Checklists

AI-Assisted Modelling & Analysis Checklist

This checklist covers the verification checks specific to AI-assisted financial modelling and analysis, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on confirming the AI technique used was matched to the task, that AI-drafted formulas, figures, and citations have been independently verified, and that AI-generated analysis is being presented as a decision input rather than the decision itself. It is intended for financial modellers, FP&A teams, and reviewers checking AI-assisted work before it supports a material decision.

Acquisition Model Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to acquisition and M&A models, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on the mechanics unique to deal models — synergy assumption traceability, purchase price allocation, debt and equity funding structures, and consistency between standalone and pro-forma combined entity figures. It is intended for buy-side and sell-side teams, and advisors, reviewing a model ahead of a transaction decision.

Annual Model Re-Verification Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to an annual model re-verification cycle, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on comparing the current model against its custody baseline or prior year's reference point, classifying any drift, and confirming that any prior findings were actually resolved. It is intended for lenders' portfolio and credit teams, and asset managers with models under ongoing management.

Asset Management Model Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to infrastructure asset management and operations financial models, the owner or operator's ongoing lifecycle model, distinct from a transaction-close project finance or PPP model. It focuses on asset register data quality, component-level renewal forecast integrity, maintenance and capital renewal reserve adequacy, and funding gap disclosure. It is intended for government agencies, asset owners, CFOs, and advisors reviewing an asset management plan or operations financial model.

Bank Capital Adequacy Checklist

This checklist covers the structural construction of a bank model's capital adequacy build, from capital tier segmentation and deductions through risk-weighted asset calculation, minimum ratio and buffer thresholds, and the live connection between the balance sheet forecast and the resulting capital ratios. It is a construction-discipline checklist, distinct from validating whether any specific regulatory capital calculation itself is correct.

Battery Energy Storage Model Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to battery energy storage financial models, on top of the general power project and financial model audit baseline. It focuses on cycling-driven degradation, revenue stacking across arbitrage, capacity, and ancillary service streams, round-trip efficiency, and augmentation schedule integrity. It is intended for lenders, developers, and advisors reviewing a standalone or hybrid battery storage project model ahead of a financing or investment decision.

Bid Model Evaluation Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to evaluating multiple bidders' financial models within a single tender, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on keeping each bidder's evaluation fully isolated, presenting comparable structural facts side by side without ranking, and disclosing which tender requirements cannot be checked structurally. It is intended for procuring authorities and the tender advisors supporting them.

Board Reporting Model Checklist

This checklist covers what should be verified in a financial model before its outputs are used in a board reporting pack. It focuses on traceability of board-facing figures back to source data, consistency with prior board reporting periods, and clear disclosure of variances and their drivers. It is intended for CFOs, finance teams preparing board materials, and boards themselves as a basis for questioning the figures they are presented with.

Capital Budgeting Decision Checklist

This checklist sets out the review disciplines a capital budgeting or investment appraisal analysis should pass before it is presented to an investment committee, lender, or other decision-making audience. It covers whether the discount rate matches the cash flow basis and risk being discounted, whether the timing convention is applied consistently, whether NPV and IRR/MIRR rankings have been cross-checked for conflicts, whether sensitivity has been run on the discount rate and key drivers, and whether the model is free of circularity between the discount rate and the cash flows it discounts.

Climate Finance Model Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to climate finance and climate risk financial models, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on concessional and catalytic capital layering, additionality disclosure, carbon price and market exposure treatment, and physical and transition risk scenario coverage. It is intended for lenders, investors, and advisors reviewing a climate investment or climate risk model ahead of a financing or investment decision.

DCF Forecast Assumptions & Driver Checklist

A DCF is only as reliable as the forecast drivers feeding it, and those drivers are frequently the least scrutinized part of the model relative to the discount rate and terminal value. This checklist isolates the forecast assumption layer for focused review — the length and granularity of the forecast period, the traceability of revenue and margin drivers, the linkage of capex, depreciation, and working capital to their supporting schedules, consistency between real and nominal treatment, and ownership of each driver — for a model builder, reviewer, or investment committee member to work through before relying on the forecast.

