Estimate the value of a business or investment by translating operating forecasts into unlevered free cash flow, discounting those cash flows to present value, and calculating terminal value.
This Excel workbook is built for founders, analysts, investors, and finance teams that need a structured discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. Users enter historical and forecast operating assumptions, capital structure and discount-rate inputs, and valuation adjustments; the model organizes the calculations into free cash flow, enterprise value, equity value, and implied per-share outputs.
Connect forecasts to valuation
Follow the bridge from sales, costs, taxes, capital expenditure, and working capital through to unlevered free cash flow.
Build a supportable discount rate
Use capital structure, cost of equity, cost of debt, tax rate, and beta inputs to calculate weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
Review value from several angles
See present values, terminal value, enterprise and equity value, share-price output, and implied sales, EBITDA, and EBIT multiples.
What can you analyze with this DCF workbook?
The model is designed to make the assumptions behind a valuation visible. Rather than presenting a single unexplained number, it separates operating forecasts, free cash flow, the discount rate, terminal value, and the bridge from enterprise value to equity value.
Operating performance: organize actual and forecast net sales, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, EBITDA, depreciation, EBIT, tax, and net operating profit after tax.
Free cash flow generation: calculate unlevered free cash flow using operating profit after tax, capital expenditure, net working capital, and changes in working capital.
Cost of capital: combine target debt and equity weights with cost-of-equity and after-tax cost-of-debt assumptions to derive WACC.
Beta and capital structure: review comparable-company leverage data, calculate unlevered beta, and relever beta for the target capital structure.
Terminal and present value: discount forecast free cash flows and estimate terminal value using terminal-year cash flow and a perpetuity growth assumption.
Equity value: move from enterprise value to equity value by incorporating debt, cash, and cash equivalents, then calculate an indicative value per share from outstanding shares.
What is inside the workbook?
The visible workbook tabs separate instructions and model information from the main analytical schedules. Yellow cells identify editable assumptions in the shown worksheets, while calculated rows summarize operating results, free cash flow, discount factors, valuation outputs, and charts.
Operating assumptions
An income statement schedule separates actual periods from forecast periods and includes growth and margin assumptions alongside the calculated financial lines.
Discount-rate schedules
Dedicated WACC and beta/capital-structure worksheets organize market, debt, equity, tax, and comparable-company inputs.
Valuation and charts
The valuation area brings together free cash flow, discounting, terminal value, enterprise value, equity value, per-share output, implied multiples, and supporting financial charts.
The income statement assumptions view separates historical results from forecast years and highlights editable growth, margin, and operating assumptions.
Build the operating forecast
Start with net sales and operating-cost assumptions, then review the resulting gross profit, EBITDA, EBIT, tax, and after-tax operating profit. Showing actual and forecast periods side by side helps users judge whether future growth and margins are consistent with the underlying business case.
The WACC worksheet combines target capital structure, cost-of-equity assumptions, cost of debt, and the corporate tax rate.
Make the discount rate traceable
The WACC schedule shows the components used to discount future cash flows, including risk-free rate, market risk premium, leveraged beta, size premium, debt cost, tax rate, and target debt-versus-equity mix. This makes it easier to review which assumptions have the greatest influence on the present-value calculation.
The valuation output presents terminal value, present value of terminal value, enterprise value, equity adjustments, outstanding shares, and value per share.
Translate enterprise value into equity value
After discounting forecast cash flows and terminal value, the workbook summarizes enterprise value and then adjusts for debt and cash to estimate equity value. An outstanding-share input supports an indicative per-share result, while implied sales, EBITDA, and EBIT multiples provide additional context for reviewing the conclusion.
How do you use the template?
Enter operating history and forecasts
Replace the sample actuals and forecast assumptions for sales, costs, margins, tax, depreciation, capital expenditure, and working capital with figures relevant to the business or project.
Set beta and capital structure
Review the comparable-company beta data and define the target debt and equity structure used to calculate a relevant leveraged beta.
Complete the WACC assumptions
Enter the market and financing assumptions required for cost of equity, after-tax cost of debt, and the weighted average cost of capital.
Review valuation outputs
Check discounted free cash flows, terminal value, enterprise value, equity value, per-share output, implied multiples, and charts. Revise assumptions when the valuation does not align with the operating case.
Who is this template for?
The workbook is suited to founders preparing an internal valuation, analysts assessing a company or long-term project, investors testing an intrinsic-value case, and finance teams reviewing how operating assumptions and capital structure affect value. It is most useful when the user can provide a defensible forecast and understands that DCF results depend heavily on cash-flow, WACC, and terminal-growth assumptions.
