Here we explore 10 essential Excel tricks that every auditor should know to save time, improve accuracy, and stay ahead of the curve! Plus, we’ll introduce you to a tool that can take your audit workflow to the next level and wow your workmates.

1. Custom Formatting for Clarity
   Let’s start with something simple, yet often overlooked. Custom number formats make your data easier and more user friendly to read. For example, display negative numbers in red and format dates to match your preferred style. It’s a simple tip which literally takes seconds to implement and will add to the professional look of your audit. Do this as standard with all your work.
   
   How to Do It:
   
   Select your range of cells.
   Go to Home > Format Cells and choose the desired number format.
   
   
2. Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time
   Speed up your workflow by mastering shortcuts. If you can’t remember them, list them down somewhere easy to reference. The more you use them the more they will become second nature. Shortcuts drastically speed up production. Here are three to get you started.
   
   Ctrl + T: Convert a range into a table.
   Alt + =: Automatically sum a column or row.
   Ctrl + Shift + L: Apply or remove filters.
   
   
3. Conditional Formatting for Quick Insights
   Again, another simple yet effective practice is to highlight points of interest making it easier for the user to read. Automate highlighting discrepancies or trends in seconds with Excel’s conditional formatting feature. For instance, use conditional formatting to flag duplicate entries or outliers in financial data.
   
   Example:
   
   Highlight your range.
   Go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules > Duplicate Values.
   
   
4. Using PivotTables for Quick Summaries
   PivotTables are massively powerful and lifesavers when analyzing large datasets. They allow you to summarize and categorize data without complex formulas and let you refresh if your raw data changes – so you only do the work once. You should learn how to use these and insert them wherever appropriate.
   
   How to Create One:
   
   Select your data.
   Go to Insert > PivotTable and drag fields into rows, columns, and values.
   
   
5. Data Validation for Accuracy
   This is a big one! Prevent errors by restricting data input in specific cells. We have all created an awesome spreadsheet only for some user to come along and break it by inserting some invalid entry into a vital cell. It always seems to break so much more than intended too! Get around this by getting used to restricting data input (or using things like drop down lists where appropriate). For example, you can ensure that only numbers within a certain range are entered. Thank us later!
   
   How to Set It Up:
   
   Go to Data > Data Validation and define your criteria.
   
   Checkout more Excel Validation Tips
   
   
6. Audit Tickmarks for Professional Documentation
   Tickmarks are essential for documenting audit work, but creating them manually in Excel can be tedious and time consuming. Having a specialist toolbar is a cheap and effective way of saving time and standardising your work.
   
   Solution:
   The Audit Tickmark Toolbar simplifies this process by adding pre-designed tickmarks directly to your Excel sheets, saving you hours of manual work and giving your work that professional touch.
   Discover how the Audit Tickmark Toolbar can improve your audit workflow. Click here to learn more.
   
   
7. VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP for Efficient Lookups
   There are many functions in Excel to master but as an auditor, here are two you need to be familiar with. Quickly find values in a dataset with these formulas:
   
   VLOOKUP: For vertical lookups.
   XLOOKUP: A more powerful version that handles both vertical and horizontal lookups.
   
   
8. IFERROR for Cleaner Formulas
   No one likes to see errors in a spreadsheet. Even if they are valid it just looks messy and unprofessional. To the untrained eye, it looks like something is inherently wrong or broken. So stop displaying messy errors in your worksheets by wrapping your formulas in an IFERROR function.
   
   Example:
   =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2, B2:D10, 2, FALSE), “Not Found”)
   
   
9. Protecting Sheets and Workbooks
   Similar to tip 5, you will thank us later for this one. All the pro’s do it and for good reason. Safeguard sensitive data by protecting sheets or workbooks with passwords. Don’t let someone edit your spreadsheet who may not realise they are inadvertently breaking something else with their simple amendment. Better they come to you or require a password so they know they are meddling in something important and need to think through the consequences.
   
   How to Protect a Sheet:
   Go to Review > Protect Sheet and set a password.
   
   
10. Automate Repetitive Tasks with Macros
    Macros can automate repetitive tasks, like formatting or data extraction, with just one click.
    
    How to Record a Macro:
    Go to Developer > Record Macro, perform your task, and stop recording.
    Get started by opening the VBA editor and have a play. It is powerful stuff and worth getting familiar with how macros work (and more importantly, how they can work for you!)

Conclusion: Take Your Audit Workflow to the Next Level
By mastering these Excel tricks, you not only save time but also improve the quality of your work. But why stop there?

With tools like the Audit Tickmark Toolbar, you can take efficiency to a whole new level by automating one of the most time-consuming parts of the audit process and making your work look super professional at the same time.

Ready to transform your audit workflow? Try the Audit Tickmark Toolbar today.

We hope some of these tips make it into your daily workflow. They all incrementally improve your audit skills by a small amount but when added together, help make a huge difference to your perceived proficiency, the quality of your work and save you significant time getting the job done. Good luck and happy auditing.

Working as an Accountant? See Top Excel Tips for Accountants

The post 10 Essential Excel Tricks Every Auditor Must Know appeared first on Excel Zoom.

Open Excel VBA Editor

To open Excel visual basic editor,

Click the visual basic button on the developer tab.

If the Developer tab is not present, go to File -> Options -> customize ribbon and tick Developer.

You can also open VBA in Excel using Alt + F11 keyboard shortcut.

What is the VBA Editor

Great, now you’re in the editor, what is it? Microsoft Excel’s Visual basic editor can be referred to as, VBA editor, VB editor and even VBE. It is all the same thing. It’s the place where you can create macros and write scripts in Excel VBA.

The most basic sections of the editor is the Project View in which you can see modules listed down the left hand side. Think of this like a folder for your macros. Modules contain the code that is required for your macros to work. Its beyond the scope of this article to go into how to split out your code into objects but modules gives the user a powerful tool to create efficient and well organized code.

To get started writing code you will need to create a new module. Add a new module in VBA editor by clicking on VBAProject(Book1), right click, Insert Model. Delete a module by simply right clicking, Remove Module. Excel will prompt you to confirm before deleting.

