModule 02
  3. 03

    Building the income statement

    Revenue from a driver down to net income — every line a rate applied to the line above, never a typed number, with forward links to the schedules.

    ~55 minModule 03
  4. 04

    The balance sheet and cash flow

    Assemble both statements and wire the one link — closing cash — that turns three tables into an integrated model that balances to the cent.

    ~60 minModule 04
  5. 05

    Making it balance

    Why a correctly-linked model balances, the live balance check, and how to read it like a diagnostician the moment it doesn't.

    ~55 minModule 05
  6. 06

    The supporting schedules

    Working capital, PP&E and depreciation — the workings that feed the three statements without a single hardcode.

    ~55 minModule 06
  7. 07

    Debt, interest, and circularity

    The debt roll-forward, interest on opening balances, and the clean choice that keeps the model free of circular references.

    ~55 minModule 07
  8. 08

    Forecasting from drivers

    Turning assumptions into a defensible five-year forecast — growth, margins, capex intensity — and defending the sanity of each.

    ~55 minModule 08
  9. 09

    The DCF, straight off the model

    Unlevered free cash flow, WACC, terminal value, and enterprise value to value-per-share — driven live from the statements you built.

    ~60 minModule 09
  10. 10

    Sensitivity and scenarios

    Data tables, the tornado chart, the Scenario Manager, and the reverse DCF — presenting a range, never a single false point.

    ~55 minModule 10
  11. 11

    Auditing and error-proofing

    The structural checks, the formula habits, and the written review a model passes before it leaves your desk for a committee.

    ~55 minModule 11
  12. 12

    Capstone — the complete worked model

    Assemble everything into one balancing model and DCF on Sokoni, and defend the value per share end to end.

    ~90 minModule 12

How to use this course

Start with module 01 if the material is new; skip ahead if you have prior exposure. Each module is self-contained but the arc is sequential — the projects in the final module assume the toolkit from modules 1-11. Every module ends with key takeaways and a curated further-reading list with primary sources.