Relocating Inputs

Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
RELOCATING
financialmodellinghandbook.com
INPUTS

IN THE LONG HISTORY OF HUMANKIND…THOSE WHO
LEARNED TO COLLABORATE AND IMPROVISE MOST
EFFECTIVELY HAVE PREVAILED.
CHARLES DARWIN

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL
MODELLING HANDBOOK
Financial modelling should be collaborative. Collaboration
reduces error, speeds up development time and lowers
cost. The Financial Modelling Handbook is a collaborative,
crowd-sourced guide to building better financial models
using the FAST Standard.
www.financialmodellinghandbook.com/contribute

financialmodellinghandbook.com
Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
KENNY
Kenny Whitelaw-Jones talks
about financial modelling for a
living. He’s leading the Financial
Modelling Handbook project. He
hopes your name will be on the
cover when it’s published.

Everybody knows that in financial modelling,
inputs, calculations and outputs should be
separate.
When you’re in the “build phase” of a model,
there can be short term benefits of locating
inputs next to the calculations they are driving.
The guide explains those benefits, and shows
you how to quickly and easily move the inputs to
dedicated input sheets at the end of the build.
RELOCATING
INPUTS

If you are not yet familiar with the use of
calculation blocks in financial modelling,
download this introductory guide before
you begin.
It will explain how and why calculation
blocks are used in FAST financial
modelling. The techniques described in
this guide will only work in models built
using the calculation block approach.
Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
BEFORE YOU BEGIN . . .

You can of course put all your inputs on the input sheet
from the beginning, and if you do you can ignore
everything in this modelling guide.
This is the “intuitive” approach that most modellers
adopt and there’s certainly no harm in it.
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware of a
different approach, one which has several benefits:
1. Makes “parallel” development of a financial model
easier;
2. Avoids quite a bit of “paging” around the model
during the construction phase;
3. Allows you to separate your focus between building
the engine, and laying out the cockpit.
WHY
BOTHER?

financialmodellinghandbook.comFinancial Modelling
HANDBOOK
COMPLEX CALCULATIONS
While we’re building up the calculation of a line item, especially where it’s complex
and unfamiliar, it can be useful to locate the inputs next to the calculation.
Note that the calculations still follow the same calculation block structure, and the
inputs are separate from the calculations. Inputs are never “hard-coded” into
calculations.

HANDBOOK
COMPLEX CALCULATIONS
This allows easy testing of calculations while we’re building them, without having to keep
jumping back to the input sheet. We can make a change, and observe the results straight
away. This makes testing the new calculation easier.
It is also sometimes the case that we don’t know what inputs we need until after we have
built up the calculation, especially if we are “discovering” the conceptual model by sketching
up an initial calculation. Find out more about conceptual modelling.

We are not going to leave our model like this. Once
we’re happy that this part of the model is working as
we would like, we can move the inputs to the input
area of the model.
The calculation block structure makes this really easy
and safe.
DON’T
PANIC!

HANDBOOK
INPUT SHEET
Figure out where you want to put
the inputs on your input sheet or
sheets. The example shown here
is very simple – we’ll come back
to the topic of structuring input
sheets in another guide.
We’re going to want to put our
inputs in there, and we’re going
to move them one at a time.

HANDBOOK
SELECT INPUT
Select the first input you want to relocate.
Hit Shift + Spacebar to select the whole row.
Hit Ctrl + c to copy the row.

HANDBOOK
PASTE INPUT
Select the row on the input sheet
where you want to locate the
input.
Hit Shift + Spacebar to select the
row.

HANDBOOK
PASTE INPUT
Hit Enter to paste down the
copied input.
There are now two copies of this
input. The original one located
next to this calculation, and this
copy on the input sheet.
Relax. We’re not done yet.
The next step is to replace the
original input (on the calculation
sheet) with a link to this input on
the input sheet.
In the following steps we
make reference to both
the native excel short
cuts, and some
productivity macros made
available by F1F9

HANDBOOK
CREATE LINK
Hit Ctrl + c on the label.
This is the first step in the “paste
link” operation.
cuts, and some
available by F1F9

HANDBOOK
CREATE LINK
Returning to where the original calculation came from:
Alt, H, V, N will paste a link to the input on the input sheet.
Shift + Ctrl + Q in the Utility macros will achieve the same, and will apply correct formatting
(in this case blue font for imported link)

HANDBOOK
COPY ACROSS
We can now copy the link across the row, thus replace the input, with a link to the input.
Shift + Ctrl + A will copy the link across the row.
You can also copy it across using your preferred “longhand” method if you don’t have the
Utility macros.

HANDBOOK
REPEAT . . .
We repeat the same steps for each of the inputs.
Now that we have a link back to the input sheet – it makes the navigation easier.
Select the row of the next input to copy: Shift + spacebar followed by Control + c
Return to the link we created in row 27 and use Ctrl + [ to “hop back” on that link to the input
sheet.

HANDBOOK
REPEAT . . .
Paste down the copy of the input.
Hit Ctrl + c on the label of the
new input.
Now, because we used Ctrl + [ to
jump to this sheet, we can use
F5, Enter to get us back quickly.
cuts, and some
available by F1F9

HANDBOOK
REPEAT . . .
Hit Shift + Ctrl + q to paste down the link,
And then Shift + Ctrl + a to copy it across the row.

HANDBOOK
…UNTIL ALL INPUTS RELOCATED
This is the end point. All the inputs are now on the input sheet, and on the calculation sheet
we have links back to the inputs.

In this method we moved the input by first copying the
input and then creating a link to it from the calculation
sheet.
Why not just cut the input (using Ctrl + x) and then
paste it into the input sheet?
Please leave your answers on the financial modelling
handbook site, together with your feedback on this
guide, and this process!
But we’re not done yet . . .
QUESTION

Adopting this approach allows you to focus 100% on
getting the calculation right while you’re building it. And
that means testing.
You can then as a separate process move and
structure the inputs according to what makes sense for
the users of the model.
This approach also makes parallel modelling easier –
i.e. it makes it easier for multiple people to work on
models at the same time.
WHY
BOTHER?

HANDBOOK
PARALLEL MODELLING
The calculation sheets of FAST models are often functionality separate. i.e there are
separate sheets for revenue, opex, financing etc. In order to speed delivery time it can be
useful to have multiple modellers working on the model, one on each functional area.

HANDBOOK
PARALLEL MODELLING
In order to make this work it’s important that each sheet is “stand alone”. If you use this
typical operating calculation above as an example, you’ll see that each of the blue imported
line items are either 1. imports from the time sheet or 2. imports from the input sheet.

HANDBOOK
PARALLEL MODELLING
While we’re building a stand alone module, line items that will come from the time
sheet are initially left as placeholders. When this module is introduced into the
model these will be replaced with links to the actual time sheet calculation.
1
1
Inputs are left “mislocated” on the calculation sheet while the module is being built.
When it is complete and ready to the included in the main model, these will be
relocated using the method outlined in this guide.
2

Relocating Inputs

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