Record a Macro in Excel

Recording a macro in Excel is a great way to automate tasks as well as a great tool to help learn more VBA code. A common trick is to record a macro and then review the VBA code to see how it works. Now you know how to open the VBA editor in Excel you should be able to record a macro, open the editor and view the code. You’ll see the system generated VBA can be messy but it will give you the key snippets of code needed for the desired action. These can be things as simple as formatting, copying, pasting, deleting or selecting a sell. Alternatively, you could get quite advanced and carry out entire tasks before going into the Excel visual basic editor to review the code.

The world really is your oyster when you get started recording macros in excel. Top tip is to start with small steps. You can always bulk all your small macros into one at a later stage but when it comes to reviewing each step its useful to keep it separate, at least when you are first getting started.

 Run a Macro in Excel VBA Editor

Once you have entered the VBA editor, created a module and written some code you will want to run the code.

To run VBA code in VBA editor simply click the Run Macro button which is shaped like a small green triangle on the toolbar. You can also Run Macro in Excel VBA editor by pressing F5 shortcut.

This is a very quick introduction to show you how to open VBA in excel, create a new module and also run your macro once written. To write some actual code, as we have suggested above, a great tip is to record macros and then go back and review the code in the MS Excel VBA editor. You’ll be surprised how messy the generated VBA can get but it will give you the key snippets of VBA code you need to get started with Excel VBA programming and is a great way of learning the syntax of VBA. Alternatively, Google is your best friend when it comes to writing macros. So what are you waiting for, press Alt + F11 in Excel and get coding in VBA!

What to do next? REad our quick Introduction to VBA for MS Excel

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We have earlier discussed in our posts the essential excel skill that are required to a general spreadsheet user so he can be more productive in his workplace. Today, we will discuss the skills and tools that are of great benefit for accounts especially those into the audit business.

Our today’s post will cover the following area relating to “most wanted auditing excel skill” regarding:

1. Formatting information in an audit report
2. Presenting information obtained by auditors
3. Analyzing the information obtained in an audit process
4. Boosting productivity in an auditing activity

Excel Skill Set # 01 Formatting information obtained in an audit process:

Color Filling a Cell:

This is one of the best possible excel skill – highlighting important information. Using a sharp color will automatically make the reader go that particular cell without going to unnecessary or less important information. This technique is even used when we are not using a pc and a spreadsheet software by using a Highlighter Pen. The shortcut key to access this feature is Alt+H+H. To un-fill use Alt+H+H+N.

Color Filling a Cell to Define Input, Formula Cells, and Helper Cells:

Color filling can be done to represent different areas and their purposes in our audit sheets. As a rule of thumb, Greige Filled Cells represent Formulas, Light Yellow Cells represent Input and so on. A user can develop his own “Key” to different cells fills to develop a model or audit sheet.

Using Borders on Cells:

Borders a common feature related to cell and is frequently used in highlighting cells that are subtotals or totals hence a must have excel skill for auditors. Borders should be used with great care as adding too much borders will distract the attention of a reader off the important information. As a rule of thumb, avoid adding vertical borders to a cell. See following example of two information table with and without vertical borders.Obviously, the one on the right side in more readable. The indentation can be access by using the shortcut key combination: Alt + H + 5 and Alt + H + 6 for removing an adding indents respectively.

Use Indentation to Mark Hierarchy in your data:

For longer sheets with numbers attached to every text entry, it is desirable to have hierarchy so that it is easier for user to understand break up of data. So in order to improve readability and data validation, add indents to your data so that it shows “Hierarchy” – look at the following example:

Obviously, the one on the right side in more readable.

The indentation can be access by using the shortcut key combination: Alt + H + 5 and Alt + H + 6 for removing an adding indents respectively.

Using Appropriate Number format:

Another valuable excel skill is to have proper format of dates, currencies and numbers with multitude of options in excel. The number formatting should be used appropriately to show desired formatting. Five handy shortcut keys for formatting numbers are:

1. Number: Ctrl+Shift+~
2. Time: Ctrl+Shift+@
3. Date: Ctrl+Shift+#
4. Dollar Amount: Ctrl+Shift+$
5. Percentage:        Ctrl+Shift+%

Excel Skill Set # 02 Presenting information by obtained in an audit:

Use Charts to Display for displaying information:

We can analyze trend in data with charts quite easily. It is the best tool to analyses large data sets and help reader in understanding data behavior.

• Time series data sets: Bar and Line charts are the best, besides bar chart, scatter charts can also be used to display data at any given interval say month, year, week or even on daily basis.
• Breakup of a Figure or Percent Contribution should be done by using Pi Charts.
• The Extent of Contribution or Impact level should be represented by using Radar Chart.
• For Plotting Variation in data, Use Line Chart or Scatter Chart.

As a rule of thumb or in order to make “great” charts:

1. Avoid Vertical Lines in Graphs.
2. Use Harmony of colors in charts.
3. Always add a key or legend if plotting more than one variable.

Use Smart Art to Show Relationships and Processes:

Smart Art is a ready to use tool that allows user to show relationships, processes flow and hierarchies. Though we can make some manually but these ready to use “Stencils” are great from productivity point of view. We can use the shortcut key Alt + N followed by ZI + N to insert a Smart Art. This will lead you to following available options: Lists, Processes, Cycle, Hierarchy, Relationships, Pyramid, Picture, Office.com.

Use In-cell Charts or A Spark-line:

These charts are great when you have a lot of variables to be plotted. From Excel 2010, we have a newly added feature of in-cell charts. Earlier versions had to download a separate addin.

With built-in spark lines, we have option to plot simple line chart, bar chart and profit-loss bar chart. A comparison of how a regular chart plots three series against how Spark-line displays information is below:

This is ideal if you want to display the audit data as a dashboard (though this is a rare practice).

Excel Skill Set # 03 Analyzing the information from an Audit:

Use Pivot Tables:

These are the first and the best choice to start with when it comes to analyzing data. Just convert your data into a table and there you go. With pivot table, a user can create scenarios, drill down data, and increase or decrease level of details in the analysis and even can plot that data. We can update and append data in a pivot table by simply right clicking and refreshing. We can use Key Combination Alt+N+V to insert one.

