Microsoft Excel

A Handbook of Tips & Tricks

Geoffrey Learmonth

Certified Microsoft Office Specialist Master

What Is Microsoft Excel?

• The most common business spreadsheet software developed by Microsoft

• Features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, macro coding, and various add-ons for increased flexibility

• Used primarily by accounting and finance departments, and with greater use among data-savvy HR, Sales and Administrative Managers

2

Getting Around

Microsoft Excel has seven tabs, with numerous functions and tools contained in each

▪ Home

▪ Insert

▪ Page Layout

▪ Formulas

▪ Data

▪ Review

▪ View

3

Functions

While data analysis capabilities are near endless for the right user, Excel’s workhorse is its library of functions, categorized into four areas:

▪ Information Functions

▪ Lookup & Reference Functions

▪ Logical Functions

▪ Analyzing & Filtering Functions

4

Types of Functions

While there are literally hundreds of functions inside Microsoft Excel, being a power user only requires knowledge of about 15.

Information

▪ PROPER: capitalize first letter of text

▪ FIND: find location of specific characters in a string

of text

▪ MID: pull out a string of text starting from a

particular position

▪ LEFT & RIGHT: pull out a string of text starting

from either the right or the left

▪ CONCATENATE: join two or more text strings

together

Lookup & Reference

▪ VLOOKUP: looks up a piece of data in one column

of a table and returns a specified corresponding

column

▪ INDEX & MATCH: similar to VLOOKUP but is not

reliant on the location of the column that is being

looked up

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Types of Functions (2)

Power users of Excel know functions and do not rely as much on Pivot Tables. Truly customized solutions cannot be achieved with Excel’s built-in templates.

Logical

▪ IF: the user sets the conditional statement and

chooses what the cell returns if it is true or false

▪ OR: the user sets two or more conditional

statements and chooses what the cell returns if

one or more is true

▪ AND: the other sets two or more conditional

statements and chooses what the cell returns if all

are true

▪ IFERROR: used to clean up cells displaying an error

and provide a cleaner, more professional look to

end users

Analyzing & Filtering

▪ COUNTIFS: counts all cells in a range that meet

one or more criteria

▪ SUMIFS: sums all cells in a range that meet one or

more criteria

▪ AVERAGEIFS: averages all cells in a range that

meet one or more criteria

▪ RANK: ranks cells in a column in ascending or

descending order

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Information Functions

• Rearrange data: Many programs don’t “speak” clearly with Excel, and requires the user to re-arrange data first before they can perform analysis

• Often times, users who are uncomfortable with Excel will rely on manual processes which are not only time consuming, but prone to errors

• Example: You are asked to create labels for employee letters but your HRIS gives you employee names in First Name, Last Name format in all capital letters. You need it in Last Name, First Name format.

• How would you handle this task?

Information Functions Example

With just a few simple steps culminating into one function, you can automate this task and save it as a template for future uses.

STEPS HRIS FIELD FUNCTION CELL

DOWNLOAD REPORT

ROBERT CUSHNIR N/A A2

EXTRACT FIRST NAME

ROBERT=LEFT(A2,FIND(“

“,A2,1)-1)B2

EXTRACT LAST NAME

CUSHNIR=MID(M12,FIND("

",M12,1)+1,100)C2

JOIN NAMES WITH COMMA

CUSHNIR, ROBERT=CONCATENATE(C2,”

,”,B2)D2

CAPITALIZE FIRST LETTERS

Cushnir, Robert =PROPER(D2) E2

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Lookup & Reference Functions

• VLOOKUP is perhaps the most common and useful function in Excel

• It allows you to cross reference different data lists, or tables, so long as you are looking up the same unique value in each table

• INDEX & MATCH, however, is preferred by Power Users as it has more flexibility, is easier to audit and is easier to copy over across worksheets

• Example: You have two lists: one has a list of Employee ID’s and the other has Employee Compensation Information. You want to add an Employee’s Salary to the Personal Information list.

• How would you handle this task?

Lookup & Reference Functions Example

• VLOOKUP and INDEX & MATCH can both accomplish this.

• Before learning INDEX & MATCH, get a foundation for how VLOOKUP works first

CELL ID SALARY FUNCTION

A2 12345 $60,000=VLOOKUP(A2,’EMPLOYEE

COMPENSATION'!A:B,2,0)

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Employee Compensation

Employee ID’s

CELL ID SALARY TARGET BONUS

A2 12345 $60,000 5%

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Logical Functions

• Logical functions answer questions and can help slim down otherwise large and overwhelming data sets

• Logical functions are quite useful when you need to categorize and summarize your data, and wish to present it in a meaningful way

• IF, OR, AND are the most common logical functions, while IFERROR is used to “clean up” cells that return errors

• Example: Your company sells five products and you are analyzing annual sales versus last year. You want to categorize each product into two main categories: Better or Worse than last year

• How would you handle this task?

