FinRobot is an automatic assembler of financial Models in Microsoft Excel. It allows you to set online parameters for your project and download a financial Model with working formulae and input fields in Microsoft Excel.

When ordering your Model online, sensitive financial data about your business does not need to be inputted, if you prefer not to. Your Model will be delivered with dummy financial data, which can be replaced with your own inputs off-line as needed.

Your Model can be further modified off-line. Unlike the black box solutions, the code and type of formulae are intentionally simple and transparent.

Currently, FinRobot provides six versions of the Model called 'Base Model', 'Case Builder Model', ‘TopLine Model’, 'Manufacturing Model', ‘Quick IRR Model’ and ‘Quick RE Development Model’. To read more about our other Models please refer to their respective manuals (available on-line and as a download in pdf).

The Model’s accounting principles are neutral to the specificity of national or global accounting standards such as GAAP or IFRS. If you wish to make sure that a particular standard relevant to your business is coded correctly, please seek advice from professional accountants in your country.

Initial understanding of the Model’s layout and templates can be achieved by viewing screenshots of the Model from the Models’ section of our site. Note that yellow fields are data input fields which can be re-populated with data off-line without any risk of unintentionally altering the functionality or structure of the Model.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has recognised FinRobot’s Case Builder Model as being compliant with ICAEW’s Twenty Principles for good spreadsheet practice. The purpose of these Principles is to help reduce the amount of time wasted, and the number of errors caused, by businesses (including accountancy practices) as a consequence of the way they and their employees use spreadsheets.

In compliance with Principle 20 of the Principles, all worksheets of the Model are locked except for designated data input fields. If you need to change working areas of the Model you can unlock any tab by going to the Review menu at the top of Excel and clicking on ‘unprotect sheet’ button. Default password is finrobot, but you may wish to substitute a password of your own choice in place of the default. We recommend the Model is locked again after any planned changes to avoid accidental overwrites by end users.

Please ensure you make a back-up after downloading your Model.

* Users should be aware that the Case Builder Model does not cover all aspects of good spreadsheet practice and therefore should ensure that they follow the best practice appropriate to their specific circumstances when relying upon spreadsheets.

The Model has been successfully tested for Microsoft Office Excel 2007-2010. If your installation of Microsoft Office is different, you may wish to use free Microsoft Office converters. However, we do not guarantee that the Model will retain all of its functionality and graphical representations if opened in a different version of Microsoft Office. We recently tested our Models for Excel 2013 and found no immediate compatibility issues.

Please note that the Case Builder Model is equipped with a small macros code in order to populate the Case Analysis report. The macro is used to cycle through all Cases present in the model. To use this functionality of the Model your Excel settings should allow for macro content with a file extension of .xlsm. If for security reasons, you choose to disable macro Case Analysis report would not work.

Case Builder Model allows users to build, analyse and compare up to five forecast scenarios, or operating cases, for a business or a project. The Model allows toggling between cases to run an active case through full set of financial statements. New feature specific to Case Builder Model generates consolidated report for all cases at a push of a button. Functionality of the Case Builder Model can be outlined as follows:

  • Select between two and five operating scenarios, or cases, with individual cost drivers driven by revenue percentage or by growth rate, as desired, toggle between cases to produce financial statements for an active case;
  • Analyse and compare all cases with the help of  Case Analysis report tab which shows operating and valuation metrics for all cases present in the Model (requires macro enabled in Excel settings);
  • Choose your own calendar start and stop dates and periodicity: monthly, quarterly or annually;
  • Populate your own opening balance sheet data with functionality to change it later in Excel;
  • Choose up to five debt elements in the capital structure with individual rates and amortisation profiles;
  • Populate data for of up to five elements of your CaPex program, with individual depreciation schedules;
  • Generate three forms of financial statements – balance sheet, P&L and cash flow, and calculate tax liability and loss carry forwards;
  • Calculate NPV and IRR for your business or project for each operating case with ability to generate consolidated report for all cases;
  • Rename key elements of your P&L and balance sheet to suit your business environment with functionality to make later changes in Excel.

The Case Builder Model provides additional flexibilities and built-in functionality. Please read more below.