◆ Models II · drill · Financial Modeling Keyboard Mastery track
Run the debt schedule
a schedule is a corkscrew — each year opens where the last one closed, and the interest reads the balance the year opened with.
Credit committee sits at four and the sponsor wants the term loan refreshed. The VP walked past with the mandatory amortization rate — it arrives as an instruction, not a formula, so it goes in the assumptions block in blue. Then run the tranche: mandatory amortization off that rate, a cash sweep (spare cash used to prepay debt early) capped by what is left to repay and by the cash the business actually threw off, the balance rolled year to year, and interest accruing on the balance each year opened with.
The shortcuts in this drill
Alt walks: tap Alt, release, then the letters in sequence — each key steps one ribbon menu. On a Mac, tap ⌥ and use the same letters (KeyTips, Excel 2024+).
Alt h f c⌥ h f c on macFont color
Font color: blue inputs, black formulas — the oldest convention in banking models, still enforced.
Ctrl+R⌘R on macFill right from the cell to the left
Same as fill down, but across — one quarter’s formula becomes the whole year in two keystrokes.
Ctrl+B⌘B on macBold
Bold marks structure: titles, total rows, anything the reviewer’s eye should land on first.
Alt h b p⌥ h b p on macTop border
Top border above a total row — the accounting ruling that says “this line sums the ones above.”
functions you'll type: MIN() · MAX()
The optimal line
the par-setting sequence, straight through:
type 7% at B17 → alt h f c blue · B11 =-B10*$B$17 · B12 =-MIN(B10+B11,MAX(0,B7)) · B14 =-$B$18*B10 · B13 =B10+B11+B12 · select B11:F14 ctrl+r · C10 =B13 · fill C10:F10 → · B13:F13 ctrl+b + alt h b p · ctrl+s
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