Financial model version control works best with one base model that holds actual results and the budget, and a short-lived copy of it for each investor or buyer process. When that process ends, the copy goes, so two versions of your numbers never disagree.
Since March 2024 we've been the standing advisor to a chrome trading group that also owns a minority stake in a mining company. We build its board packs and the models behind its capital plans.
The trading business is easy to explain. It buys chrome ore from mines and sells it on, and it earns a fixed share of each tonne. In 2025 the group reshaped its capital story several times. Along the way there was a short teaser, a deck for a family investor and a plan to restructure how it holds its mining stakes.
Every new story made a new model
Each version needed its own numbers, so each one got its own copy of the model. Early in 2025 the model split in two. The finance team kept an operating model, and a simpler investor model went into the data room.
Copies drift. A price changed in one doesn't change in the others. Early drafts of one investor deck gave one figure for a debt being restructured, and the final draft gave another. Nobody was hiding anything. People were reading different copies.
A base case financial model, and copies with a shelf life
In October 2025 we agreed a rule with the group's CFO and finance manager. There's one base model. It holds actual results and the budget, and it's the only source of truth. Every investor or buyer version is a fork of it, and the fork's shelf life is as long as that process is running.
Adrian, our COO, rebuilt the base model to make the rule work. He loaded actual results as opening balances and stripped out layers of old machinery that made the sheet slow. The CFO wanted it to run on a short list of drivers, with tonnes and price per tonne at the top. The result is a model a non-specialist can follow.
Then we tested it. The model's cash for September didn't match the bank. We traced the gap to timing. The group pays for ore weeks before its customers pay it. We set new day counts for both sides, and the model came back close to actual results.
A second check before the advisers saw it
Before outside advisers got the investor fork, Danny, our models lead, audited it live with the CFO. He found the kind of errors that copies breed. Prices for one mine on one tab didn't match the same mine on another. A cost per tonne was multiplied by different volumes on different tabs. One mine's by-product revenue was booked against the wrong cost, which made that mine look more profitable than it was. We fixed them on the call. The CFO's rule became a standing check: where prices match, the trader's margin per mine must match too.
What we built
- A library of about 50 slides, so each audience gets its own deck from the same parts
- One base model in Google Sheets, with a step-by-step update guide and a dashboard, so the finance team runs it monthly
- Short-lived forks for each investor or buyer process, with Excel exports for the CFO
- A board pack template, which let us build a new investor deck in hours
Why it matters for your raise
In a long process you tell your story many times, to different lenders and investors. The story can change. The numbers underneath it can't.
When an investor finds two figures that disagree, they stop asking about the business and start asking about the model. One base model means every version starts from the same facts.
Keep one model that holds the truth. Make a copy for each pitch, and throw it away when that pitch is over.
Questions founders ask
How do you manage multiple versions of a financial model?
Keep one base model as the only source of truth, with actual results and the budget in it. When an investor, lender or buyer process needs its own numbers, make a copy of the base model for that process and give it a shelf life. Make real changes in the base, then refresh the copy. When the process ends, throw the copy away so nobody mistakes it for the master.
What is a base case financial model?
A base case is the version of your model that shows what you expect to happen, built on your most realistic assumptions. Upside and downside cases change a few inputs from it. In a business that's already trading, the base model also holds actual results, so each forecast starts from real numbers. Everything else, from scenarios to investor versions, should start from it.
Should each investor pitch have its own version of the model?
It can, as long as it's a copy of the base model and not a new model. Different audiences care about different things, so a teaser or a lender deck may need its own view. The numbers underneath have to match. If two versions give different figures for the same thing, an investor stops asking about the business and starts asking about the model.