Finance is one of those domains that’s continuing to evolve every year.
This has led to a need for professionals that are equipped with strategic thinking and continuous upskilling.
The CFA designation, in this case, has long been regarded as the gold standard, representing a pinnacle of knowledge and expertise in the financial industry.
But with CFA, there’s an almost parallel field of Financial Modelling that invokes the interest of many candidates – Financial Modelling.
Understanding Financial Modeling
Now even though CFA and Financial Modelling do very much seem like parallel domains, Financial Modelling has its own significance as well.
Financial Modelling is one of the milestones that you can achieve while pursuing your CFA.
It is a practical program which involves working on an Excel spreadsheet, checking annual reports, and other company filings – including researching sectors, and business models. Moreover, it’s a certification program for practical skill enhancement to get a core finance job
While you’re pursuing your CFA course, you will be introduced to a variety of technical concepts that you need to have a good grasp on. This is one of the main reasons why Financial Modelling is also recommended to students who are pursuing CFA.
- Financial Modelling could be taken at any level – before, during, or after pursuing CFA as well.
- You don’t need any eligibility requirements to complete this course.
- A basic understanding of financial statement may help, however, it is not mandatory
- This course will only improve your skillset and knowledge while pursuing your CFA course.
Even though Financial Modelling isn’t a necessary course to pursue CFA, it can still help you improve your knowledge which can further make it easier for you to find job opportunities.
Financial Modelling isn’t only meant for CFA candidates but also could be perfect for students pursuing B Com, BBA, B Tech, CA, MBAs, among others.
The Significance of Financial Modeling
Financial Modelling could prove to be a very important tool for building your skill set in finance and accounting.
Financial modeling plays a crucial role in the corporate world.
- It serves as a key tool for making informed business decisions.
- It also allows companies to analyze and predict the financial impact of various scenarios, helping executives and financial analysts gain valuable insights into the potential outcomes of their choices.
With FM, you can evaluate a company’s financial performance and prepare financial statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and so much more.
The importance of financial modeling is that it forecasts the financial performance of a company over a period of time. This method is often used by financial experts when it comes to raising capital or working on Mergers and Acquisitions.
So, what are the advantages of financial modeling?
Even after you have completed a degree, building your skills and industry-relevant knowledge is extremely important to compete with the current learning and earning landscape.
When you add skills in financial modeling to your resume, it broadens your abilities to work and opens new opportunities that you could benefit from.
Financial modeling is a valuable skill for candidates pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. It is a skill development course that you can complete to gain practical knowledge about CFA.
Financial Modelling also has a lot of significance for candidates because it has its presence in the following areas:
- It helps businesses predict their financial forecasts more accurately
- Gives you in-depth knowledge about the functioning of businesses
- The financial risks are minimized and stable financial models are built
- Complements the overall business by creating funding strategies too
Should I pursue Financial Modeling in my CFA journey?
Pursuing financial modeling as part of your CFA journey can be beneficial for a lot of reasons. Not only does financial modeling give you an edge in the job market, but it also:
- Gives you the ability to understand complex financial models
- Helps you understand the financial dynamic of businesses across the globe
- Make more informed decisions when dealing with company finances
Additionally, learning financial modeling can help you think more strategically about investments and other important financial decisions.
Ultimately, if you are looking to advance your career in finance or accounting, then obtaining additional knowledge through Financial Modeling is something that should strongly be considered – even while pursuing CFA.
Conclusion
Financial Modeling is a powerful tool that can help you take your career in finance and accounting to the next level.
It provides you with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand financial data, make informed decisions, and develop effective strategies for success.
However, CFA is a master-level equivalent qualification and not a skill-based certificate. It takes 3-4 years to complete. Moreover, some parts of financial modeling are theoretically covered in CFA. The goal of the FM course is to get a whole understanding of the CFA program and how to pursue it.
With Financial Modeling, you can gain a better understanding of how businesses operate and create more accurate models for forecasting future performance.
Investing time in learning Financial Modeling will not only be extremely beneficial for your CFA course but also pay dividends in the long run.
If you want to get started with learning Financial Modeling in the most interactive way, we at CFI Education have curated a comprehensive Financial Modeling program for you to learn from.