Using Analysis Tool Pack:

Analysis tool pack is an addin that provides pro-level data analysis tools like descriptive statics, various statistical tests, regression, histogram and more. If you are into a situation where you want to analyses data on statistical basis, this is your default solution.

Sometimes this addin not come pre-loaded. So a user need to go to Files Menu>Options>Add Ins> and select the addin to appear in Data Tab. Once added it will appear in the menu like below:

Using What-if Analysis Tool:

In order to create scenarios or do what-if analysis, this is available in excel. We can either use Scenario Manager, Goal Seek or Data Table using this options. The most versatile tool among these is the Scenario Manager. It practically allows you to build an entire model based on your own parameters and then analyze the situation. The tools is ideal in making the cash flow analysis for example in the audit process.

Excel Skill Set # 04 Boosting productivity in an auditing activity

There are so many add-ins available when it comes to excel that a user may easily get puzzled. However there are few out there in the market that are really productive and will help you standout at your work place:

Analysis Tool Pack:

We have already discussed this one earlier, it is great when analyzing data and comes along on statistical basis and is shipped with Excel by default. We need to activate it by going into options.

Addin from Ablebits.com:

This tools contains 60+ features that help you do more with your MS Excel. The addin will help you merging and consolidating sheets, consolidating data based on column headers, highlight duplicate rows etc. With this add-in, we can move, sort data, put water marks on sheets, create table of contents for them and has date and time picker for error free data entry. It also provides option to un-pivot a table, convert a table to multiple table based on column criteria and few more. In short, this is an excel add-in worth buying.

Auditing Toolbar by ExcelZoom.com

In order to mark information on your excel sheet relating to audit findings we have addin called the Excel Tickmark toolbar. The compact and precise interface holds a wealth of options that can help an auditors or accountants make the audit process quick and robust. The special symbols contained within the addin help auditors replicate the paper pencil process on the spreadsheet.

Out of the symbols present in the toolbar, it contains numbers, tick marks symbols with different colors, symbols to mark “verified”, “Agrees to GL”, “Prepared by Client”, “Agrees to PY”, “Agrees to TB”, alphabets: A, B, C, D and E, and small alphabets from a to i and few more symbols.

Learn more about this addin.

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Duplicate Finder and Delete add in:

This is a very handy excel add-in designed to get rid of one of the most common problems we face with our data – that is duplicates. Presence of duplicates in the data-set can cause problem in analysis besides makes it difficult to manage data. There are options available to handle such entities by using excels’ parent features. But using this add-in makes handling duplicates a breeze.

This excel add-in comes with options to handle a single list, couple of lists and with a bunch of option to do more with duplicates.

The operations that can be performed on a single list are present in first tab.  This tab includes options to highlight just duplicate rows in a list, to copy or to delete such identified rows. Further it has option to find and copy or delete the first occurrences of the duplicate rows – means that for duplicate rows, the first instance can be either highlighted, copied or deleted.

The operations that can be performed on more then one – or two list are present in the second tab. The tab give us option to color, mark, copy or delete that are present in first list from the second list or vice versa.

The last tab has options for coloring rows when entries changes, extracting unique lists, select a range of cells and highlight duplicates within it or within a selection of row or blank entries in a row when a duplicate row is located. The add-in is available at a one off price of $24.

Report Runner Add-in:

Some we have to print multiple reports at once. This happens most often when we have to attend a meeting or submit some report where we need to print a lot of different documents. For such situations we can revert to Report runner add-ins that can print multiple excel sheets at once.

This add-in eliminates the problem of shuffling through the folders for printing.  The ability of add-in to remember the books and marks makes printing easier a lot. All we need to do is to configure the add-in once for the task.

Macabacus:

This is one the most widely used add-in by the financial market, infect this said to be the favorite of Wall Street’s financial market. This single add-in has dozen of feature that are liked by professional and beginner level users equally. We will discuss the most important one’s one by one.

Formatting:

Font Colors:

The users have multitude of options of change font colors. A user can choose between blue-black combinations, choose from the most recently and frequently used font colors and / or default font colors. The user may also choose to recolor all colors used in the sheets.

Number formats:

The add-in has option to cycle through different number format with shortcut keys like increase or decrease number of decimal places, put commas, use percentage format or others.

Borders:

The add-in has option to format all four sides of borders with shortcut keys, inside and outside border and no border at all.

Alignment of Cells:

Cycles exists for alignment of text for horizontal and vertical alignment (left, right, center, top, bottom, and center) and for indent increase and decrease indents.

Row and cell Options:

We have options to set cell heights and width (row height and column width), to auto fit to row height and few other options.

Sheets:

We can hide, unhide, move sheet to left or right or programmatically hide the sheet so that no one can unhide it.

Auditing formulas:

The auditing formula toolbar named pro precedent and pro precedent can help us edit ranges, drill down formulas, move and resize, group or ungroup formulas. It also allows for checking dependencies for chart and names and for editing formulas.

Quick Charts:

For the chart users, add in provides options of waterfall chart, football field chart, stacked column chart, butterfly chart, Merimekko chart etc.

This addin has dozen of options that a user can manipulate with.

Bing Maps:

Sales and marketing people are always looking for charts that displays figures over map or territories. This chart is for the same purpose. The Bing Map plot data points on map from Bing Map. The data is stored in a table. Once the addin is activated we can select data using the pin on the top right of the map. We need to have a table with header that is to be select and data following it without any gaps.

We can select single or multiple locations to plot data. If more than one location is selected that data is plotted with different colors.

Geographic Heat Map:

This is another charting add-in from Microsoft that produces heat map with different colors to represent the data. In heat maps, the brighter colors the higher are the values, and the lower colors represent lower values. The addin has ability to read data from the sheets and send it over internet.

Infor F9 Add-in for Financial Analysis and Modeling:

This is again a specialized add-in with its focus on financial professionals doing financial modeling and analysis. The add-in benefits from the point that it is designed to take into account the entire ERP system of the organization. And besides that it works with in Excel Environment. It supports ers system like Microsoft dynamics, SAP, sage, blackbaud, data pro and many more.

