Finance Professionals: 8 Excel Tips And Tricks For Daily Activities

Spreadsheet programs, like Microsoft Excel, are extremely useful tools for all kinds of professionals, from accountants to finance managers. There’s no doubt that spreadsheets are one of the most powerful tools available to anyone working with numbers.

Excel is an extremely popular tool among finance professionals. It allows you to manipulate large amounts of data quickly and easily. While you can do a lot with Excel, there are some things that you might not know how to do right away. Thus, it’s vital to have a basic knowledge of how the software works through a Microsoft Excel training program. You can get such programs online, read books, find a mentor or attend classes.

The course will teach you all about the Microsoft Excel program and its applications. You will learn about the basic functions of Microsoft Excel, and advanced topics such as macros, VBA programming and more. Excel is a great tool to use in academic and professional life. It has a lot of features that can be used to do many things. Here are some benefits of using Excel:

• It allows users to create complex spreadsheets.
• It provides an easy way for users to collaborate on projects with others who also use Excel.
• It can be used for creating professional reports and presentations.
• The program has many templates that make it easier to use even if you are not familiar with spreadsheets

Here are some Excel pro tips you can use in your daily activities:

1. Filter Data In a Few Clicks

We have all been there. You have a spreadsheet with hundreds of rows, and you want to filter it for a specific item, the sales for the last quarter. Here is a simple trick:

• Select any cell in your spreadsheet and then click on the Data tab on the ribbon. In the drop-down menu, select Filter and then select the AutoFilter option.
• This will bring up the AutoFilter dialog box. Enter your filter criteria in the white box and then click OK. Your data will be filtered automatically.

2. Use Pivot Tables

Pivot tables are the best way to analyze data. They allow you to slice and dice your data in any way you want. They’re especially useful for financial professionals who work with large amounts of data daily.

Pivot tables create a summary of your data based on an existing table. For example, say you have a list of salespeople with their sales figures for the year. You can then turn that list into a pivot table that shows each salesperson’s total sales by month. The pivot table also shows a total at the bottom so you can see how much total sales each person made for the year.

Pivot tables let you quickly summarize large amounts of data into what-if scenarios and easy-to-read charts and graphs. They’re especially useful when analyzing business data, such as sales numbers or expenses. This is because they show how individual items contribute to overall totals.

3. Use the VLOOKUP Function

The VLOOKUP function is a powerful tool that can be used to access data in a spreadsheet. This function can look up data in a table or range of cells by row. For example, if you have a list of employees and their salaries, you can use the VLOOKUP function to look up an employee’s salary by their name.

To use the VLOOKUP function, you will need to specify the following:

• The table or range of cells that contains the data you want to lookup
• The column number in the table or range that contains the data you want to lookup
• The value you want to lookup
• The column number in the table or range that contains the data you want to return

4. Hide and Unhide Columns and Rows

These professionals’ most common and important tasks are hiding and unhiding columns and rows. There are two ways of hiding and unhiding columns and rows in Excel. You can use the column or row headers, or you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift +8.

If you need to temporarily hide a column or row of data, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + H on Windows. For Macbook, press Command + Shift + H. You can also right-click on any column header and select Hide Columns from the contextual menu that appears. To unhide columns or rows, use the same keyboard shortcut, but press it again after selecting it.

5. Use Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is a powerful tool that will help you to highlight the important data in your spreadsheet.

The conditional formatting feature in Excel allows you to highlight cells based on your criteria. You can use it to highlight cells that meet certain conditions, such as those with numbers over 100 or values less than 500. Conditional formatting is also useful for highlighting rows or columns based on their content, such as having a red background for negative and blue for positive values.

Conditional formatting can be applied to a single cell, a group of cells, or the entire spreadsheet. Conditional formatting can be used for highlighting cells that meet specific criteria such as:

• A cell contains an error
• A cell contains a value that meets certain conditions
• Cell falls within a specific range of values

6. Merge Sheets and Cells

Merging cells and sheets in Excel is a great way to create a single workbook with all the data you need. There are many different ways to merge cells in Excel. The easiest way is to use the “merge” function. Excel merge functions:

• Merge cells – This function will merge two or more adjacent cells into one cell, and it will do so without deleting any of the original data in those cells
• Merge sheets – This function will combine two or more worksheets into one workbook

7. AutoSum Selected Formulas or Functions

There are many ways to create formulas in Excel. However, some formulas are so common that Excel allows you to enter them quickly and easily. These formulas are called AutoSum formulas or functions. You can find these functions in the Function library on the Formulas tab of the Ribbon.

Various AutoSum functions cover a range of different mathematical calculations. These include addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, and other common calculations.

Some of these AutoSum functions even have shortcuts. This allows you to enter them without having to click on the Function Library tab at all! The AutoSum function lets you quickly calculate totals and subtotals within a column or row. You don’t have to add up each number one by one manually.

8. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

In the world of finance, every second counts. That’s why knowing some Excel tips and tricks is important to help you work faster and more efficiently. Learning a few key shortcuts can save a lot of time when working with financial data. Here are a few:

• Ctrl + F: Find and replace data
• Ctrl + G: Go to a specific cell
• Ctrl + S: Save your work
• Ctrl + Z: Undo an action

These are just a few keyboard shortcuts you can use in Excel. Learning and using them saves you a lot of time and hassle when working with financial data.

Excel is a powerful program that finance professionals widely use. While it can be challenging to learn all of its features, taking the time to master a few basic skills can greatly improve your efficiency. To make your life easier, above are eight Excel tips and tricks. These tips will help you streamline your work while keeping you organized. With these Excel techniques, you’ll work more efficiently and get more done in less time.