MSIN0047 Entrepreneurial Finance

2025-03-24 Admin 写评论

Hello, if you have any need, please feel free to consult us, this is my wechat: wx91due

Assessment (non-exam) Brief

Module code/name
 MSIN0047 Entrepreneurial Finance
Module leader name
 Simon Hulme
Academic year
 2024/25
Term
 2
Assessment title
 Financial Model Spreadsheet and Financial Pitch Deck (Level 7)
Individual/group assessment
 Individual

Submission deadlines: Students should submit all work by the published deadline date and time. Students experiencing sudden or unexpected events beyond your control which impact your ability to complete assessed work by the set deadlines may request mitigation via the extenuating circumstances procedure. Students with disabilities or ongoing, long-term conditions should explore a Summary of Reasonable Adjustments. Students may use the delayed assessment scheme for pre-determined mitigation on a limited number of assessments in a year. Check the Delayed Assessment Scheme area on Portico to see if this assessment is eligible.

Return and status of marked assessments: Students should expect to receive feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline, as per UCL guidelines. The module team will update you if there are delays through unforeseen circumstances (e.g. ill health). All results when first published are provisional until confirmed by the Examination Board.

Copyright Note to students: Copyright of this assessment brief is with UCL and the module leader(s) named above. If this brief draws upon work by third parties (e.g. Case Study publishers) such third parties also hold copyright. It must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or shared with any other individual(s) and/or organisations, including web-based organisations, without permission of the copyright holder(s) at any point in time.

Academic Misconduct: Academic Misconduct is defined as any action or attempted action that may result in a student obtaining an unfair academic advantage. Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, self-plagiarism, obtaining help from/sharing work with others be they individuals and/or organisations or any other form of cheating that may result in a student obtaining an unfair academic advantage. Refer to Academic Manual Chapter 6, Section 9: Student Academic Misconduct Procedure - 9.2 Definitions.

Referencing: You must reference and provide full citation for ALL sources used, including AI sources, articles, text books, lecture slides and module materials. This includes any direct quotes and paraphrased text. If in doubt, reference it. If you need further guidance on referencing please see UCL’s referencing tutorial for students. Failure to cite references correctly may result in your work being referred to the Academic Misconduct Panel.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools in your Assessment: Your module leader will explain to you if and how AI tools can be used to support your assessment. In some assessments, the use of generative AI is not permitted at all. In others, AI may be used in an assistive role which means students are permitted to use AI tools to support the development of specific skills required for the assessment as specified by the module leader. In others, the use of AI tools may be an integral component of the assessment; in these cases the assessment will provide an opportunity to demonstrate effective and responsible use of AI. See page 3 of this brief to check which category use of AI falls into for this assessment. Students should refer to the UCL guidance on acknowledging use of AI and referencing AI. Failure to correctly reference use of AI in assessments may result in students being reported via the Academic Misconduct procedure. Refer to the section of the UCL Assessment success guide on Engaging with AI in your education and assessment. 

Content of this assessment brief

Section
 Content
A
 Core information
B
 Coursework brief and requirements
C
 Module learning outcomes covered in this assessment
D
 Groupwork instructions (if applicable)
E
 How your work is assessed
F
 Additional information

Section A: Core information

Submission date
 24/03/2025
Submission time
 10am. You are advised to upload a minimum of one-hour before this deadline. A penalty will apply immediately after 10am - no time tolerance given.
Assessment is marked out of:
 100
% weighting of this assessment within total module mark
 50%
Maximum word count/page length/duration
 10 Excel sheets (i.e. tabs) within single spreadsheet; 3 pages of Financial Pitch Deck. Excel file size should not exceed 40MB.
Footnotes, appendices, tables, figures, diagrams, charts included in/excluded from word count/page length?
For the spreadsheet, references should be shown at the foot of the Introduction sheet. All appendices, tables, figures, diagrams, charts should be incorporated within the 10 sheet limit.
For the financial pitch deck, references should be shown at the end of the document, which can be on an additional page. However, all appendices, tables, figures, diagrams, charts should
be incorporated within the 3 page limit.
If a cover sheet/page is added to either the spreadsheet or the financial pitch deck, this will not count as part of the sheet/page limits. This cover sheet must not contain assessed content, otherwise it will count as a sheet/page. The copyright sheet, which must be retained as the final tab of the spreadsheet, does not count as part of the 10 sheets.
Bibliographies, reference lists included in/excluded from word count/page length?
 Must be included within the sheets/pages specified above.
Penalty for exceeding word count/page length
 Penalty for exceeding word count will be a deduction of 10 percentage points, capped at 40% for Levels 4, 5, 6 and 50% for Level 7). Refer to Academic Manual Section 3: Module Assessment – 3.12 Word Counts.
Penalty for late submission
 Standard UCL penalties apply. Students should refer to Academic Manual Section 3: Module Assessment – 3.11 Deadlines and Late Assessment.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) category
 Not permitted
Submitting your assessment

