Self-Paced · Tactic On-Demand

The strategic financial modeling library.

Most FP&A courses teach formulas. This one teaches the thinking behind them. Work through the full stack of FP&A skills on your own schedule, built on the TACTIC Framework, with monthly live sessions and Premium Tactic Lab access included.

The Methodology

Every course is built on the TACTIC Framework.

On the homepage you saw the six layers. Here is what each one actually asks of you. TACTIC is not a template you fill in. It is the order in which a good analyst thinks, and it is the reason these courses transfer to your real work instead of staying inside the exercise file. Every lesson in the library maps to a layer.

T

Targets

The issue

Before a single cell, the question. What decision is this model actually serving, and who has to make it? Most models fail here and nowhere else: they answer a question nobody asked. You learn to interrogate the request until the real one surfaces, then scope the build to fit it.

A

Assets

The data

What you have, what you trust, and what you are missing. Sourcing, structuring, and stress-testing inputs before they become assumptions. You learn to separate fact from estimate from guess, and to label them so the model stays honest about which is which.

C

Calculations

The model

The build itself. Structure, flow, and the discipline that keeps a model auditable six months later when someone else opens it. Three-statement mechanics, driver logic, and the layout conventions that make a model readable at a glance instead of a puzzle to reverse-engineer.

T

Tools

The analysis

Sensitivities, scenarios, and the techniques that turn one answer into a range. Excel where Excel wins, Python where it wins, AI where it genuinely helps. The tool is chosen after the thinking, never before it.

I

Insights

The conclusion

Reading your own output. What the numbers say, what they only appear to say, and where the model is quietly wrong. This is the layer that separates someone who built a model from someone who understands one.

C

Consequences

The decision

What happens next. Framing the recommendation, owning the trade-offs, and communicating it so the room can act. A model that never changes a decision was an expensive way to spend a week.

The TACTIC Framework pyramid: Targets, Assets, Calculations, Tools, Insights, Consequences
Six layers, bottom to top.
Every course maps to them.
The Syllabus

The full syllabus.

Open any course to see exactly what is inside it. The library grows through the year, and everything new is included at no extra cost for as long as your membership is active.

Start here. Business acumen is what turns a correct model into a useful one, and it is the one thing a template cannot hand you. You map the industries and business models you actually know, find the gaps honestly, and leave with a personal roadmap for building the judgement that makes the numbers mean something.

  • Welcome & Getting Started2 lessons
  • Business Acumen Roadmap3 lessons
  • Where Are You Now?4 lessons
  • Your GAP Analysis4 lessons
  • Building Acumen Step by Step4 lessons

Included with your membership — start here.

Accounting as it actually behaves inside a model. You build one company from inception to exit and watch every transaction land across the three statements, so the mechanics stop being memorised rules and start being obvious.

  • The Three Statements Simulation14 lessons

Start here if the statements have never fully clicked.

The core build. Every schedule from revenue through to debt, wired into a working model you can audit, stress and defend — then the judgement layer on top: scenarios, presentation, and the business decisions the numbers actually drive.

  • Introduction to Financial Modeling4 lessons
  • Preparing the Model3 lessons
  • Forecasting Revenue4 lessons
  • Forecasting Cost8 lessons
  • The Working Capital Schedule5 lessons
  • Fixed Assets & Depreciation6 lessons
  • The Income Tax Schedule2 lessons
  • Equity Forecast6 lessons
  • Forecasting Debt2 lessons
  • Creating Scenarios in Financial Modeling3 lessons
  • Presenting the Results8 lessons
  • Auditing the Financial Model5 lessons
  • The Impact of Business Decisions on Finance2 lessons
  • Modeling in the Real World: the TACTIC Approach2 lessons
  • Practical Case Study — Duramax©1 lesson
  • Bonus: Practice Cases4 lessons
  • Bonus: Live Workshops3 lessons
  • Final Assignment1 lesson

Includes the Duramax© case study, plus Vertex and Prime Realty practice cases.

Five companies, five industries, one model each. This is where modeling and acumen meet: you read an unfamiliar business, decide what matters, build it, then compare against a worked solution.

  • PolarTech — Manufacturing1 lesson
  • StreamShoppers — Retail1 lesson
  • MarbleHome — Real Estate1 lesson
  • Apex — Manufacturing1 lesson
  • FitWave — Long Range Plan9 lessons

FitWave is a guided eight-chapter build; the others are solo-then-compare.

Beyond best, base and worst. Building scenario architecture that holds up when the assumptions move, and using it to pressure-test a plan rather than decorate it.

  • Scenario Architecture & Driversplanned
  • Switches, Toggles and Model Controlplanned
  • Sensitivity & Break-Even Analysisplanned
  • Probabilistic Scenarios for FP&Aplanned
  • Presenting Scenarios to Decision-Makersplanned
Your Instructor

Taught by Carolina Lago.

Carolina Lago

Financial Modeling & FP&A Specialist · 25+ Years

Carolina has spent more than 25 years in FP&A and corporate finance across Latin America, North America and Europe. She created the TACTIC Framework that every course here is built on, treating modeling as a way of thinking rather than a set of spreadsheet tricks.

She prepares candidates for the Advanced Financial Modeler (AFM) certification in partnership with the Financial Modeling Institute, and sits on the Financial Modeling Global Leaders Council across three continents. Through partnerships with CFI and CPE Flow, her instruction reaches thousands of finance professionals worldwide.

