Folder organization good examples

Great question @Natalie !

For Boards, if it’s a simple application I tend to create two main folders, Admin and End User.

For more detailed applications I tend to group Boards by Category. These could be by User Role (Exec folder, Budget Owner folder, etc) or by purpose (P&L, BS, CF, Revenue planning, Exec Summary, scenario planning, etc)

For blocks, it’s more detailed. I commonly create my Block folders using two methods:

Method 1: by Process Flow: Ordering folders by steps in the process.
Method 2: by Category: Grouping blocks in into categories of functionality.

Method 1: by Process Flow

I love using this method as it allows a speedy onboarding for new modelers. It’s great for simple models where there’s a relatively linear process flow. The main concept is the first folder is going to be the raw data/inputs into the model. every folder after that will be the next stage in the process.

Consider the following example:

In a simple P&L Reporting application where I load, Actuals, Budget and Forecast data.

My data inputs/imports into the model will be Actuals data from Netsuite and Budget + Forecast data from Google sheets.

In this example I would structure my folders like the below
 

The flow of the application would be:

Data → Actual data aggregated (at the same time as) Budget + Forecast Data aggregated → Nexus (central metric to aggregate all data) → Reporting → Reporting Line Items

Outside of the flow, we would have admin, structures and maintenance folders (98 /99). We would also have our data checks folder for quality assurance. This method makes the application extremely auditable for new modelers and support their onboarding. 


Method 2: By Functionality 

The second approach I use is to group blocks by functionality. This can be good for complicated models, where there isn’t an obvious process flow, but, the grouping provides order and allows the modeler to sign post key functionality.

See below a Sales Capcity Application folder structure:

 

We have HR - Actuals folder for everything to do with our existing staff, we have a seperate folder for HR Plan. We have a folder dedicated for Opportunities and another one for Productivity/Ramp up. etc.

Using the folder structure above we are able to quickly navigate to the desired functionality and blocks.

I hope the above helps!