Spreadsheet must only be opened and edited in Excel and no other spreadsheet programme. It must be submitted in Excel format (.xlsx) only. Financial Pitch Deck must be in PDF format only. No other formats will be marked and would attract zero marks if submitted.

Please also be aware of the requirement to only submit a version of one of the two Excel spreadsheet templates provided from this term’s Moodle page. This has specific markings to identify the term’s version. You must not delete any copyright notices on this spreadsheet. Submitting any other piece of work that is not based specifically on one of these two models will not be accepted as a submission and will attract zero marks.

Note that the reference above to ‘Penalty for exceeding word count’ refers to exceeding number of sheets/pages.

Anonymity of identity. Normally, all submissions are anonymous unless the nature of the submission is such that anonymity is not appropriate, illustratively as in presentations or where minutes of group meetings are required as part of a group work submission
The nature of this assessment is such that anonymity is required. 

Section B: Assessment Brief and Requirements


*** IMPORTANT WARNINGS BEFORE STARTING ***

Warning
 Consequences of Ignoring
Only open in Excel!
 Opening in any other programme will interfere with the encryption of the copyright features dating it to this term. The submission will therefore be invalid and it will not be marked.
Only use one of the two fresh models as your starting point.
 Any other version will not be marked and you will receive a zero mark. If your work is based on another student’s model from another academic year, you will additionally be reported for academic misconduct.
Do not hack the examples and base your models on these pieces of work.
 Copying another student’s work is plagiarism and you will be reported for academic misconduct. This is very easy to spot: you will be copying across hidden markers from previous years and, additionally, the spreadsheet will also not have the current term’s encryption.
Do not use the work of a past student
 As immediately above – this is easy to spot and consequences are the same.
Do not build from scratch
 This is a waste of time and will not be marked. Only use templates provided.
Only submit spreadsheet in .xlsx format.
 Anything other than .xlsx (i.e. Excel) will not be marked.
Make sure you back it up each day
 Create a new version each day and save with today’s date on it. Use a cloud drive. Failure to do this can lead to loss of your work or submitting the wrong version for marking (by not being clear on date). Sadly every year, some students make these simple mistakes. Don’t be one of them!

UCL provides free copies to the Microsoft Office suite of software: 

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/services/communicate-collaborate/microsoft-365-apps-for-enterprise

You need to produce a detailed financial model for your chosen business. Ideally, it should be a real business or project, but if you have not yet determined one, you can make one up. You have certain tasks, listed below, that you MUST complete, otherwise you will lose marks.

You have been given the Davis Design and Carl’s Café financial models as template examples. You must take one of these as a starting point (Davis Design suggested), and then adapt and build upon it. By using these as a starting point, your final result will be a more advanced and useful functioning tool to take away at the end of the course.

Note these spreadsheets have numerous hidden markers throughout which help identify the individual term’s assignment. This has been done for plagiarism protection purposes and you should only use one of these two models for this reason. If you use any other starting template, whether created by yourself, or from another source, you will be failed and receive a zero mark for non-submission.

