Project Finance & Excel: Build Financial Models from Scratch from Coursera

This course takes a deep dive into the world of project finance, where you will learn to build financial models from the ground up using Excel. Whether you're new to finance or looking to sharpen your modeling skills, this course introduces key concepts in project finance, such as understanding eligible transactions and building input assumption sheets. Using a real-world case study, the course will guide you step by step through the intricacies of financial modeling, including multi-scenario input sheets and timeline assumptions.

In the second phase, you'll explore more advanced topics such as the construction phase and debt sizing, which are essential for forecasting costs and revenue accurately. The course provides hands-on experience with building detailed financial statements like the Profit & Loss statement, Cash Flow Waterfall, and Balance Sheet. Throughout, you'll develop a comprehensive understanding of how to construct models that are both dynamic and adaptable to real-world projects.

Finally, you will wrap up by calculating return metrics like the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), which is crucial for assessing project viability. By the end of the course, you’ll be fully equipped to handle every stage of a project’s financial modeling lifecycle, from initial assumptions to detailed cash flow forecasts and financial statement analysis.

This course is designed for finance professionals, analysts, and anyone looking to specialize in project finance. A basic understanding of Excel is recommended, though no prior finance experience is necessary. Those with an interest in infrastructure, energy, and large-scale project financing will benefit from the practical skills covered.

What's inside

Syllabus

A Quick Refresher on the Basics

In this module, we will explore the fundamental concepts of project finance, making the material accessible to beginners without a finance background. We will break down the definition of project finance and discuss the types of transactions suitable for this financing method, focusing on industries like transportation, power, and the environment.

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Uses a real-world case study, which allows learners to apply their knowledge to practical scenarios and gain experience in financial modeling for infrastructure projects

Explores advanced topics such as debt sizing and circularity of funds, which are essential for accurately forecasting costs and revenue in complex project finance scenarios

Requires a basic understanding of Excel, so learners without this background may need to acquire these skills before fully benefiting from the course

Focuses on building financial models from scratch, which is a core skill for finance professionals and analysts involved in project evaluation and investment decisions

Teaches how to calculate return metrics like IRR, which is crucial for assessing project viability and making informed investment decisions in project finance

Reviews summary

Build project finance models in excel

According to learners, this course provides a comprehensive guide to building project finance models from scratch using Excel. Students particularly appreciate the step-by-step approach, which breaks down complex concepts into manageable parts. The inclusion of a real-world case study is frequently highlighted as making the learning practical and relatable. While the course structure and the instructor's clear explanations receive widespread praise, some learners note that a solid foundation in Excel is highly beneficial, despite the stated prerequisites. Overall, it's seen as a highly practical and valuable course for those looking to enter or deepen their skills in project finance modeling.

Solid base for project finance.

"This course provides an excellent foundation for anyone looking to get into project finance modeling."

"It covers all the essential steps needed to build a functional financial model from the ground up."

"A great starting point, covering core concepts and the modeling process effectively."

Practical application using a case.

"Using the Express Fiji case study made the concepts very tangible and applicable."

"Learning through a real-world example significantly enhanced my understanding and retention."

"The case study was realistic and provided great context for why certain modeling steps were necessary."

Instructor explains concepts well.

"The instructor has a knack for explaining complex finance topics in a simple, understandable way."

"His delivery is clear and concise, making it easy to grasp the material."

"I found the instructor's explanations to be very insightful and helpful throughout the course."

Clear process for building models.

"The way he built the model step by step was very clear and logical."

"I really appreciated the systematic approach to building the financial model sheet by sheet."

"Breaking down the model construction into modules made it very easy to follow along, even with complex steps."

Comfort with Excel is recommended.

"While basic Excel is recommended, you really need to be comfortable with formulas and structuring sheets to keep up."

"I struggled a bit because my Excel skills weren't as strong as needed for some sections."

"Having a solid intermediate level of Excel expertise makes this course much easier to navigate."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Project Finance & Excel: Build Financial Models from Scratch with these activities:

Brush Up on Excel Fundamentals

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Strengthen your Excel skills to better handle the financial modeling tasks in the course.

Browse courses on Excel

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Review basic Excel functions like SUM, AVERAGE, and IF.
Practice creating charts and graphs for data visualization.
Familiarize yourself with Excel shortcuts to improve efficiency.

Review Basic Accounting Principles

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Revisit fundamental accounting concepts to better understand financial statements.

Browse courses on Accounting Principles

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Review the accounting equation (Assets = Liabilities + Equity).
Understand the difference between debit and credit entries.
Familiarize yourself with the basic financial statements: Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement.

Read "Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies"

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Supplement your learning with a comprehensive guide to financial modeling in Excel.

View Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of "Financial Modeling in Excel For Dummies."
Read the chapters related to building financial statements and cash flow analysis.
Practice the examples provided in the book using Excel.

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Practice Building Simple Financial Models

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Reinforce your understanding by building simplified financial models for hypothetical projects.

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Create a basic financial model for a small business, including revenue projections and expense forecasts.
Build a model to calculate the Net Present Value (NPV) of an investment.
Develop a simple debt amortization schedule in Excel.

Develop a Project Finance Model Template

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Solidify your skills by creating a reusable template for project finance modeling.

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Design a template with input sheets, financial statements, and key metrics.
Incorporate scenario analysis capabilities into the template.
Document the template's functionality and assumptions.

Read "Project Finance: A Case Study Approach"

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Deepen your understanding of project finance through real-world case studies.

View Modern Project Finance: A Casebook on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of "Project Finance: A Case Study Approach."
Review the case studies related to infrastructure and energy projects.
Analyze the financial structures and risk management strategies used in each case.

Analyze a Real-World Project Finance Deal

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Apply your knowledge by analyzing a publicly available project finance transaction.

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Identify a project finance deal in a sector of interest (e.g., renewable energy, transportation).
Gather information about the project's financial structure, including debt and equity financing.
Build a simplified financial model to analyze the project's cash flows and returns.
Write a report summarizing your findings and recommendations.

Career center

Learners who complete Project Finance & Excel: Build Financial Models from Scratch will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Financial Modeler

A financial modeler designs and creates financial models for a variety of purposes. This course is a direct fit for this role. You will learn how to construct financial models from the ground up using tools like Excel. You'll gain experience building input assumption sheets, managing timelines, and modeling multi-scenario situations. The course also covers the three key financial statements: the profit and loss statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement. You will learn to perform calculations on return metrics like the Internal Rate of Return. These skills are essential for a financial modeler who must create and maintain financial forecasting tools used by senior management.

See salaries and explore the career path for Financial Modeler

Financial Analyst

A financial analyst often constructs financial models to assess the viability of potential investments, much like what you'll do in this course. A financial analyst evaluates financial data, reports on financial trends, and helps guide investment decisions by understanding the nuances of financial modeling. This course is particularly helpful because it will give you practical experience in building models from scratch, including multi-scenario input sheets, timelines, and crucial financial statements like the Profit & Loss statement and cash flow waterfall. This course's focus on project finance will be particularly valuable to you in forecasting costs and revenues. The practical experience you gain will benefit those working in the infrastructure, energy, and other large-scale project areas.

See salaries and explore the career path for Financial Analyst

Project Finance Associate

A project finance associate is directly involved in the financial aspects of large projects, including building financial models. This role requires a deep understanding of debt sizing, cash flow analysis and return metrics. This course teaches the fundamentals of project finance, beginning with eligible transactions and moving through constructing input assumptions and project timelines. The course guides you through the intricacies of financial modeling using a real-world case study, which will provide a strong foundation for a career as a project finance associate. You'll gain hands-on experience creating dynamic and adaptable models, which is a key part of this role. This course is especially beneficial since you will work on the construction phase, operations phase, and financial statements like the balance sheet.

See salaries and explore the career path for Project Finance Associate

Energy Finance Analyst

An energy finance analyst focuses on the financial aspects of energy projects. This course will help you build detailed financial models that include revenue forecasting, cost modeling, and return metric calculations. The course's focus on large-scale project financing and financial modelling makes it directly relevant to this role. You will construct full financial statements, analyze cash flows, and learn how to gauge project viability by calculating the Internal Rate of Return. This experience is valuable as you help your employer make wise business decisions.

See salaries and explore the career path for Energy Finance Analyst

Investment Banking Analyst

An investment banking analyst builds financial models for transactions including mergers, acquisitions, capital raises, and project financings. This course helps an analyst through its extensive training on project finance modeling, including input assumptions, timelines, and the creation of full financial statements. Investment banking analysts use these models to evaluate the feasibility of deals and guide strategic decisions and you'll gain that experience in this course. You'll be building complex models from scratch, calculate return metrics such as the Internal Rate of Return, and analyze cash flows, crucial skills for this job. Learning how to visualize different project phases and understand the circularity of funds will be particularly valuable to you as an investment banking analyst.

See salaries and explore the career path for Investment Banking Analyst

Infrastructure Finance Analyst

An infrastructure finance analyst specializes in the financial modeling of large-scale projects. This course helps an infrastructure finance analyst by providing practical experience building project finance models from the ground up. The course covers modeling techniques that include multi-scenario input sheets and timeline assumptions, which are critical for accurate financial forecasting. In this role, you will work on infrastructure projects, which directly aligns with the practical skills you will gain, especially with its focus on the construction phase and operations phase of projects. The course's use of a case study will provide a realistic context for your work. By the end of this course, you will be prepared to manage the lifecycle of project financial models, a crucial skill for this job.