DCF Investment Committee Submission Checklist

An investment committee submission built around a DCF is judged not only on the model itself but on whether the submission package gives the committee what it needs to interrogate the conclusion. This checklist sets out what such a package should include — the DCF output presented alongside a triangulated cross-check, sensitivity and scenario tables, explicit terminal value and discount rate disclosure, and clear presentation and sign-off — for whoever is preparing or reviewing a DCF-based submission before it reaches committee.

DCF Model Audit Checklist

This checklist sets out the structural checks a DCF model should pass before being relied upon for an investment committee submission, lender review, or transaction decision. Each check maps to one or more of FMAE's existing 26 structural audit rules, distinguishing this checklist from a generic modelling best-practice list: every item here is something a deterministic structural audit engine can actually test, not a matter of methodology judgement.

DCF Model Review Checklist

This checklist is a general-purpose self-review tool for a model builder or reviewer to work through before a DCF model is submitted for investment committee review, lender due diligence, or independent audit. It covers construction quality, terminal value and discount rate reasonableness, sensitivity and scenario disclosure, and triangulation against other valuation methods. It complements, and is distinct from, the DCF Model Audit Checklist, which maps specific structural checks onto FMAE's testable R001-R026 rule taxonomy for independent audit purposes.

Data Centre Financial Model Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to data centre financial models, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on capacity constraint tracking (power, space, cooling), revenue driver decomposition (occupancy, pricing, density mix), power and cooling cost structure, and tenant contract and concentration risk. It is intended for lenders, investors, and advisors reviewing a colocation, hyperscale, or enterprise data centre model ahead of a financing or investment decision.

Development Waterfall and Promote Checklist

This checklist covers the structural checks specific to a real estate waterfall and promote structure, on top of the general financial model audit baseline. It focuses on tier sequencing, hurdle rate testing against actual cash distribution timing, and catch-up and clawback mechanics. It is intended for sponsors, investors, and advisors reviewing a waterfall calculation ahead of an investment or distribution decision.

Financial Model Audit Checklist

This checklist sets out the core structural checks that apply to any financial model regardless of sector or transaction type — formula integrity, circularity, linking, formatting, and output consistency. It is the flagship, general-purpose reference for teams running an internal review before a model is submitted for external audit, financing, or committee approval. Sector-specific and audience-specific checklists elsewhere in this section build on it rather than repeating it.

Financial Model Due Diligence Checklist

This checklist operationalizes the Financial Model Due Diligence pillar into a working review tool. It focuses on the checks specific to a transaction model that general model audit and the acquisition-model-specific checklist do not fully cover in combination — whether due diligence findings from every workstream are actually and correctly reflected in the model, and whether the review has been scoped correctly for its intended audience (independent, lender, investor, or vendor). It assumes the general Financial Model Audit Checklist and the Acquisition Model Checklist have already been applied to the underlying model structure.

Financial Modelling Best-Practice Checklist

This checklist sets out the construction-time disciplines a financial modelling team should apply while a model is being built, synthesising the common ground across the FAST Standard, the ICAEW Financial Modelling Code, and general spreadsheet engineering practice. It is not a certification checklist and does not test whether a model's calculations are correct — it is a builder's self-check aid, distinct from the Financial Model Audit Checklist, which is used for independent, post-hoc structural verification rather than during construction.

Forecast Model Build Checklist

This checklist sets out the construction-time checks a model builder should apply while building a financial forecast, covering the areas most commonly responsible for a forecast that looks complete but is not structurally reliable. It checks that every forecast line traces to a labelled driver, that the assumptions tab is complete and sensitizable, that any scenario switch is documented and does not silently break dependent formulas, that drivers are applied consistently period-over-period, and, where relevant, that a rolling forecast's cadence and version control are clear. It is a builder's self-check, applied during construction, complementary to the DCF-specific Forecast Assumptions & Driver Checklist.