The addin offers cell based reporting, consolidation of data, drill down tools, budgeting, multi-currency, report analysis, pivot table, and many more. Once you get and implement it, you will not need to create any report manually.

Radial Bar Charts by MS:

This is another initiative add-in that is used to draw the radial charts. These charts are characterized by data being plotted around a center point. If you look closely, it resembles the default dough nut chart in excel when plotted for multiple variables.

The add-in is beneficial from the point that it is a dedicated tool and makes plotting such charts easy. However the add-in is free only for a limited time.

HierView:

If you want to describe your data in hierarchy or have already hierarchical data, then this is the excel add-in you should use. The add-in helps by plotting hierarchical data. It also provides options to add salient features like average, maximum, minimum and other such parameters to be computed for each element in each hierarchy level. Thus makes it a lot easy to examine the relationship between different level and element in each level.

The Ultimate Dashboard Tools:

This is an excel add-in to develop dashboard and this is one the best available besides “Sparkline for Excel”. The excel add-in offers a spectrum of tools that can be used to create a dashboard. This includes Gauge Charts: Simple Gauge, Dual Gauge, Traffic Light Widgets, Radial Bar Charts, Bullet Charts, Score Meter and Variance Charts, Waterfall, Mekko, Sales Funnel, Tree map, Frequency Distribution and many more.

This is perhaps the largest collection of charts that are offered in a single excel add-in that are not available by default in excel.

Flash Card Assistant:

We can use excel to store question and their answers and then retrieve answers to create flash card. In one column we store question number, followed by question in next column and then in the next column.

The macro in the excel add-in can display question randomly, has option to already known questions and answer sot that they are not displayed, can display questions if it is already marked as known, formatting options for the text displayed, slide show ability and to add hints to the questions.

Audit Toolbar By Excel Zoom:

The Tickmark Toolbar excel add-in specifically designed for Auditors and Accounting professionals. Only symbols that are used by Auditors in their day to day activity are included.

The symbols are added keeping in view the professional requirements of accountants and auditors so list is precise and concise. The list includes symbols like “verified”, “Agrees to GL”, “Agress to PY”, alphabets from A to E and Small Alphabets from “a” to “i” and Numerals from 1-9.

In short, this is a must have add-in for auditors and accountants.

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Example of some an excel add-ins are Analysis Tool Pack and Solver Add-in. We will discuss excel add-ins that are very useful for day to day users of excel. Additionally, we will also be discussing the formula audit toolbar. This is a handy Audit tool for auditors and accountant, both professionals and students equally.

Excel Add-in from Ablebits.com

This is one of the best “Excel Add-in Suite” that is available against the price – the complete suite contains around 60 extremely useful features, that save your time and increases productivity. Some of the interesting features include merging and consolidating sheets and workbooks, consolidating data based on header columns and duplicate rows, creating vlookups and finding differences in similar sheets.

Besides this, we can remove duplicates and find unique entries, compare tables, do fuzzy match as well. The add-ins provides options to move, sort data , put water marks on sheets, create table of contents for them and has date and time picker for error free data entry. We can also un-pivot a table, convert a table to multiple table based on column criteria and few more. In short, this is an excel add-in worth buying.

 Excel Add-in from ASAP.net

This is the second best in the market and is undoubtly one of the most used excel add-ins. This is a feature rich and user friendly excel add-in. The add-in has capability to format cells based on different situation or criteria, more options to dice and slice data, formatting text cases and cleaning extra spaces in cells like invisible space. We can sort sheets within a workbooks by shade and name, export sheets as separate files, protect multiple sheets at once and more. This excel add-in comes in two version, the free version is for home and domestic use while other one is for commercial use – for that we have to buy a license.

Audit Tickmark Toolbar by ExcelZoom

Accountants and Auditors are the main users of the Excel Audit Tickmark toolbar. The toolbar comes with a simple but effective interface. The excel add-in contains symbols and signs that are commonly used by auditors or accountants in their daily work. These not only give the spreadsheets a polished and professional look but also provide valuable functionality and standardization for larger teams. This notation practice helps make appropriate notes and makes it easier for others to follow the instructions.

The symbols included in the toolbar are Numerals from 1 to 9 and four different versions of tick marks. The toolbar also includes a set of symbols that are purely related to audit professionals. Besides these, it includes symbols to mark “verified”, “Agrees to GL”, “Prepared by Client”, “Agrees to PY”, “Agrees to TB”, alphabets: A, B, C, D and E, and small alphabets from a to i and few more symbols.

We enlarge the inserted symbols in the cell, besides inserting symbols can also be scaled-up in size. Further, we can also insert more than one tick in a cell which is particularly useful for first and second reviewer practices. Comments can be inserted directly from this add-in into a cell.

Following is the add-in tab:

We can insert symbols like below on activating this excel add-in:

 Peltier Tech chart utility Excel Add-in

If we need to create different sorts of custom charts then this is a tool for ours. Comes for excel 2010 to 2016 and contains 8 to 22 custom charts. The add-ins makes creation and editing of charts a breeze.

For example, we can produce waterfall charts, box plot, cascade charts, histograms, pareto charts and cycle plot. In actual version of excel, either these charts require a lot of extra efforts and user to be an export of excel formulas and charting techniques, but this add-ins makes it really easy for a novice.

With this add-in , we can edit Series formula, add and edit label last point, add a new series, do LOESS regression and quadratic loess registration, edit pivot styles and others.

 XY Chart Labeler

As the name describes, the add-in is used to label charts. in cases without this case add-in, we have to select individual points in a charge and then have to edit its label text and formatting. This add-in provides an intuitive interface to do this tedious task.

The feature includes addition of labels based on cell range, thus you can edit cells rather then selecting labels individually, this is also intuitive as cells may contain formula results from other cells and we can have a dynamic label using this feature.

The data labels can also be moved using this add-in in any direction or at a certain distance. The add-in also provides an option to manually label the data sets in cases where we want to edit just a single point in the dataset or the last option is to delete the label at all.

It might appear that we can have all these functionalities done with default versions of a chart, but for larger data or for charts with lot of label formatting, this is a god send.