Neither of these models are perfect. They are not intended to be – they are merely demonstrations of what you can do, and inevitably do not cover every type of scenario. This gives you

the opportunity to be creative and to adapt them into something more interesting. The basis of this assignment is to see how effectively you pick up this ‘tool’ and make it into something worthwhile and relevant for your chosen business and at the same time demonstrate what you have learned in the lectures. The exercise is also meant to be a fun way of learning about the statements by allowing you to be as creative as you wish.

You also need to create 3 pages of a financial pitch deck. Use the Summary P&L figures, along with any graphs, assumptions and other data you choose to create 3 pages of a pitch deck. These 3 pages just relate to the financials and you can imagine that they are just the financial excerpts of a bigger deck. You need to convey to the investor audience a clear and comprehensive picture of the business from a financial perspective.

To help you, there are numerous chapters from my Entrepreneurial Finance Book (see Moodle for discount code if purchasing). Chapter 20 deals specifically with building a financial model. Other chapters cover all the financial statements and appendix 5 (page 388) shows how every ratio is calculated. If you have not purchased a copy, you can obtain the digital book from the library.

There are also various support videos on Moodle, and other supporting spreadsheets, that will be of assistance.

If you need help with Excel, go to LinkedIn Learning. You can access this free with your UCL login. Below is a link to a course that goes from ‘basic’ to ‘intermediate’, and is a very good place to start. There will also be other courses should you choose to explore them. 

https://www.linkedin.com/learning/excel-essential-training-microsoft-365-17231101/using-sum-and-average?u=69919578

Section C: Module Learning Outcomes covered in this Assessment

This assessment contributes towards the achievement of the following stated module Learning Outcomes as highlighted below:


  • Explain and analyse the nature, purpose, and characteristics of Profit & Loss (Income) Statements, Cash Flow Statements, and Balance Sheets as financial reporting mechanisms.
  • Apply financial ratios to measure and interpret financial performance.
  • Perform break-even analysis to assess financial viability.
  • Construct financial models for new ventures using Excel.
  • Assess and compare alternative financing strategies.
  • Create and deliver a compelling pitch deck to attract external funding (Level 7 only).

Section D: Groupwork Instructions (where relevant/appropriate)


Specific requirements for groupwork are available here. If this section is blank, no specific requirements for groupwork are applicable to this assessment. 

Section E: How your work is assessed

Within each section of this assessment you may be assessed on the following aspects, as applicable and appropriate to this assessment, and should thus consider these aspects when fulfilling the requirements of each section:
  • The accuracy of any calculations required.
  • The strengths and quality of your overall analysis and evaluation;
  • Appropriate use of relevant theoretical models, concepts and frameworks;
  • The rationale and evidence that you provide in support of your arguments;
  • The credibility and viability of the evidenced conclusions/recommendations/plans of action you put forward;
  • Structure and coherence of your considerations and reports;
  • Appropriate and relevant use of, as and where relevant and appropriate, real world examples, academic materials and referenced sources. Any references should use either the Harvard OR Vancouver referencing system (see References, Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism)
  • Academic judgement regarding the blend of scope, thrust and communication of ideas, contentions, evidence, knowledge, arguments, conclusions.
  • Each assessment requirement(s) has allocated marks/weightings.

Student submissions are reviewed/scrutinised by an internal assessor and are available to an External Examiner for further review/scrutiny before consideration by the relevant Examination Board.

It is not uncommon for some students to feel that their submissions deserve higher marks (irrespective of whether they actually deserve higher marks). To help you assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of your submission please refer to SOM Assessment Criteria Guidelines, located on the Assessment tab of the SOM Student Information Centre Moodle site.

The above is an important link as it specifies the criteria for attaining the pass/fail bandings shown below:

At UG Levels 4, 5 and 6:
80% to 100%: Outstanding Pass - 1st; 70% to 79%: Excellent Pass - 1st; 60%-69%: Very Good Pass - 2.1;
50% to 59%: Good Pass - 2.2; 40% to 49%: Satisfactory Pass - 3rd; 20% to 39%: Insufficient to Pass - Fail; 0% to 19%: Poor and Insufficient to Pass - Fail.
At PG Level 7:
86% to 100%: Outstanding Pass - Distinction; 70% to 85%: Excellent Pass - Distinction; 60%-69%: Good Pass - Merit; 50% to 59%: Satisfactory - Pass; 40% to 49%: Insufficient to Pass - Fail; 0% to 39%: Poor and Insufficient to Pass - Fail.

