Documentation / Core Concepts

Recommended Software

I recommend using Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for financial modeling, both in general and for Foresight templates specifically.

I recommend using Microsoft Excel ™ or Google Sheets ™ for financial modeling, both in general and for Foresight templates specifically.

In practice, I use Excel to build and edit models, and Google Sheets to share or collaborate with users. Excel is usually a faster platform for building models, but Sheets can be easier for sharing models with people.

Foresight's models can be used in both interchangeably; simply upload the Excel formated model template from Foresight into Google Sheets, and everything will work fine. [1]

Apple Numbers, Zoho Sheet, and Quip Spreadsheets aren't the best for robust financial modeling or for Foresight templates; I have used OpenOffice Calc without issues but would still recommend Excel or Google Sheets.

  1. Some older versions of Foresight models will have issues in re-downloading models from Google Sheets into Excel because of the way the two spreadsheet products process array formulas differently, but newer versions eliminated the array formulas to simplify that process. ↩︎