Unviewable +:

A workdsheet’s vba code can be protected using this add-ins. This is a great tool for developers and excels geeks that want their code to be protected. The add-in uses a simple interface that seeks information regarding what is to be protected within your vba project.

It offers three different Protection types: Hidden Modules, Unviewable password protected VBA Project and Unviewable locked VBA project. Similarly Protection level can vary from least secures to medium and most secure level to safeguard your code. There are further options available to create a backup file, add date and build stamp, add a copy right notice and activate multi layer protection. The result is  a password protected vba content of a workbook, while message being displayed for the status.

The waterfall chart creator:

Waterfall chart is amongst very commonly used charts in excel, but though usual and common, setting it up is a tedious task. This tedious task is made easy by using this dedicated add-in that is meant to produce waterfall chart only.

The add-in comes in with chart coloring options, for different and end of the year series, for formatting axis fonts and for label fonts as well. We can also set the dimensions of charts like width, height, top and left.

Unlike manual charts, we need just three columns to create waterfall chart with this add-in. There is an option to export charts to new workbooks and to add as many charts as you like!

The Ribbon Commander:

This is a very useful add-in when it comes to modify the ribbon interface of excel. It allows the ribbon interface to by dynamic i.e. changeable. This add-in allows developers to modify the interface as per their requirement and also allows end users to change it.

With ribbon command, developers have access to the full object model of MS Excel (indeed complete MS Office) for Office 2007 and later versions. It fully supports VBA, and besides VBA, .Net and COM development languages like VB6 and VC.  Further it is 100% compatible with existing Office XML codes!

Conclusion:

This post does not cover every Excel Add-in available on internet. For example this post does not cover excel add-in for specific fields like Operations Management, and Operations Research. Also Statistics or Numerical Methods related excel add-ins are not covered. They have their specific audience and a specialized used. For General Audience and for day to day use of Excel however, above add-ins are must have for an excel user.

Know of some great time-saving Excel add-ins or toolbars? Please let us know your favorites in the comments so everyone can benefit.

The post The Best Excel Add Ins For Excel Users appeared first on Excel Zoom.

Excel has wealth of options to perform Trend Analysis. Trend Analysis is a very useful tool for business decision making and is a widely adopted procedure in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Operations and Inventory control. In today’s post, we will learn about options available to us to find the trend in our data and our focus will be mainly on quantities techniques.

04 Methods that can be used for trend analysis:

We can use the following methods to analyses the trend in our data:

1. Graphical Plotting
2. Using Averages (or implementing moving averages)
3. Using Trend and Forecast Function
4. Analyzing data by running regression analysis:

For this tutorial we will be using following data set:

1. Sales of Cars in Quebec from 1960-1968 (Download)

Performing Visual Inspection – Plotting a Graph:

Perhaps, the first step in analyzing the data is to plot it! For this case, we will consider the time series data for the sales of cars. The data consists of car sales for Quebec from year 1960 to 1968, with data for each month sales. Thus this data consists of 72 data points, representing each month.

We will plot the data by going to the Tab Insert then Charts and Insert the Line Chart (or Press Alt + N + N + Enter) to insert the chart.

The figure shows a clear trend – the data is cyclic and with an increasing trend! A cyclic trend shows seasonality in shorter term, whereas increasing trend shows improvement in overall demand of car sales that is good news for car manufacturers.

Moving Averages:

Moving averages comes to rescue when we want to give a more robust quantitative basis to our decision making. The moving averages relies on the past data and the result provided can be quite realistic.

Let’s plot the data for car sales once again, and add the moving average element to it so that we can compare the two. We will setup a table like following:

As we will double click the green box on the lower right side of the current cell, the formula will be filled down the column. The result will be a series of averaged values against the actual sales value. Once plotted, we can plot the line chart to give the following result:

The blue line represents the original data, while the moving average is shown by the maroon line. We can observe a “lag” in the forecasted value. This is one of the main draw backs of using moving averages, but we can also see that the moving average has accounted for the seasonality as well as trend in the data.

Using Forecast & Trend functions in excel:

Excel has a built in function to do forecasting, that is FORECAST () function. In order to use forecast function, we will be using the Second Data Sheet with values from a scientific experiment. The table we will be using looks like the following:

We can use the following syntax of the FORECAST function:

FORECAST(x, known_x’s, known_y’s)

We need to go to the formula bar, and enter the above formula, with following arguments:

• X is the value we will be making forecast for.
• known_x’s are known values of x and
• known_y’s are the known values of y against respective values of x.

As we press enter, the formula gives forecast for the given value of x.

Note that before we plot, we can always have option to plot the data to examine the trend. A similar forecast can be made using the excel’s TREND() function that takes similar arguments:

TREND(known_y’s, known_x’s,x,[constant])

The result will be similar to what we achieved through Forecast function:

Analyzing data with regression analysis:

The last tool we will be discussing is Regression Analysis. In order to run Regression analysis, we need to enable analysis tool pack in excel. This is done by going to options>Addins>go >Analysis Tool pack. Once enabled, we will be able to see the option in Data Tab. On clicking Data Analysis we will have the following menu -As we select the regression analysis option, we will further be shown the following dialogue box that we will use to refer to ranges and will provide you analysis.

In the following output, we have these terms that we can use immediately:

R-square and Adjusted R-Square: Explaining how well the model is explained with this data. we can see that our data is 95% and 90% explained which is a good thing. The Intercept and the X-Variable also explains the form of the equation that comes out to be :

Y= 8.8 X -19.15

We can use this equation to plot the data manually.

Conclusion:

We have observed three methods for trend analysis. The first one was pretty basic that relied on graphical presentation of data. The second one uses past data and averaged it out. The third one uses the formal regression analysis procedure provided in data analysis tool pack of excel and is a standard procedure to assess trend and relationship.  You can download the sample file from this link.

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Excel user are familiar with drop down lists from the time Microsoft used it in their Office Program. The drop down lists were helpful as they are we able to a lot of options, were cascade-able. The value of these dropdowns was multiplied as the options were available through shortcut keys.

The Drop Downs, though gone from Excel and Office (Replaced by tabs now) are still available in the form of Lists.  – they are here to perform data validation in excel.

In today’s post, we will examine how we can apply data validation, different types of data validation and their pros and cones.

