Build a Three-Statement Model, DCF, Debt Schedule, and LBO in Excel from One Integrated Case
Julian R. Sterling
The four Excel workbooks that go with the book. One company, Alder Ridge Components, carried from its
reported statements to a five-year forecast, a revolver and a cash sweep, a DCF and a leveraged buyout.
Every figure the book prints comes from these files, and fourteen checks read PASS in all three
scenarios. The same operating plan is worth 230.6 million to a buyer who discounts it and returns
2.35x to a sponsor who levers it; read with the wrong debt schedule, it returns 3.10x. The error lab
shows you how that happens.
Free to download. No sign-up, no email address, nothing to fill in.
The four workbooks and the read-me. Each workbook can also be downloaded on its own below.
Last revised 24 September 2026.
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Optional. When a workbook on this page is corrected or a new worked case goes up, readers on the list get one email, plus a short note when a new book comes out. The downloads do not need it.
Thirteen sheets in dependency order: Historical (2024 and 2025 reported, the 1.2 million
plant consolidation cost added back, the opening balance sheet), Scenarios (one selector,
base, downside and upside), Operations (three product lines built from units and price),
Working Capital, Fixed Assets, Debt (term loan, revolver, minimum cash, sweep), Statements
(income statement, balance sheet and an indirect cash-flow statement that ties to it),
DCF, LBO, LBO Debt and Checks.
Base case: DCF enterprise value 230,620,021, equity value
209,400,121; LBO at 10.0x with 4.5x of debt, exit at 9.0x,
MOIC 2.35x, IRR 18.7 per cent. Downside: 0.82x, and a revolver draw of
3.8 million in 2027 that the model funds and repays by 2029.
The same workbook with its 693 formula cells emptied. Historical,
Assumptions, Scenarios and Checks stay intact, so the checks are live while you build.
A Progress sheet counts the cells still empty on each sheet; the Instructions sheet gives
the build order. The target is the same answer as the complete model, to the dollar.
A full copy of the model with eight defects behind switches: a working-capital sign, a
missing depreciation line, typed cash, a sweep that ignores minimum cash, capital expenditure
counted twice, tax on EBITDA, a terminal value grown twice, and exit net debt read from the
wrong capital structure. Six of them break a check. Two do not, and those are the ones a
reviewer has to find by reading. An Audit Register to fill in, and a Guide with the answer.
A separate, simpler case on the same company: revenue growth of 5 per cent, an 18 per cent
margin, debt held flat. Inputs, a build area and an answer key: enterprise value
156,282,391 and equity value 135,062,491 at 31 December 2026,
with three checks and the timing convention stated.
2026 is the base year; forecast 2027 to 2031; valuation and deal close at 31 December 2026; exit at 31 December 2031.
Discounting
End of year, WACC 10.0 per cent, terminal growth 2.5 per cent. The 2026 cash flow is already in the 31 December 2026 net debt and is not discounted again.
Interest
On opening balances, so the workbook has no circular reference.
Depreciation
Rate applied to opening PP&E plus half of the year’s capital expenditure.
Inputs
Scenarios (base inputs and adjustments), the LBO inputs block and Historical. Nothing is typed inside a formula.
Opening the files
The workbooks open in Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc, Google Sheets and Numbers. They use no macros
and no add-ins, so nothing needs to be enabled or trusted. If your spreadsheet asks to update links on
opening, decline: there are none.
Closing the DealTwo defensible bridges 20.70 million apart, a peg worth 7.00 million, and the six choices that remove 6.60 of a 12.00 earn-out.
CMBS and CRE CLOsWhere the loss actually lands, from appraisal reduction to realised severity, and what the B-piece is really being paid for.
How to Read a Commercial LeaseThe three refinements chapter 19 names and never performs, and the renewal rate below which the mark-to-market is worth nothing.
How to Read a Credit AgreementWhere the default actually comes from, the cure that costs 5.5 times the other, and the capacity nobody adds up.
How to Read a Real Estate Loan AgreementThe cure ratio in closed form, the four-point window in which the cheap cure works, and the cure sized to the wrong threshold.
Office Real EstateA six per cent yield that returns 3.2 per cent once the re-letting cycle is paid for, and the headline-to-net-effective rent arithmetic.
Private Equity Real EstateBoth worked waterfalls to the dollar, the two capital stacks, and the arithmetic of the promote made changeable.
Private Markets PerformanceThirty-one of the thirty-three figures chapter 19 publishes reproduce exactly — and the two that do not are named rather than quietly adopted.
Raising a Real Estate FundThe chapter 17 funnel run on a calendar — when the first close actually lands, and why more travel does not help.