You are strongly advised to review these criteria before you start your work and during your work, and before you submit.

Upon receipt of your mark, you are strongly advised to not compare your mark with marks of othersubmissions from your student colleagues. Each submission has its own range of characteristics which differ from others in terms of breadth, scope, depth, insights, and subtleties and nuances. On the surface one submission may appear to be similar to another but invariably, digging beneath the surface reveals a range of differing characteristics.

Students who wish to request a review of a decision made by the Board of Examiners should refer to the UCL Academic Appeals Procedure, taking note of the acceptable grounds for such appeals. Note that the purpose of this procedure is not to dispute academic judgement – it is to ensure correct application of UCL’s regulations and procedures. The appeals process is evidence-based and circumstances must be supported by independent evidence.

Section F: Additional information from module leader (as appropriate)

Marking Criteria (Level 7)

The marking criteria are set out below, along with some more detailed guidance for producing a better piece of work:

Criteria
Max Marks
Required
 Top Tips for Higher Marks
Introduction
 5
 Describe what the business is about (i.e. its products and market) usingwords and pictures as you feelappropriate. State clearly whether it isbased on a real-life business or made up. Add any sources ofreference/inspiration. This writteninformation should all be on the firstsheet.
 Make this page exciting (content and visually) – it’s the first one anyone looks at. It is also a chance to demonstrate some initial creativity, so add in a few photos of your product or service, for example. And don’t forget those references.
Pricing Model
10
The pricing model needs to be relevant to your business. Adapt and expand the pricing model, or create an entirely new one. As you change the prices you charge and the cost of the product, so it will affect the sales forecast and P&L. Remember the input cells must be coloured in yellow!
Be creative with a variety of different products and cost structures of these products. Avoid having them all identical to each other. You could also add in a method for inflationary increases. You can delete the subscription model if you do not want to use it.
Sales
Forecast

10
Adapt and expand the sales forecast. The input cells must be coloured in yellow and changes here will flow through to sales and gross profit lines in the P&L. Note this must be for 36 months.
You could have different sales channels to forecast (e.g. a retail store and a subscription model). You could add some seasonality to the sales. You can add some ‘sparklines’ (see Excel Help for more information on sparklines).
Cost
Assumptions
and Profit &
Loss Forecast

10
Adapt and expand the cost assumptions. You can write some words of explanation against the input boxes if you wish. These inputs will directly affect the P&L forecast. You can also add new lines to the P&L, and even create more than one P&L (such as for another division of your business). Note this must be for 36 individual months.
Be creative with a variety of different new costs for the business. You can add or delete as many as you wish (but more will usually add complexity). As just one example, you could create a variety of different employee types, each with different salary levels.

You could create two separate P&Ls for 2 divisions, or branches of a retail business (e.g. for an online store and for a physical store). Then create a consolidated one from the resulting profit contributions (which is likely to be simpler). Note if you do this you would still have a single CF forecast and single BS. Another idea is to have a second or third store (if retail) open later during the 36 months period.

Addition of
New Fixed
Assets

10
You need to add at least two additional items into the fixed assets and to depreciate one on a Straight Line basis and one on a Reducing Balance basis.

Your workings will be on the P&Lsheet. These assets can be anythingyou like (even a Ferrari!). These willalso impact the P&L (throughdepreciation) and the cash flow (whenitem purchased initially) and will appear in the balance sheet.

Consequently, this part of the exercise is a great learning experience.

Depreciation calculations must be for 36 individual months, as per the P&L and cash flow.

This is an important part of the assignment both for marks, and from a learning perspective. Make sure you do at least one Straight Line and one Reducing Balance on the additional assets.

Top tip is to look at the way I have done it in my Excel depreciation model. You can cut and paste from my models but must reference it. Also take a look at my help videos. For extra complexity you could have new assets being added in later months/years (rather than in month one).

