I’m finally moving from UK Big 4 M&A to BB IB Coverage team as an associate. Any practical tips or courses I could do ahead of starting?

congratulations, some of the best people in my team (boutique) are ex-big 4.

you will have a natural learning curve and yes, you'll have to work more than usual but don't forget that you also bring other interpersonal and accounting skills (which they may miss). it's a trade off - you just developed different skill set so far. 

do your best in the first 6 months and make strong first impression. that will matter for staffings and general respect of team. if they see you're really struggling, theywould not staff you on an important deal unless they have no choice. if you don't build good reputation, juniors may also deprioritise your work and miss your deadlines to meet someone else's.

As to learning before the job - any course online would help. knowing shortcuts is important because it will help you be faster. it might be worth spending some weekends checking how they format stuff so you get a feel for "good formatting"

Just to chime in on the above good advice (intern, not Mr Chud), I'd think you've been working historically on smaller transactions which are typically less complex.  So I'd suggest perhaps looking into more advanced models, even to just get familiar with terms (e.g. treasury stock method, etc.) if you haven't seen them before. A long (so do check as I haven't) time ago the BIWS materials were quite good for this

The ppt and modeling will come, that’s experience and exposure.

My experience is that big 4 hires on the positive side are organizationally disciplined, good at process, and good at managing clients. 
They tend to struggle sometimes with the chaos that is investment banking and the greater complexity / ambiguity.

I recommend you keep a very open mind, be a sponge for everything going on around you and be ready to put in the extra hours till it makes sense. Also make the analysts your best friends here as they will have a great instinct as to what’s what. 

Congrats on your move! How many years of FT work experience do you have at B4? Did you lateral to a boutique or some BB/MM?

Can we page in @giveadvicepls

Building reputation is key. People in IB always look down on lateral hires coming from less prestigious banks or big4 so you need to prove them within your first months that you are good as first impression is everything.

Good comments here, also did a lateral into EB some time ago and can only second the points listed here. 

Perhaps to underline a few things:

1. First impressions last (sometimes forever), so make sure you do things properly and work under the assumption “I’m the last one to see this before this goes out” — helps a lot with double-checks etc…

2. Don‘t underestimate relationship building in this job — spend time with almost anybody who offers, e.g. after-work drinks, weekend get-togethers etc… if you integrate swiftly, it will help you in the future. 

3. Don’t try to be pretentious vis-a-vis analysts and supporting staff — quite common in BB/EB and usually backfires sooner or later… might be obvious but nonetheless… 

4. If you know some holes in your hard skills (for example, modeling, as you mentioned), try to do a few dry runs before joining, since you still have time. When things start picking up, you will naturally learn but it is less comfortable doing so on a live topic — even the pitch valuation can be stressful, since the MD wants it done in a few hours, not days. Also check Macabus and some other sources, plenty out there nowadays. Also ask some colleagues for commonly used templates once you’re on the job, and perhaps somebody will walk you through.

5. In the first 6 months, spend a lot of time at the office (avoid home office where possible) since this helps with all of the above. Would on the other hand avoid nonsense golden roundabouts / all-nighters, since nobody values this but will see the underperformance in the following days… common misconception in BB/EB… 

6. lastly, people are also cooking with water — certainly some smart folks around but surely not exclusively… just do your stuff and you’ll be surprised that you can rank well quite swiftly.

Congrats and fingers crossed for a good start!

BIWS for PowerPoint.

F1F9 Model construction skills (it's free) to familiarise yourself with calculation blocks and model structure.

And after that just take some advanced model, like Macabus LBO long form model, and reperform it line by line.