This paper describes the finite element modelling of steel beams acting compositely with proprietary precast hollow core slabs. A companion paper (Lam D, Elliott KS, Nethercot DA. Experiments on composite steel beams with precast hollow core floor slabs. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Structures and Buildings 1999; in press [1]) reports results of full scale bending tests and compression slab tests. The finite element package ABAQUS was used to extend the scope of the experimental work, by first demonstrating that a 2-dimensional plane stress analysis is sufficiently accurate, providing that the correct material input data and shear stud characteristics obtained from isolated push-off tests are used. The FE results are within 5% of the experimental results. An extensive parametric study was carried out to investigate the flexural behaviour of composite beams with variations in transverse reinforcement ratio, stud spacing and steel UB section.