Best practice: Check formulas in financial models and business cases
Financial models and business cases normally have a horizontal logic from left to right (along a time period, i.e., months or years).
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To check formulas in financial models or business cases, two best practices are recommended:
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(1) Adequate data-selection
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When selecting the financial model / business case data, it is best practice to start the selection with a header row and numbers below (in the example below cell H10, which is the first quarter of analysis (2021 Q1)).
(2) Separate analysis between historic data and forecast
When selecting the financial model / business case data, in most cases it is best practice to split the analysis into historic data and the forecast period. Main reason is, that for historic data, in most cases hard-coded values are entered. For the forecast period, formulas are used. If analyses are not split, the DQ Assistant might highlight exactly this obvious difference in formula logic.