Some of the most important financial modeling skills include: Knowing accounting basics, including how the three primary financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows) relate to each other Understanding finance, specifically how to manage money and get businesses the funds (capital) they need to succeed Developing advanced spreadsheeting skills to analyze data. This includes inputting data into a spreadsheeting like Excel, building formulas, understanding cell references, and more Distilling complex business problems into financial models that are easy to understand, interpret, and use for decision-making purposes Using data to build financial models that allow people to forecast the future financial performance of a business while also allowing for elements of the unknown and risk