Real Estate FinanceFour people look at one building and reach four numbers; the lender is whole only above 105,109,489, twelve per cent below today’s value rather than forty.
Real Estate Financial ModelingProperty, development and fund models built line by line, and the modelling test worked end to end.
Real Estate Fund ManagementThe waterfall of 6.11, the build-to-core of 8.7 and the proceeds gap, reproduced as live formulas rather than asserted.
REIT Analysis and ValuationFFO of 532.0, AFFO of 381.0, net asset value and dividend safety — every figure a formula you can change.
Retail Real EstateThe occupancy cost of every unit in a centre, the sixteen per cent of the rent roll no tenant can sustain, and the right-size-convert-or-hold decision priced.
Sale and LeasebackA €179.5 million transaction end to end, with rent cover measured on the entity that actually signs the lease.
Self-Storage Real EstateThe cohort engine behind a 590-unit store, and the rate increase on existing customers priced against the move-outs it causes.
The Fund Finance ProfessionalChapter 8 builds the reported-to-eligible NAV bridge; chapter 9 computes every ratio without it. Two points at every state — and what a subscription line does to the IRR.
The Growth Equity InvestorWhat a pro rata cheque really costs, and the band where defending your ownership loses money.
The Private Credit InvestorThe two coverage ratios are not measured on the same thing: the erosion is 47.7 per cent, not the 28.7 the headline implies.
The Private Equity Fund Controller PlaybookThe book defines IRR, DPI, RVPI and TVPI, tells you to update them at the exit, and prints not one value. Computed: a 1.833× deal inside a fund at 0.892 TVPI.
The Venture Capital AssociateWhat defending a position costs, and how many companies a reserve pool actually defends.
Treasury ManagementFive people quote the cash balance of one company on one morning, from 214,000,000 to 68,400,000, and all five are right.
Energy TradingA position report that is 91.7031 per cent hedged and correctly computed, on a book that is short 2,542,000 MWh — and a margin call of 198,400,000 the next morning.
Financial Risk ManagementA fund inside every limit that cannot meet a redemption — and the number that decides it is the one with no currency attached.
Business ValuationThree advisers land 26.8 per cent apart on one company, and the whole gap turns out to be 1.96 points of perpetual growth.
Quantitative FinanceThree models agree to a quarter of one per cent about a number that one unobservable input moves a hundred and three times as much.
Asset ManagementFour people quote four returns for one mandate, all correct and 2.7017 points apart — forty-eight times the manager’s net skill.
Alternative InvestmentsA manager reports 13.29 per cent and the endowment earns 6.26 — both correct, and only a third of the advertised advantage arrives.
Venture CapitalOne company out of twenty-eight returns 56.7 per cent of the fund, and half the capital goes in after the decision — at half the return.
Machine Learning for FinanceFive people quote the accuracy of one credit model, all five are right, and the number that decides how much money it makes is none of them.
Commercial Real Estate InvestingThe equity earned 8.6647 per cent and the investor received exactly 8.0000 — the preferred return, and nothing above it.
Mergers and AcquisitionsThe board paper says the deal creates 13,436,667 of value. The arithmetic says it destroys 17,530,855. Nobody is lying.
DerivativesThe treasury report says the hedge cost 1,233,698. That is the interest differential, not a cost.
Construction Cost ControlA contract sum of 26,301,102 became a final account of 29,153,363 on the building that was drawn — and 85.8 per cent of what was lost was knowable on the day it was signed.
Pricing StrategyA list price of 148.00, a pocket price of 112.51, and the nine deductions in between — with what one point of price is actually worth.
Trade FinanceSix routes to payment on one 4,200,000 export order cost between 178,040 and 223,268, a spread worth 14.8 per cent of the margin, and a day of buyer credit costs 1,031.76.
Cost AccountingOne factory costed twice on the same 13,440,000 of overhead, and 4,053,091 moves between four product families.
Contract ManagementA bid 5.50 a unit cheaper, signed on paper worth 9.81 a unit more — and 94.68 per cent of it was knowable on the day of signature.
Capital MarketsFour defensible readings of one bond, the cost of an issue under each convention, and the placement discount computed at a constant discount.
Financial RegulationThree ratios pass and the fourth is in breach by 1,956.0 million: the output floor, the liquidity buffer after encumbrance, and the loan split.
Bank ManagementFour defensible readings of one balance sheet, the deposit beta measured two ways, and the liquidity that lasts 3.9 days.
The Real Estate WorkoutFour ways out of one broken loan, discounted to today, and the 58.7 cents at which a payoff beats enforcement.