A little bit about Data Validation

Data Validation is used so that the user inputs only required type of data. For example if a field requires you to enter your name, the input should be a text, if it requires you to put date of birth, the field should accept only a date.

This in turn makes it possible to make your data more accurate and reliable.

The Drop down List Through Data Validation Menu:

By far, the most useful option of data validation is a list. A list allows users to select from a given set of values and make an input. For example while answering multiple choice question in exam, a student select out of three choices produced by a list or while selecting gender,  a user can select out of a boy or a girl.

Setting up List from Data Validation menu:

While setting up drop down we can either refer to the range of cell or use data within the options provided by the Data Validation dialogue box – let’s understand them one by one:

Lists produced from range of cells:

1. As a first step, we need to enter the data in a range of cells, say we want a list in cell A1, and we have range C1:C3 to input the option.
2. After entering the options, select the cell you want to have drop down list.
3. Go to Data Tab > Data Validation > Lists and then select the range C1:C3.
4. Press Ok to Exit.

…and you have your data validation list.

Select “Ignore Blanks” to have empty options in the drop down list.

Lists produced without range of cells:

We can directly enter our options in to the space provided in the dialogue box. For the last example we have seen, we could have entered them directly into the space like this: A, B, C.

This is only a practical option when you  have small number of options.

Other Options for Data Validation by Drop Down Menu:

This is perhaps the most common and the most useful method of Data Validation. The Data Validation by accessing “Data” Tab and pointing to “Data Validation”, we can apply this feature.

The data validation menu provides three options:

1. It has option to add data validation to a cell.
2. We can circle the invalid data
3. And lastly the circles around the data can be removed.

 Drop Down Lists with Form Controls Menus:

The other option to have drop down list is to have a List from Form Control Menu. The options for Form control is visible only when the user has enabled the “Developers Tab”. In Order to enable the developer tab:

1. Go to Files > Options
2. Choose Customize Ribbon
3. Select Developers Tab and Check mark.
4. And you will have the Developers Tab visible in the Ribbon.

Once the menu is visible you can select the option to a Combo Box and place the combo box at any desired position. In order to set the options within this combo box, you need to right click the combo box to reach the following dialogue box:

Formatting Combo box

The control tab is used to set the input range and the Link Cell. The Link Cell is the cell that displays the item number when a user select an item from the list, for example if he selects the first option, the cell will display 1.

In the screenshot, the option selected in C which is the third option, hence cell B1 is displaying 3. This number can be used in further calculations. Properties Tab can be used to manage the behavior of the combo box with rest of the sheet i.e. either it has be resized or not with cells.

Protection and size of a combo box describes if it is protected or not and details about the  size of the combo box.

The final output of a list with combo box looks like:

Conclusion:

We just learned how to use the two different options available for creating the drop down lists. The first one was an easy to use method, where the second one requires a little bit more knowledge and configuration of Excel. We hope you will like the tutorial. Please download the file from this link.

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We often came across the requirement of joining texts or concatenation in spreadsheets. This requirement might arise due to need to creating a key for lookup operations or might be to create full name, with first, second and third name present in various column of the sheets. The procedure of joining text is help in creating custom messages where information is present in various columns and we want to join them (concatenate means joining) to produce a meaningful message.

Before we proceed to the comparison of the functions here is an example of how text join can be a really handy option to master.

Consider a situation where you want to inform a customer regarding the points he has gained by his purchase over the last year. The following table show the breakup of the points gained by dollar purchases.

We can set up a formula to produce automated text like above. We can see from the description of the formula that a VLOOKUP is used to fetch the purchases from the customer and the purchase table and the discount is found using a LOOKUP function.

The final result is presented as a consolidated sentence in cell B13.

We will be examining the text joining options available in Google Sheets, MS Excel and Open Office.

MS Excel:

There is no doubt that this one is the most used spreadsheet program currently. When it comes to MS Excel, we have following options available to use:

1. Ampersand to join Text (use of Dollar sign)
2. Concatenate() function
3. Textjoin() function
4. VBA or use of User Defined Functions (UDF)

The use of ampersand is one of the oldest example of concatenation. Whenever you don’t have an option available to join text you can revert to use of this one – The use is as simple as follow:

“A”&”B” …will give  you AB

 The next option is the use of function Concatenate(). This function has been available in Excel for a long time and we can use it join text available in cells, by selecting them individually or directly entering text within double quotes. Thus its use is like:

=CONCATENATE(“A”,A1,”B”)

 If A1 contains an underscore sign, the result will be A_B.

 The disadvantage of using this function is that you have to select individual cells, you can’t work with a range.

The use of Textjoin() function makes up for the disadvantage of selecting individual cells. Here you can work by selecting an entire range and a delimiter to join text. For example if range A1:A3 contains A, B and C respectively, the function would have worked like:

=TEXTJOIN(“,”,,A2:A4)

..where comma is the delimiter. Thus you can simply select a range and delimiter and an option where to select the empty cells within that range or not (most of the time, you won’t select them!)

The last option is to use VBA to write a UDF to do concatenation. There are various udfs already available online – one of my favourite is by Chandoo – the concat() function. But there are lot of others as well giving you more control over what you want to achieve. Simply google it!.

Open Office Calc:

OO Calc is one of the open source spreadsheet programs that does not requires any buying charges. This software comes with similar features like MS Excel and functions that are compatible with other spreadsheet programs.

In order to join text, we have following options available in Open Office:

1. An Ampersand to Join the text.
2. The CONCATENATE() function to join the text.

Use of ampersand is the most common choice if you want to join just a couple of texts, for larger sets, you may revert to CONCATENATE() function. However, this use is again limited by selecting individual cells. You can not select an array. (Open Office Version 3.2.0)

Google Sheets:

Google markets its online spreadsheet program as Google Sheets. Besides being free for a common user, it provides excellent sharing features that makes it best for collaborate working. But here we will discuss the text joining options available with it.

We have four options available with Google Sheets:

1. The use of Ampersand
2. Using CONCAT() function
3. Bringing in CONCATENATE() function
4. Use of TEXTJOIN() function

We have already seen how we can use the ampersand sign, the case is same here again. We put an ampersand or dollar sign between texts or cell references to join them, (See cell B1, in the picture).

