International spelling

To make OAK accessible to the widest possible audience, Operis has adopted international conventions for spelling certain words throughout the OAK product and documentation. For this reason you will find

UK audiences should not be offended by these spellings since OAK is only relevant to users who work closely with Microsoft Excel, and that product has used the same approach throughout its life.

In British English the phrase financial modelling is spelt with two Ls but the convention in US English is to spell financial modeling with only one L. There is an obstacle to adopting the US spelling in the context of OAK. The two spellings return quite different results in an internet search, reflecting the fact that the terms are used differently in Europe/Australia and in the US, a divergence in meaning that is growing to the point where reviews on one side of the Atlantic of books written on the other have in effect said "That's not financial modelling/modeling".

Common practice is different too: what is considered unprofessional practice in Europe, and would cost analysts their job, is the method carefully taught in US business schools.

In this documentation the issue has been avoided altogether in favor of some equivalent such as "developing spreadsheet models".

Location	Europe and Australia	US
Term	Financial modelling	Financial modeling
Meaning	The development of spreadsheets to structure and illustrate transactions undergoing financing. Usually involves the projection of traditional financial statements and accompanying ratios.	Covers financial projections also, but increasingly identified with the mathematical analysis of derivative instruments.
Circularity in models	Always deprecated	Routinely taught in business school classes as a legitimate spreadsheeting technique.
Balance sheet	Calculate assets and liabilities independently. Include a test that the resulting balance sheet balances as part of the model's internal quality control.	Deriving cash as the balancing item is routinely taught in the best business schools as a legitimate technique.
Formal model audit	Provided by Operis and by many large accounting firms. A well established step in bringing a large financing to close.	Rarely performed, though beginning to appear.