The final exam for all three spring 2024 sections needs to be done together and takes three hours. Therefore, please ignore the final exam schedule on Albert. All three sections' exams will be online on Monday, May 13, from 6 PM to 9 PM. You can take the exam remotely.

This course requires excellent accounting skills. If your accounting skills are rusty, you will be expected to finish EXTENSIVE optional accounting assignments. Do not take this course if you dislike accounting.

The day sections are always in-person, while the spring evening section is via Zoom. As the start date of the evening class approaches, I will poll the class to see if some of you would like to come in person. In that case, I will show up in a Stern classroom and Zoom from there. That way, those who prefer an in-person experience can get it. Please do not email me about this issue until February 5, 2024. I will send a poll for the evening class then.

Please contact NYU IT (askit@nyu.edu, 212-998-3333) or NYU Stern IT (helpdesk@stern.nyu.edu, 212-998-0180) for all Zoom/email/NYU Brightspace/Admin/CapitalIQ issues. Please do not copy/contact me. Brightspace and NYU groups send all emails to the @nyu.edu (not @stern.nyu.edu) address, while Stern class mail lists send emails to @stern.nyu.edu. You must check BOTH emails and use the correct browser profile. Please contact IT to figure this out. Do not write to Almaris or me if you do not get Almaris’s emails because this issue is between NYU and you.

Please read the announcement in NYU Brightspace for this course and the details about the highly recommended prework.

Overview

MBA ACCT-GB-3304 Specializations:

Various management disciplines teach you how to analyze and forecast parts of a business. This course builds on this foundation to help you weave your forecasts into coherent spreadsheet-based pro-forma financials. Modeling financial statements provides a reality check on the forecasts, enables “what if” analysis, provides an integrated view of the business, and is a key step in valuation and credit risk analysis.

The course is indispensable to careers in investment banking, private equity, buy-side or sell-side research, credit research, corporate finance, valuation, project finance, and due diligence advisory. It gives a competitive edge during interviews, internships, and jobs. First-year and second-year students can both take this course.

Help and Office

Prerequisites

Administrative Issues

Materials and Course Design

Almaris Assignments

Attendance and penalty for missing classes

Requiring attendance is necessary for several reasons. First, you incorrectly assume you can catch up on a missed class by watching a recording (if available). Videos do not engage your brain as much as a live class. Second, less than 20% of you watch the recording (if available). You are then lost in class, which provides wrong signals to me as an instructor. Third, your absence hurts class discussions. Fourth, you miss out on feedback if you do not work through the questions I pose in class. Fifth, I lose the feedback since there are fewer questions.

The policy below will be in effect only after the add/drop period.

Without mandatory attendance, attendance is often below 50%. Therefore, though I dislike doing this, I penalize absences. If you anticipate being absent for good reasons, please email me well in advance. Please enter "Excused" on the attendance sheet described below to avoid the penalty if I approve. If you miss a class due to emergencies and cannot tell me in advance, do not panic. Take care of the emergency first, and then email me. I will permit you to change the "Absent" to "Excused." But, if you miss a class without a valid reason, there is a penalty, as stated below.

For sections meeting in 150-190 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY missed session unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss two class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.

For sections meeting in 75-80 minute sessions, you will lose one grade (A to A-, A- to B+, B+ to B, B to B-, and so on) for EVERY TWO missed sessions unless you were explicitly excused via email. Thus, if you miss four class sessions, you will lose two grades, and so on.

Please sit in the same seat in every class and display your name tags. For Zoom classes, you must keep your video on AT ALL TIMES. You must also have a good working headset or mic, as it is extremely rude to be inaudible and force me to ask you to repeat yourself. After entering the class, please mark yourself present in the first 20 minutes on the OneDrive sheet (link posted on Brightspace). You will be marked absent if you are more than 20 minutes late unless it is because of factors beyond your control (traffic, subway, interviews running late). You will also be marked absent if you leave the class early unless you have my permission or get it afterward. You will get an F in the course if you are caught cheating on the attendance sheet.

Exams and Grading

Important computer tips for the final

Schedule

Module Topic
1

Deriving cash flows, enterprise or unlevered cash flows

2

Building blocks of models; Linking cash flow forecasts to value

3

Designing models, Customers, Suppliers, employees, and other expenses

4

Multiperiod models: Long-term accruals and deferrals

5

Excel tools for scenario analysis; Capacity: PP&E and depreciation

6

Modeling taxes

7

Modeling financing

8

Time value of money and bonds

9

Integrative analysis

10

Which cash flows should one discount

11

Prioritizing assumptions in models; sensitivity analysis