The CONCAT() is a function (usage shown in cell B2) that is unique to google sheets, it is used to join just two cells. Taking them up one by one, separated by commas. So it is just a limited-value version of a more used function CONCATENATE().

The third option available at our disposal is the CONCATENATE() function itself. The use of this function is shown is cell B3.

The last option we have available is the TEXTJOIN() function that gives us the more control over this operation, we can use a delimiter, an option to skip or include blank cells and facility to select a range rather than individual cells.

The use is shown in cell B4.

Comparison Table:

Here is a comparison of all the functions that we have discussed.

Conclusion:

We hope you will like this post, if you like any other topic discussed please leave it as a comment. Thank you.

The post A comparison of options to concatenate in spreadsheets appeared first on Excel Zoom.

Just like other spreadsheet users, accountants do use a lot of formulas. It is not necessary that all the formulas that are used by accountant relate to their accounting functions. In order to make their sheets works and analyze data intelligently they use formula from across the categories provided in MS Excel: Lookup Function, Statistical Functions, Text Functions, Date & Time Functions and most importantly the Finance functions.

In this post we will take up ten functions that can be of real help to an accountant. As usual we will be explaining the use by referring to examples and in this post, we will try to explain by means of “Situational usage” of functions:

“What was the product cost for a Product in year 2014” – A case for VLOOKUP:

As the name suggests, the function is used for looking up values. For VLOOKUP to work, the data should be organized in a table, with header column containing the lookup value. The function provides option to select the column to look into and the type of match required.

For the case of looking up old product cost that is a common task for Accountant, we have to setup a table like below:

A VLOOKUP function set to do this job should look like:

=VLOOKUP(B9,$B$3:$E$7,4,0)

In this formula, the cell B9 refers to the lookup value, for our case we have Prod A as lookup value for first column. The second argument refers to the table range: $B$3:$E$7. The third option 4 is the fourth column in which we have to look into and the last option is for exact type match.

“What is the total investment made on buildings between  2010 and 2014” – An example use of SUMPRODUCT()

You may ask why SUMPRODUCT() and why not SUMIFS()? The answer lays in the layout of your sheet. If you want to answer the above question with SUMIFS() you must have your lookup data into columns i.e. years in columns.  If you have your data in rows across the width of the sheet, you can’t use SUMIFS(). This is where SUMPRODUCT() shines, we can use it in either direction.

So lets consider the following table were various cost heads a reported for each year.

To get the result we will use the following SUMPRODUCT function:

=SUMPRODUCT((C2:I2>=C7)*(C2:I2<=C8)*(B3:B5=C9)*(C3:I5))

In this formula, the first argument (C2:I2>=C7) validates if the years in the row range are greater than or equal to the set value i.e. 2010. This is followed by another validation performed by (C2:I2<=C8) that checks if it is smaller than the end year. These two validations create a bucket-effect i.e. only years between this range will be considered in the formula.

The third part (B3:B5=C9) checks if the head is “Building”. All this result into a two dimensional array of 1 and 0 that is multiplied by range C3:I5. The result is then summed to give the final answer i.e. $5244.

“What was the total sales from Dallas in Feb 2017?” A possible use of SUBTOTAL() function.

When data is organized is shape you list and you have to filter it for certain criteria, SUBSTOTAL is really a helpful function. It gives you a bunch of options to analyses the data and see results. Consider a case where a sales accountant has following data in hand and he has to answer question regarding sales performance:

The question regarding sales for the month of Feb 2017 can be answered using filter feature the subtotal formula. We have written the formula in cell C42 and D42– keeping a row empty. When we filter the list for Feb 2017, we get this list as a result:

But this is for all the cities, filtering it down further we get…

The total sales from Dallas in Feb 2017 is 13456. And the total number of customer visits is 338.

The formula that we used here is SUBTOTAL(9,C2:C40) for total sales. The number 9 refers to the option “SUM” implying that the filtered data should be summed. The second option refers to the range that is going to be filtered.

Similarly in the next cell D42, we have used sum function again to get the count of total customer visits. A variation of this subtotal formula could be to use 1 for average, 4 for max and 5 for min functions.

“What has been the average head count for last 4 years?” An option to use AVERAGE() function.

A cost accountant keep track of the cost of human resource and workers. The function AVERAGE() can be of great help to them if they want to find averages, be it of head count of any other factor. Let’s consider the case where an accountant has successfully managed the record of head count for last 4 years and now management wants an overall average figure. Consider the following data to support our example:

The average head count for males can be found by averaging the first row and the count for females can be found by averaging for the second. And overall average can be found by using data in the last row.

The function we used here is =AVERAGE(C3:I3) where C3:I3 refers to the range containing data for male head count. The answer comes out to be 104.14

“What is NPV and IRR for this proposal?” – The way to NPV and IRR functions

Both functions are related to evaluating projects. NPV provides Net Present value and IRR gives internal rate of return. In order to find both we have to set up a sheet like below:

In this table, Rate is required for calculating NPV, where as for IRR we only need investment and outflows. When used formulas we have following output:

For calculating NPV in column M we have used following formula: =NPV(C3,D3:J3), in which C3 refers to the Rate (10%) and D3:J3 to inflow range. Similar for IRR the formula used is =IRR(D3:J3,0.1) in which D3:J3 is the same range and 0.1 represents an approximate guess for 10%.

Conclusion:

There are countless formulas with occasional and specific use. We have discussed jut few that we found useful for accountant. If you think any function should be added in this list, please mention it in comments. Please download the compassion file for this tutorial from this link.

The post The Most Useful MS Excel Formulas for Accountants appeared first on Excel Zoom.

One of the most widely used tool for accountants and managers is none other but MS Excel . Spreadsheets are around us for quite some time and they have been developed in to a handy tool. Some of them are propriety like Microsoft office and some can be used under creative commons license like open office. When it comes to collaboration or sharing data, google sheets take the top position.