Cash Flow
Forecast

5

You are unlikely to make manychanges here other than the additionof the new assets. The 'Closing bank account' line must be positive in every month, otherwise you will fail this section. Add more debt, equity, or sales as appropriate to keep it positive.

Must be for 36 individual months, as per the P&L.


As mentioned to the left, the most critical thing is to ensure you have adequate cash in every month!

Note changes to the CF will impact thebalance sheet, so make any change one step at a time (keeping a constant eye on ensuring the BS remains in balance).

For extra complexity, you can add newfunding at later months. And if up for a real challenge you could add a fully functional stock model (integrated with the sales assumptions and balance sheet). This would gain marks elsewhere too. See my Excel stock model and help videos as examples. You cancut and paste from this spreadsheet if you wish (but you must reference).


Balance
Sheet

5
Other than the addition of the new assets, and depending on how ambitious your model is, you may make limited changes here. Must befor 36 individual months, as per the P&L and cash flow. Note that the balance sheet must have positive net current assets, net assets and shareholders' equity in all months and should ideally be balancing!
As mentioned to the left, you must make sure your business is ‘solvent’. If not, you will failthis section. You can add complexity by adding more assets and other lines into the BS should you wish. Ideally it should balance, but the marking rubric is kind to students who have taken on a challenge and failed to balance it correctly. See guidance sheet (also book) on how to resolve an imbalance.
Ratios
Analysis

10
Complete the blank ratio boxes in the model. Refer to our book appendices for formulas. Only calculate as specified in book. Add some brief comments to explain the performance of the business (the comments in the book appendices will greatly help you interpret the figures). Must be for the three years only (i.e. not 36 months).
Use appendix 5 (page 388) of the book to help get all these right. Follow these formulas and read the explanations. Do not copy these words for your comments but rather use them to help you understand what you are looking at. Then interpret your own numbers – arethese ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and briefly explain why you have reached these conclusions.

This exercise is an important learning experience. Note do not provide ratios definitions in the analysis (we know these already!).

Use sparklines if appropriate to show trends (see Excel Help for more information on sparklines). Add some additional ratios/KPIs ofyour own if you like.
Design &
Creativity
(Spreadsheet
only)

15
Marks will be awarded here for students who have produced an interesting model with technical challenge, is easy to comprehend, functions well, and is visually very clean and tidy. Note you will lose marks here if your input cells are not coloured in yellow as specified.
Make sure you only have input cells in yellow. Do not insert formulas in the yellow input cells.

Use a currency symbol for monetary values. Visually change your model from the existing one, but keep it as tidy as possible.

You will also be rewarded here for unexpected additions, such as a stock model.

Financial
Pitch Deck

20
Use the summary section of the model, along with any graphs, assumptions and other data you choose to create three pages of a pitch deck. These three pages just relate to the finances and you can imagine that they are just the financial exerts of a much bigger deck. You need to convey to the investor audience a clear and comprehensive picture of the business from a financial perspective. It needs to demonstrate an attractive investment opportunity. Finally, you must state what funds you are seeking, what is the pre-money valuation, and how the raised funds will be used.
You are not producing a full pitch deck – only three pages out of the imaginary larger deck. This is a real challenge for you – if you jam - pack your pages with endless tables, graphs and words the investor will be overwhelmed and you will get poor marks. But if you have too little information you will also get poor marks. It seems you can’t win?! Not true – we are looking for a careful selection of data, tidily presented, with some incisive words to explain the figures.

Pay close attention to the guidance of what should be included, as set out below.

The rubric marking guide is available separately.

Financial Pitch Deck

Background

This exercise is only for postgraduate students (Level 7). The purpose of your pitch deck is to raise funding for your chosen business, and can be entirely fictitious. In a real-life scenario, the financial information in a pitch deck should come from a comprehensive financial model, which would also be made available to potential investors on request. Therefore, you need to use your financial model to generate the tables, graphs or charts that feature in the financial pitch deck. The numbers in the pitch deck must relate to those in the financial model – do not create any charts/tables outside your Excel model.

