Goldman Sachs Excel Skills for Business Job Simulation on Forage

I recently finished Goldman Sachs’ Excel skills for business job simulation through the Forage platform. I have learnt basic Excel skills and accounts fundamentals. I really enjoy creating dashboards and storytelling using data.

Microsoft Excel is the most widely used spreadsheet tool in the banking and finance industry today. I learnt the fundamentals of Excel:

• Cell Basics (alignment, cell manipulation, column and row manipulation, text formats, cell formats, dates, basic formulas, copying, pasting and transposing)
• Formatting (numbers, borders, column/row alignment, text to column)
• Comments (adding, removing)
• Naming (name manager, use in formulas)
• Setting up a new sheet (header, font selection and font size, column and row sizing)

Next task is to create a set of assumptions within Excel, based on the information from the client (a cupcake shop). The operating assumptions are split out between Revenue, Costs, Cash Flow and Other.

Armed with a completed set of forecast assumptions, we now turn our attention to producing a forecast profit and loss (P&L) statement. It lays out revenue, direct costs, gross profit, operating expenses, depreciation, amortization, net interest, taxes and net profit in a logical manner.

Forecasting Cash Flows using cash flow assumptions alongside the previously completed P&L tab to complete the Cash Flow tab. To ensure that the cupcake shop has enough cash to execute its 5-year plan, to continue to pay down its debt and maintain a positive cash balance. This will involve calculating the net cash flow for each year for the business, taking into account key operating, investing and financing cash flows.

After we’ve built out a forecast set of assumptions and financial metrics, it is time to summarize this data into charts that are ready for the client’s review.

1. Column Chart showing Cupcake volume from 2020–24

2. Column Chart showing Revenue from 2020–24

3. Line Chart showing Closing Debt from 2020–24

4. Area Chart showing Closing Cash from 2020–24

5. Combination Chart with Columns showing Cupcake Units Sold from 2020–24 and a Line showing Average Sale Price from 2020–24

Below is the certificate and a list of skills I acquired through this virtual experience. https://github.com/nhoiyee/Excel-Skills-for-Business

Goldman Sachs Excel Skills for Business Job Simulation on Forage — October 2024

• Acquired proficient command of Excel functionalities and data analysis techniques, including data cleansing, and manipulation, and conditional formatting techniques.
• Acquired proficiency in automation by learning to record macros and script in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), developing two functional macros integrated with buttons using account sales data.
• Gained expertise in data visualization and storytelling using Excel by creating impactful charts and interactive dashboards.