The new Standard Financial Model is live and available for download. What's changed? Quite a lot:
Overall, a simpler structure with data passed through less sheets. Hooks, Pricing, Pipeline, Returns, Valuation and Fundraising have all been deprecated, although all the same core features still exist in the model, just in different ways (the automatic fundraising option has been deprecated, but it was a lot of complication for something the majority of people didn't use). The deprecation of Hooks is the biggest change; the input for actual financials was moved to the Forecast sheet where it can be used in-line with the forecasted financials, making the process of comparing actuals to the forecast easier.
The prebuilt Revenue Model was rewritten, moving the revenue calculations to its own sheet, and streamlined by removing one of the customer/channel columns. While that was removed as a prebuilt option, it's actually easier to add additional customer bases and revenue streams than before. (Duplicate the prebuilt revenue model to do a heavy implementation of a new customer set, or use the drivers on the Forecast sheet to add in any custom revenue stream.)
The Forecasting Drivers were rebuilt, moved inline with each line's calculations, with a new way to declare operational and financial metrics to use as drivers, enabling this to be the most flexible driver-based model I've ever created.
The data entry for forecasting revenues and expenses was streamlined; while this default setup now groups everything together - revenues, expenses, fundraising, inventory purchases, accounts receivable collections, and much more - it's easy to insert blank rows and create section separators, and no formulas need to be adjusted.
While the Pricing sheet was discarded, the previous methods used to calculate average revenue per user/customer/etc was pretty complicated, and it's now a lot easier to create a custom list of SKU prices or subscription tiers and use them in the model.
The Ecommerce, SaaS, and Services Model variants of this model were temporarily deprecated, but will be back soon; at the moment, all purchasers of those models can download the default Standard Model. Previously there was no real difference between the Standard and the variants except for the selected preset information, and the new Standard Model offers the same functionality; soon there will be more differentiated revenue models tightly tuned to each business model.
Not sure if the model is right for you? Contact me anytime.