Your Workings Space
The Summary and Graphs area of your spreadsheet will be the working space for creating all of these.
You must make sure they are visible in these sections, and are dynamic (i.e. they change when you alter any assumptions in the yellow boxes). Cut and paste them into your pitch deck document. Note these two sections (Summary and Graphs) are not marked within the spreadsheet – any content is only marked in the pitch deck submission.

Amount of Detail

You are likely to put in more financial detail than you would probably do in a real-life scenario, which may generally be limited to the P&L forecast, and some form of customer acquisition growth. You have the opportunity to be more creative and add other charts, KPIs etc. But avoid making it a visual mess by cramming in too much data. Be selective, and add some words to guide the imagined investor reader. I suggest as a minimum you include sales forecasts (maybe showing some product breakdown), P&L summary forecast, balance sheet summary forecast, funding required (with perhaps how the funds raised will be spent). You must specify an assumed pre-money valuation. This valuation does not require supporting calculations, but should roughly reflect the scale of the business/opportunity. See page 213 (first edition) for more on pre-money valuation.
It is not a Full Pitch Deck!

A full pitch deck will have details of the product, market, team etc. You are just producing three pages covering the finances. If you produce more than three pages, you will be given a 10-point penalty. You can, however, include a cover page if you wish and a page for references. Neither are included in the page count and anything in the cover page is not marked. Note – do not include any business description in your cover page as it will then be deemed as an extra page and you would face a 10-point penalty.

Copying & Pasting into a Word or PowerPoint Document

If you simply copy and paste a table or chart from Excel into Word or PowerPoint, you will probably get a horrendous mess. To do this properly use Edit, Copy, Paste Special…, Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object. Alternatively, do a screenshot of the item and paste in as a picture. Generally, you may find the pitch deck far easier to create using PowerPoint. Whatever software you use, save document as a PDF for submission purposes.

Additional, amazingly-helpful, absolutely-brilliant, guidance…

Start Early!

A golden rule of this assignment is to start early on. Building a highly sophisticated or very creative model takes a considerable amount of time. But to Pass, you certainly do not need to spend a great deal of time on it. This exercise is a great learning opportunity and it is up to you how far you want to take it in terms of sophistication.

Use the Q&A Forum

Please read all the advice and Q&As below before posting a question, as it may already be covered. Butif not, just post your question on the forum. If you email me directly about the assignment I will justrefer you to the forum to ask your question. This is so the knowledge is shared with all students.

Backing Up Your Work

Please make sure you make regular back-ups of your spreadsheet and save under a different name each day, or after each significant change, you make to your work (I suggest adding the date each time). For example: Davis Design Financial Model 1 Feb 2025.xlsx. You then can always fall back on anolder copy, and you are clear which copy is which by the inclusion of the date.

Also, make sure you keep it on a cloud drive (e.g. OneDrive). Do not ever rely on just one copy or one storage location – otherwise several days' worth of work could be lost unnecessarily.

Support Sessions

Several support sessions will be arranged. These will involve the teaching assistants and/or myself on a one-to-one or small group basis. You can attend more than one session. We will answer your questions and encourage you to try out different ideas to make your model more interesting. These sessions will be of most value if you have already started your model. They will be available in the two weeks before assignment deadline. If you leave booking these to the final week you may not get a space.

Help Videos
I have created a small number of which explain particular aspects or tasks within the models. These can be found in the Assessment section, not in the individual lecture sections. Note the models may have evolved, so your starting version of the models may look slightly different. Because of time constraints, I cannot update all videos every year.

Submission Process

Make sure you know the deadline date and put it in your diary now. Do not submit at the last minute. Any requests for extensions are subject to the UCL’s strict Extenuating Circumstances guidelines and are out of my personal control. Please do not email me about extensions.

File Size

Your file size should not exceed 40MB, otherwise Moodle will not allow uploading. This should be morethan adequate, but if necessary, you can compress the file size (select File, Reduce File Size).

Marking Feedback

You will be given short feedback for each of the criteria in the rubric. Note the words under each criterion in the rubric should be seen as for guidance only. Marking may be influenced by other factors, such as your comprehension and technical creativity. The final overall mark is the definitive measure.


发表评论

电子邮件地址不会被公开。 必填项已用*标注