Everything in this library is the way she actually works — the same methods, the same models, the same judgement calls.

Featured at

Financial Modeling Institute Corporate Finance Institute Global Excel Summit Association for Financial Professionals Financial Modeling World Cup CPE Flow CPA Australia
25+
Years in FP&A
& corporate finance
AFM
Prep instructor
Financial Modeling Institute
3
Continents on the Global
Leaders Council
What’s Included

One membership. The whole library.

Everything below comes with Tactic On-Demand. New courses are added through the year and you get them at no extra cost, for as long as your membership is active.

Included · Premium Tactic Lab

You are never alone building it.

A course hands you the method. The Lab is where you go to use it on real work.

Premium access to Tactic Lab, included.

Every membership comes with Premium Tactic Lab — the hands-on side of Tactic Financial, where the learning turns into practice. Every current and past project, the complete recording library, and the downloadable templates behind them.

Projects run on real FP&A problems, with the community working through them alongside you. When you get stuck on your own work, these are the people who have just built the same thing.

Membership

Unlimited access, all year.

$500/ year

Unlimited access to every course in the library and Premium Tactic Lab, including everything added during your membership year.

  • Every course, current and new
  • Monthly live sessions with Carolina
  • Premium Tactic Lab access included
  • All models, templates, and datasets
  • Full recording library
Billed annually · Cancel anytime
Financial Modeling Institute

Also from Tactic Financial

Going for the AFM certification?

Tactic AFM Prep is a separate track focused on the exam: the Three Statement Financial Model course plus dedicated AFM preparation, exam registration and FMI access. $895, one year.

See AFM Prep
Individual Courses

Prefer to buy just one?

Every course is also available on its own, with lifetime access to that course. No membership required. Individual purchases do not include Premium Tactic Lab or the monthly live sessions.

Available Now

Three Statement Model

Build a linked income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow from scratch. The structure every other model in finance is built on, taught so the links finally make sense.

$450 Buy Course
Available Now

Common Sense Accounting

The debits and credits behind every number, taught so they finally click. The intuition every model is built on, without the textbook detour.

Available Now

Case Studies Package

Real business problems solved end to end. Work the full TACTIC sequence on live scenarios and turn what you know into what you do without thinking.

$199 Buy Course
Coming Soon

Python in Excel for FP&A

The =PY() function inside the spreadsheet you already live in. Pandas and charts where your data already sits, no separate environment to manage.

In Production
Coming Soon

Intro to Valuation

DCF, multiples, and the judgment calls that decide the answer long before the formula does.

In Production
Coming Soon

Scenario Planning

One number is a guess. Learn to model ranges, sensitivities, and what happens when you are wrong.

In Production
Coming Soon

Variance Analysis: Practical Case

Price, volume, and mix decomposition on a real dataset, ending in the commentary a CFO will actually read.

In Production
Student Reviews

What they said after building it.

4.9 The TACTIC Financial Model · verified reviews on Maven

A great course with lots of information and detail covering the how-to-build and the reasons behind building a 3-statement financial model. Carolina was very thorough and patient with all the students, always available to answer questions, and very knowledgeable about financial modeling. The course also had substantial practice material to build your skills.

Mark
Educator

This training has exceeded all my expectations. The content was incredibly comprehensive, covering a wide range of finance modeling concepts. Carolina demonstrated a profound understanding of the subject matter and communicated complex ideas in a clear and engaging manner. What truly set this training apart was the emphasis on practical application.

Vanessa
Forecast & Strategy Finance Lead
DSM Firmenich

It is a very practical, thorough, and valuable course for FP&A, accounting, finance, and any business students and professionals.

Biruk
Business Development & Funding
VU Venture Partners
Questions

Before you join.

Every course in the library, all the case studies, the monthly live sessions, and Premium Tactic Lab. Everything new released during your membership year is included at no extra cost.

AFM Prep is not part of the membership. It is a separate, exam-focused track built around the Three Statement Financial Model course, and it carries its own FMI registration and exam fees.

Access to the library and the Lab stops at the end of your year unless you renew. Anything you downloaded — models, templates, datasets — is yours to keep and use at work.

If you would rather own one course outright, buy it individually instead: that gives you lifetime access to that course, without the Lab or the live sessions.

You need to be comfortable navigating a spreadsheet. You do not need to be fast with shortcuts or know any VBA.

If the three statements have never fully clicked, start with Common Sense Accounting — it builds one company from inception to exit so the mechanics become obvious before you model anything.

It is self-paced with no cohort dates and no deadlines, so it takes as long as your week allows. Most people work through a chapter at a time rather than sitting down for a marathon.

The monthly live sessions are the only scheduled part, and they are recorded if you cannot make one.

Yes, if you build or read financial models. The material is used by controllers, founders, consultants, investment analysts and finance students as well as FP&A teams.

The case studies deliberately span manufacturing, retail, real estate and services so the thinking transfers rather than staying industry-specific.

Yes. Most members expense it as professional development, and you get an invoice you can submit. If you need a quote addressed to your employer first, just ask.

For teams, there is separate corporate training rather than buying several individual memberships — see corporate training.

Content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Career success depends on personal effort and market conditions. We do not guarantee promotion, employment, or income increases.