Logical Functions Example (1)

• A simple IF statement will suffice in this example

• If sales are greater than last year, return “Better”, if not, then return “Worse”

Product 2018 2017 Result Function

Toothpaste $125,000 $138,000 Worse =IF(B2>C2,”Better”,”Worse”)

Toothbrushes $274,000 $225,000 Better=IF(B3>C3”Better”,”Worse”)

Dental Floss $87,000 $51,000 Better=IF(B4>C4,”Better”,”Worse”)

Mouthwash $68,000 $78,000 Worse=IF(B5>C5,”Better”,”Worse”)

Fluoride Rinse $47,000 $19,000 Better=IF(B6>C7,”Better”,”Worse”)

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Logical Functions Example (2)

• In this example, we create categories using the AND function

• In the first table, if both Sales and Gross Margin are greater than last year, return “TRUE”, if not, return “FALSE”

• In the second table, if either Sales or Gross Margin are greater than last year, return “TRUE”, if not, return “FALSE”)

Product 2018 (S) 2017 (S)2018 (GM)

2017 (GM)

Result Function

Toothpaste $125,000 $138,000 68% 66% FALSE =AND(B2>C2,D2>E2)

Toothbrushes $274,000 $225,000 72% 69% TRUE=AND(B3>C3,D3>E3)

Dental Floss $87,000 $51,000 81% 83% FALSE=AND(B4>C4,D4>E4)

Mouthwash $68,000 $78,000 58% 61% FALSE=AND(B5>C5,D5>E5)

Fluoride Rinse $47,000 $19,000 67% 60% TRUE=AND(B6>C6,D6>E6)

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Product 2018 (S) 2017 (S)2018 (GM)

2017 (GM)

Result Function

Toothpaste $125,000 $138,000 68% 66% TRUE =OR(B2>C2,D2>E2)

Toothbrushes $274,000 $225,000 72% 69% TRUE=OR(B3>C3,D3>E3)

Dental Floss $87,000 $51,000 81% 83% TRUE=OR(B4>C4,D4>E4)

Mouthwash $68,000 $78,000 58% 61% FALSE=OR(B5>C5,D5>E5)

Fluoride Rinse $47,000 $19,000 67% 60% TRUE=OR(B6>C6,D6>E6)

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Analyzing & Filtering Functions

• COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, and AVERAGEIFS are three functions every analyst should know

• Each criteria can be viewed as a filter on a table, allowing you to create and highlight key statistics without having to create and filter tables

• Each function has almost identical syntax, so learning them all at once is very easy

• Example: You have just finished calculating employee bonuses and want to see how many employees in the Finance department earned bonuses of more than $5,000 and the total of all of these bonuses in the Finance department.

• In addition, you also want to report on the average bonus for employees with a salary greater than $50,000.

• How would you handle this task?

Analyzing & Filtering Example

• If you’re looking for assistance in creating these statistics, put an auto-filter on a table and filter until you get to your desired result

• Each thing you filter on is a criterion, and can be represented in these three functions

• You can now create your own statistics worksheet which feeds from a report you normally download

ID Department Salary Bonus

12345 Finance $57,000 $6,000

23456 HR $68,000 $8,500

34567 Finance $42,000 $3,700

45678 Finance $88,000 $6,200

56789 Marketing $60,000 $5,800

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Statistic Result Function

# Finance Employees

With Bonus > $5,0004

=COUNTIFS($D$2:$D$6,">="&

5000)

Total Bonuses For All

Finance Department$15,900

=SUMIFS($D$2:$D$6,$B$2:$B$6

,"Finance")

Average Bonus For

Salaries > $50,000$6,625

=AVERAGEIFS($D$2:$D$6,$C$2:

$C$6,">"&50000)

Helpful Add-insSome of my favourite add-ins Excel offers are:

1. Analysis ToolPak – great for performing statistical analysis

2. Solver – maximizing or minimizing a certain statistic in a model with constraints

3. RDB Merge – combining multiple worksheets with the same layout

4. Quotes – retrieve delayed stock market quotes from Microsoft Money

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THANKYOU!

Geoffrey Learmonth