See salaries and explore the career path for Infrastructure Finance Analyst

Corporate Development Analyst

A corporate development analyst often uses financial modeling to assess potential mergers, acquisitions, and strategic investments. This course helps a corporate development analyst by providing hands-on experience building complex financial models and a deeper understanding of project finance concepts. You will learn to build input assumption sheets, model different scenarios, and create financial statements, skills that are directly transferable to corporate development. This course's focus on project timelines, cash flow waterfalls, and return metrics will be particularly useful when evaluating the financial impact of strategic activities. Skills in this area are crucial as you contribute to strategic financial planning.

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Financial Consultant

A financial consultant provides expert advice on financial matters. This course helps financial consultant build detailed financial models and improves their understanding of project finance. In this course you will learn to create input assumption sheets, model costs and revenues, and produce financial statements like the Profit & Loss statement and balance sheet. The course's focus on real-world case studies and practical modeling techniques will be directly relevant to your consulting assignments. You will gain the skills necessary to assess the financial viability of projects and provide well-informed recommendations. This experience will be beneficial as you advise clients on investment decisions and financial strategies.

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Project Manager

Project managers benefit from having a solid understanding of project finance because financial viability is key to project success. This course will help you in managing the financial aspects of projects. The course's hands-on experience building models from the initial assumptions to detailed cash flow forecasts and financial statement analysis will give you tools to better understand project expenditures. Understanding how projects are funded and how to analyze project returns are skills that can be applied to project leadership. This course may be useful to any project manager.

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Real Estate Finance Analyst

A real estate finance analyst specializes in the financial aspects of real estate projects. This course will help a real estate finance analyst as many of the same methods of financial modelling apply to infrastructure projects and real estate projects. This course shows how to build a financial model from scratch using real world examples. You will gain experience working with input assumptions, timelines, financial statements, and calculating return metrics. These skills are crucial to any real estate finance analyst looking to make accurate forecasts about a project's ability to generate returns based on its costs and revenues. Skills in this area are key to managing a project's financial lifecycle.

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Private Equity Analyst

A private equity analyst evaluates potential investments using financial models to assess their profitability. This course helps you build financial models from scratch using Excel, giving you hands-on experience with input assumptions, project timelines, and financial statements. Skills in debt sizing, calculating return metrics, and analyzing cash flows are all key to private equity analysis and this course will help you develop them. The ability to build dynamic and adaptable models as discussed in the course will enable you to assess a project's financial viability.

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Business Analyst

A business analyst needs an understanding of financial modeling to support strategic decision-making within an organization. This course may be useful to a business analyst because it gives hands-on experience in building financial models from the ground up using Excel. The content explains how to create input assumption sheets and model various timeline scenarios for a project. You will also learn to produce key financial statements like the Profit & Loss statement, cash flow waterfall, and balance sheet. Although this course may not be a perfect fit, it is relevant and may be useful as it offers a practical introduction to financial modeling.

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Management Consultant

A management consultant provides strategic advice to businesses across various industries. This course may be useful for a management consultant because the course helps build financial models from scratch, develop input assumption sheets, and create financial statements. The hands-on experience in modeling project finances and understanding project viability through return metrics like the Internal Rate of Return may be helpful to your consulting work. While this course's focus is primarily on project finance, a better understanding of financial modeling will be valuable in providing well-rounded advice to clients.

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Quantitative Analyst

A quantitative analyst uses mathematical and statistical models to analyze financial markets or manage risk. This course will help you as it teaches financial modeling from the ground up, including key elements of project finance. While quantitative analysis often involves complex mathematical models, a solid grounding in how financial models are built using tools like Excel is a good complement. The course covers the creation of financial statements, debt repayment schedules, and cash flow waterfalls. While this course has a focus on project finance, the practical skills gained will be helpful to those who work with quantitative data.

See salaries and explore the career path for Quantitative Analyst

Data Analyst

Data analysts work with data to find insights and inform business decisions. This course may be useful to a data analyst because it gives hands-on experience in building financial models from the ground up using Excel, including creating input assumption sheets and modeling timeline scenarios. A data analyst will be able to use the financial models you learn to create to inform their findings. You will also learn how to generate key financial statements like the profit and loss statement, cash flow waterfall, and balance sheet. While this course doesn't directly focus on data analysis, the skills gained may prove useful.

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Project Finance & Excel

Build Financial Models from Scratch

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Build project finance models in excel

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