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Hi Bob,
The income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement modules on the Modano website are all single module component modules containing only links in, so you should feel comfortable adding/deleting from them as required, with the comfort of knowing that your worst-case scenario is deleting them and re-inserting them without losing any assumptions data. So, like love and cooking, I'd recommend approaching customizing the financial statements modules with a degree of reckless abandonment rather than caution, as it's the only way to really learn...
Having said that, the key to customizing (and in fact creating) financial statements that are correct and always balance is understanding the financial statement impacts of each precedent module into each of the 3 financial statements. As discussed in the Financial Statements section of the Annual Financial Model practical learning exercise, the only forecast links between the 3 financial statements are change in cash from the cash flow statement linking into the balance sheet cash (current assets) account, and net profit after tax from the income statement linking into the retained profits (equity) section of the balance sheet. All other links are from precedent modules, and the combined impacts of each precedent module on the 3 financial statements must balance.
The Module Guide section of the Modano Resources provides financial statements impacts diagrams for most modules available on the Modano website. So you can use these diagrams to guide you as you add complexity to these modules, which is most of the skill in customizing modules in integrated 3-way models. You can also explore the primary precedent and dependent modules of each financial statements module - i.e. here's those for the income statement module: www.modano.com/resources/modules_reference_guide/income_statement
Here's an example of the financial statement impacts of a basic debt module from the Debt & Equity section of the Annual Financial Model learning exercise:
From a Modano company perspective, we're aware that the documentation of the different financial statements (i.e. the differences between their charts of accounts) is currently insufficient on the Modano website. This is something we'll be addressing as part of the upcoming major upgrade, which we'll announce over the next month via our newsletter.
In the interim, don't forget you can always purchase support credits and get help from one of our experts.
M.
Hi Bob,
Further to my last comment, I would strongly recommend that you undertake all of the practical learning and assessment exercises within the Training section of your Modano account if you're serious about customizing and/or creating your own modules.
Modano is a platform, not a solution, and customizing it requires an understanding of financial modeling and Modano / modular financial modeling. These areas require learning, which is why we've invested to heavily in making the training theoretical and practical, and very comprehensive.
This is also why we provide our support system, because users need to either do the training properly or expect to purchase support if they want advanced module customizations, etc.
We can assure our users that they will usually save time, money and risk if they take one of these approaches, but if you don't do the training and don't purchase support you are likely to end up wasting time rather than saving it - a bit like flying a helicopter without any training...
I know that it is slowly sinking in, because a yr ago I just wasnt ready. This time around I've made more progress, and the way I can tell is I'll get mad and quit, and go back to using another companies template and somehow the Modano training sinks in and seems to train me to be more modular and properly sequenced-or should I say more structured in an unstrucrured approach. I have watched every training module many times over, and I am definitely learning more as I go.
a small example is the fact that we are subchapter s..we dont pay taxes, never have, never will..and since I am only using the product for my company, I would like to delete any and all references to before/after tax.
Hi Bob,
We're releasing a major upgrade shortly, and after this we are going to focus on adding more 'how to' videos and tutorials to the Modano website, as none of these stuff is particularly simple, with or without Modano.
In the interim, you always have the option of purchasing support (vi the Support section of your Modano account: www.modano.com/account/support) and having one of our experts walk you through it via a screen-sharing session.
M.