Modeling Financial Statements

Fall 2021: Tuesday evenings from 6-9 PM. I will teach this course in person, but I will also turn on Zoom. You are encouraged to attend in person, but you are welcome to attend via Zoom.

Please make sure you read the Announcement in NYU Classes for this course and read the details about highly recommended prework.

Overview

MBA ACCT-GB-3304 Specializations:

• Financial Systems and Analytics
• Accounting

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

• Me: dgode@stern.nyu.edu, 212-998-0021, Office: KMC 10-86.
• Teaching assistant: Please check NYU Classes

Prerequisites

• Please read about and take the modeling readiness quiz by clicking here.
• If you do poorly, please review accounting to get the most out of the course. Otherwise, you will be playing catchup throughout the course.

• You need to be able to devote 6-8 hours every week to do the required assignments.
• You need to bring a computer to every class. If you have any technical questions, please contact the IT department (212-998-0180), NOT me.
• I will be using Excel 365. Any version from Excel 2010 onwards should work for you, but the older versions may be missing some of the required features. You can get Office 365 for free from Microsoft because you are a student. Given the limited class time, I will not show how to replicate Excel Windows on Excel Mac.

Administrative Issues

• You need to be in the following systems before the start of the first class:
  • Albert
  • NYU Classes
  • If you are a non-Stern student, Stern automatically creates a Stern account for you when registering for a Stern course. All class emails are sent to your Stern email, not NYU email. Please forward your Stern email to your NYU email.
  • I do not control your access to dgode.stern.nyu.edu. It is linked to whatever Stern has entered in the class roster. I cannot override it.
• In case you are blocked from accessing these systems, please ask the administration to expedite matters. Given the complexity of these systems, I cannot manually add you to any system.
• Only registered students can attend. I cannot override this NYU rule.

Materials and Course Design

• I use my materials. Therefore, there is no required textbook, and you need not purchase anything.
• Classes are not videotaped unless there is a special session.

Almaris Assignments

• Review your core concepts carefully.
• The assignments appear as tests on Almaris. I may update the deadlines as the course progresses. The deadlines shown at Almaris are the correct deadlines.
• Some assignments are short; others are long. Please manage your time.
• NO EXTENSIONS will be granted for any reason except medical or family emergencies. If you have religious or personal conflicts, please submit the assignments early. The related materials are covered well in advance of the assignments. Please do not email me to request extensions unless you have a medical or family emergency.
• You can collaborate with others while doing assignments.
• All assignments are mandatory. After the first day of class, you can view the online assignments at http://www.almaris.com/assess/ using your official Stern email (no aliases) and most recent password emailed to you by Almaris. The Almaris password is different from the Stern password. To retrieve the password, use your Stern email id as it appears in the registrar's records.
• Assignments are marked “late” if you do not meet or exceed the passing score described below before the deadline. There is no additional penalty for lateness other than the low score.
• Assignments have a “passing score” of either 100% or less than 100%.
  • I set the passing score at 100% if you should ace the assignment. In reality, there is no passing grade. Whatever you get on your last attempt is your final score. That is, you are graded on accuracy but not the number of attempts. There is a difference between “passing” and getting full credit. If you get 70/100 on your final attempt, you “pass,” but you do not score a 100.
  • I set the passing score of less than 100% on a few assignments if you might not get every question right. Any score above that score is rounded up to 100%. For example, if the passing score is 90%, and you get 93%, your score is rounded up to 100%. I do the rounding up in a separate spreadsheet. You will see only the raw score online.
• Almaris is not affiliated with Stern in any way. It is offering these tests to Stern at no charge.
• Almaris staff is not authorized to extend deadlines under any circumstances. Only my TAs can do that. Almaris staff will reply to your emails only if they pertain to technical issues with the Almaris system. Please contact Stern IT for technical issues with your network.

Exams and Grading

• If you have a qualified disability and require academic accommodation during this course, please contact me directly. I will arrange a separate room/time for you.
• Grades will be based upon the following factors:
• 20%: Attendance, professional conduct in class, and class participation as measured by answering questions in class when I call on you in class.
  • You will lose points for every missed class unless you have a medical emergency, family emergency, a confirmed interview, or required work travel for Langone students. No other reasons will be accepted as valid reasons unless you have pre-cleared them with me. If you have a medical or family emergency, do not worry about the course. Take care of that emergency and email me later.
  • Please bring your name tags to each class.
• 30%: Almaris assignments described above.
• 50%: Final exam. Instructions you will see before the exam.
  • Please login to Almaris as soon as you receive these instructions in an email from me. You will see inactive links to your exams and instructions.
  • The instructions at the top of the login screen will tell you how many parts the exam has and their weights.
  • Please report any problems such as wrong deadlines or missing parts of the exam to me immediately.
  • Login to Almaris right before your exam. Refresh your screen to see active links for the exam.
  • Your final score on each part of the exam will be max(score1, score2 - 7, score3 - 14, score4 - 21, score5 - 28).
  • You are required to answer all questions without any help from another student or anyone else. Any such communication will be construed as cheating. If you have any doubts, email the TA AND me. Whichever one of us reads the message first will respond. If the exam is held in class, you can ask the proctor.
  • Please keep your email open during the exam and check it periodically. Any updates/corrections will be sent via email.
  • Manage your time. Extra time will NOT be allowed.
  • The exam is an open book and open notes exam.
  • The exam covers the entire course.
  • If you want us to grade your incomplete or incorrect spreadsheet manually, submit it within FIVE MINUTES of the end of the exam. Do not email it; look for File Exchange in the left-hand menu bar on NYU Classes. If you submit the spreadsheet for manual grading, you would be considered to have used up your five attempts. Therefore, your maximum score on that spreadsheet can only be 72/100 due to the penalty for multiple attempts.

Important computer tips for the final

• DO NOT WORK ON A SPREADSHEET WITHIN A BROWSER. Save the spreadsheet to your computer, work on it, and save it periodically. If you navigate away from the spreadsheet in a browser, ALL YOUR WORK WILL BE LOST.
• Organize your computer files and designate a directory where you will be saving your exam files.
• Restart your computer before the exam to minimize problems.
• Bring an external mouse with a scroll wheel to speed up test-taking. Do not waste time using the trackpad or the internal mouse.
• Maximize screen space by hiding the Excel ribbon and browser menus. The more of the screen you see, the faster and more accurate you are.
• Bring a computer with as big a screen as possible.
• Do not use an unfamiliar computer.

Schedule

• There is no midterm. There will be no in-class graded quizzes.
• A detailed document is provided in the course materials. It lists the sequence of topics, related pages from the materials, related spreadsheets, and related assignments. The outline below is a summary.