About us
Making critical financial decisions without complete information is often daunting task for management. Whilst financial modelling will not provide a guaranteed view to the future, it does assist with supporting data driven decisions based upon current operational and financial drivers and assumptions. This support should provide management and key decision makers with clear and accurate insights enabling them to, inter alia:
• Determine whether to invest in a new or existing business/project
• Confidently raise debt and/or equity finance
• Determine the optimal timing and terms to exit a business/project
• Plan budgets and longer term forecasts
• Allocate critical and limited resources
• Assess risks.
The level of support provided is however dependent on how the financial model is constructed.
At SFS, we are industry and geography agnostic and pride ourselves in delivering robust financial modelling solutions that comply with best practice financial modelling. These practices ensure that the financial modelling process is planned to achieve the desired goal.
Our Team
Julian Rennie
Founder & CEO
Following qualification as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen, Julian initially worked in investment banking and advisory roles for 20 years initially as a project finance financial modeller. More recently, Julian has been the CFO of 2 SMEs. For the last 10 years, in parallel with his full time roles, Julian has acted as a financial consultant, analyst and specialist financial modeller for numerous UK and international businesses seeking to acquire, invest, divest, secure debt financing or perform valuations.
Julian has worked extensively within the telecoms and media, power (renewables including mini-hydro, battery storage) and infrastructure and mining industries, however he has also assisted with commodities, upstream and downstream oil and gas, mining services, brewing, retail, hospitality, real estate and social media.
Julian’s experiences are invaluable in that they allow him to understand financial modelling requirements both the lender and borrower perspective.
Email: julian.rennie@gmail.com
Mobile: +44 (0) 7415 610 849
Best Practice Financial Modelling
Financial models are often exceptionally detailed, complicated and very time consuming to construct. Unfortunately, and frequently for these reasons, the main modelling responsibility is delegated to a junior team member with oversight provided by a senior team member. This approach is acceptable if best practice financial modelling is adopted by the junior team member and the senior team member is aware of these best practices.
By complying with best financial modelling practice, material error and time taken to build, test and troubleshoot issues is significantly reduced. Transparency and consistency are key requirements for reliability. Additionally, a well-structured financial model will reduce misinterpretation and will allow other team members or external parties to easily follow the model logic or to extract relevant outputs to make material decisions with confidence.
Plan and set goals
- Who will be the primary user and will they be competent to adjust?
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What are the key drivers that may require sensitising?
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What decisions will be relying on the output – one decision or ongoing use?
Design
- Provide a guidance tab detailing formatting of specific cells (e.g. input vs output formatting)
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Data input and calculations should be separated. It is often useful to have a control input tab for those assumptions that will be sensitised or to run scenarios
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Output should be neatly displayed and easy to understand. Key financial and operational KPIs used to support decisions should be easy to access.
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Always include a disclaimer if a 3rd party is to rely on the model
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Avoid hard coded numbers unless these are input cells or prior period actual results.
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Simple formulas are easier to understand and audit.
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Limit use of named ranges makes following the model logic and auditing simpler.
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Double check formulas or preferably use a colleague to perform a basic formula test.
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Add comments, footnotes and sources where required.
Sevenoaks Financial Solutions understands the reliance that is placed upon the financial modelling process and we are passionate about providing accurate, reliable and material error free output. We work seamlessly together with corporates, investors and/or their clients to ensure that the process is effectively managed and the scope efficiently delivered.
We do believe that ……………………………..
This is us in numbers
£355M
Clients’ Income during the Last Quarter
10+
Business Partners in Over 30 Countries
27
Years of Experience