Excel Model Review Checklist for Analysts

Use this list when someone hands you a model, when a template or AI tool gives you a first draft, or before you send your own work to a VP. It's ordered so the cheapest checks come first. If you only have ten minutes, do sections 1 to 3.

For the reasoning behind each check, read how to check a financial model for errors. This page is the checklist version.

1. Before you open a formula

• Write down the question the model answers and its two or three key outputs.
• Do a rough paper estimate of each output.
• Note the units (thousands or millions) and the period convention (annual, quarterly, mid-year).

Try it

Work out enterprise value and EV/EBITDA

Equity value plus debt, minus cash, is enterprise value. Divide by EBITDA for the multiple.

Equity value: fill B6 (1 of 3)

	A	B
1	Share price	$40
2	Shares outstanding	50,000,000
3	Debt	$600,000,000
4	Cash	$150,000,000
5	EBITDA	$245,000,000
6	Equity value
7	Enterprise value
8	EV / EBITDA

fxB6=tap cells and keys

789()456×÷123+−0.,:^

fx$

Check

Tap cells to put them in the formula. On a laptop you can type the numbers and operators.

2. Built-in checks

• Sources equal uses.
• Balance sheet balances in every period.
• Cash never falls below the minimum balance.
• Each check actually compares two independently calculated numbers.

3. Hardcodes

• Every number that isn't an assumption is a formula.
• Assumptions live in one clearly marked area, ideally in blue font.
• No formula contains a typed number that should be an input (a 5 for the hold period, a 0.25 for a tax rate).

4. Links and references

• Each formula in a row matches the one next to it, except where it shouldn't.
• Every roll-forward reads the prior column: beginning balance equals last period's ending balance.
• Dollar signs anchor only what should stay fixed (assumptions), never a prior-year link.
• Totals sum the full range, including any rows added later.

5. Timing

• Exit value uses the final year of the hold.
• Discount factors use the right number of periods in every column.
• IRR and growth exponents use the correct number of years.
• Each formula reads the same column it sits in unless it needs last year's value.

6. Signs

• Costs, capex and increases in working capital reduce cash.
• Debt paydown reduces the balance and PIK interest increases it.
• Net debt is subtracted from enterprise value to get equity value.

7. Claims at exit

• Every debt tranche is repaid from exit proceeds.
• Cash is added back.
• Preferred equity, PIK notes and any other senior claims come out before the common.
• The sponsor's share reflects rollover and management ownership.

8. Stress tests

• Every output moves when an input it depends on changes.
• Nothing returns an error or a nonsensical value (negative debt, a 300% IRR).

Excel tools that make review faster

Shortcuts above are for Excel on Windows. Mac versions differ.

Last step

• Write down every issue you found: the cell, what it does, what it should do and how much it moves the output.