In this post we are going to share 10 features of spreadsheets or Top 10 Excel Skill for accountants that are essential for accounts. Mastering these skills will help them become more productive with spreadsheets. Here are they:

Use of Keyboard Shortcuts:

You can also use built in short cut keys to perform certain action and if the option you are looking or is not available through shortcut keys! You can record also your own macros. Here are 10 shortcut keys that are most often used by excel user.

A user can always use mouse or pointing device to point to an option but they can be certainly more productive if they use keyboard instead. In recent version of MS Excel, you can invoke a hint to short cut keys but pressing Alt-Key from keyboard. Following the indicated character, you can access almost any option in the toolbar.

Thus by pressing Alt+N will take you to the Insert Tab.

Presenting Data with Charts:

It is always easy to understand data with Graphs. Excel comes with variety of options to plot graphs to represent your data. Here are some hints on using Excel Charts to make your reports interesting to read:

Use Bar and Line Charts – This is the best option if you want to plot time series data i.e. data over weeks, months and years. The bars clearly represent the plotted quantity and is really to read when it comes to comparison. (Shortcut keys: Bar Chart: Alt+N+C, Line Chart:Alt+N+L+N)

Use Pie Chart – when you want to show percentage of each component or breakup of something. You can use either absolute values or percentage. (Shortcut keys: Bar Chart: Alt+N+Q)

Scatter Plot – When you have data points and you want to explore the trend, just plot it using scatter plot. (Shortcut keys: Bar Chart: Alt+N+D)

Add a Trend line – Add a trend line to you Bar and Line Charts and your scatter plot, you can even get the expression and fit for the plotted data to understand the relationship.

Use The Excel Audit Toolbar

Whether you are performing an in depth audit or simply checking back a balance sheet, using a simple tool like the Excel Audit Toolbar can save you signifanct time and effort while at the same time giving your work a professional standardized finish. Clients love it and users rave at the time it saves them. You can learn more about the Audit Toolbar for Accountants here.

Use Pivot Table to Summarize Data:

When you have data in the form of list, the best option available to you to analyze it is a Pivot Table. With pivot table, you can manipulate data to great extend and you can be really quick in creating scenarios for your data.

You can insert a pivot table by using short cut key Alt+N+V. Add fields to Filter, Column, Rows and Values and select whether you want to sum, count or average the data. Besides built in functions, you can also create your own “Calculated Fields” and “Calculated Items” to shape your data. Calculated Fields are Fields that are defined by formula – for example if commission on sales in 10%, you can create a new calculated field “Commission” by multiplying sales with 10% value. A calculated item is created by manipulating items in a given field.

Understand How Cell Referencing Works:

There are four ways you can format your cell reference:

1. Keep row constant and column changeable –A$1, in this example, the $ before the row number (1 here) will keep it row one only. This is useful when you want drag formula downwards
2. Keep row moveable and column constant –$A1, in this example, the $ before the column number (A here) will keep it to one column only. This is useful when you want drag formula to right or left side.
3. Keep both row and column constant $A$1 – a dollar sign before both row and column means nothing can move.
4. Keep both row and column moveable – A1 this will make row and columns both moveables.

Understanding cell referencing style is important when you are using formulas across the worksheet and you want to refer to a cell a constant – (for example a cell contain the value of pi).

Using Formula Auditing Toolbar:

Formulas are an essential part of spreadsheet. Large spreadsheet tend to contain error that can totally destroy the purpose of the sheet – some of the error are obvious and easily identify error and other are semantic error that tend to give you the result but an erroneous one. All of such formula activity can be checked for using the formula auditing tool bar.

The toolbar is present in Formula Tab. There is a whole bunch of options there to examine how formula is executed, to trace precedent and dependent cells and for tracing errors. Certainly this is one of the most useful features for accountants as they may want to create and then audit their own sheets.

Using Data Validation:

Data Validation allows excel sheet users to specify what type of content a cell can hold or if it can hold something at all or not.  With  data validation in effect, the user can control generate an error message if the  user try to enter something invalid or try to put something in cell that is not allowed for editing.

There are options available to allow entry of any value, whole numbers or floats, date and time, list, text length or a custom formula. The most useful option out of this is the list that allows user to select from a set of options. The next most useful option could be the one for entering integer numbers only. The custom formula allows you to set conditions using Excel’s build in formulas.

Understanding What If Analysis Tools:

What if analysis Tools are a bunch of tools that are used to analyses scenario and what-if cases. There are three options available under it: Scenario Manager, Goal Seek and the Data Tables. The scenario manager creates scenarios by asking user for the variables to be changed and naming them as different scenarios. The user keep naming the scenario and referring to the cells whose value will be changed resulting in a list of scenarios to be used.

The Goal seek option works by iterating through values until certain requirement is meet – for example if you set up a sheet with a formula where you wanted variable X to be 200 for some value of variable Y, the goal seek will keep iterating until it reaches corresponding value of Y.

The Data Table is good when you want to have more then one scenario to be displayed at once. Infect you can have a single scenario like displayed by scenario manager.

Repeating Last Action Quickly:

The easiest way to repeat the last action is to press F4. If you have formatted a cell with yellow fill and you want another cell to be formatted the same way, just press F4. If you have copied something and wanted to paste on multiple cells, select them and press F4.

Selecting Certain Type of Cells Only:

A Spreadsheet contains formulas, numbers, text and blank or non blank cells. We may want select only cells that belong to certain type for example only cells with formulas or only blank cells. In such situation the option of “Go To” is really handy.

The option can be found by pressing F5 that will ask you what to select. You can select more than one choices at a time as well. For example you want to select all the blank cell and put text “absent” on each of them. You will press F5, select blank that will select all the blank cells, write “absent” and will press ctrl+enter to have it in all selected cells.

Printing Sheet With Grid Lines and Headers:

When you are tired to starring at PC’s screen and want to have break, it is good idea to print you sheet focus on paper version of your sheet. But simply printing a sheet will not be of much help as there will be no header row and column to understand the formulas.

It is possible to print a sheet with header row and column and grid lines with following options from print preview > page layout menu:

Conclusion:

There are countless features of Excel that a user uses depending upon the work requirement so this list is not exhaustive by any means. Did we missed anything important? Please use comments section to tell us. Thank you! Happy Excelling!

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