Introduction Chapter 1: Better Learning Decisions

So, what is this book about?

This book is about financial modeling. It deals with the types of business decisions made by accounting and finance students and professionals. The book's purpose is to teach advanced Excel techniques. All employers value these skills in their staff, and it is expected that the material covered will enhance students' employment prospects and the career advancement of professionals.

Works of this genre are typically part of a management science curriculum and consequently are focused on some topics that Accounting and Finance practitioners do not consider relevant in their day-to-day routine—such as Monte Carlo simulations, using real options and integer programming. Different from many books that explain how Excel is used for decision-making, this text focuses specifically on Accounting and Finance department applications. Each of the decision contexts explored is based on the personal experience of the author, whose employment history includes the following areas of financial management: