With the explosion of the use of Microsoft Excel workbook in quantitative analysis, employers are looking eagerly for prospective employees who are proficient in Excel and who are able to perform common business tasks, such as financial valuation, investment analysis, what-if analysis, simulation, risk analysis, and forecasting. This unit prepares the students for this role.

This unit discusses the conceptual and practical aspects of financial modelling using Excel. It introduces the students to two levels of Excel modelling: a spreadsheet solution and a spreadsheet model. A spreadsheet solution is usually prepared for one's own use while a spreadsheet model is constructed with possible distribution in mind. A spreadsheet model is, therefore, a major step up from a spreadsheet solution and requires a much more disciplined approach with consideration given to architecture, user interface, error handling and flexibility.