https://www.icas.

com/ca-today-news/10-excel-tricks-chartered-accountants

10 Excel tricks for CAs

Love it or hate it, Microsoft Excel is one of the most essential tools to any CA. We’ve asked some of our resident Excel
wizards for their top tips to make your working life a bit easier.
1. Use PivotTables to analyse and summarise data
Many spreadsheet pros believe that pivot tables are the most powerful tool in Excel. PivotTables are a great way to
summarise a list of data at the click of a button. They are also very easy to do.
Before you begin to create a PivotTable, make sure your source data is well organised and that you have an idea of what
data should feature in it.
Select a cell in your source data.
On the Insert tab, click the PivotTable.
Choose the fields to add to your PivotTable report.
Drag a ‘label’ field into the Row Labels area (e.g. Client).
Drag a numeric field into the Values area (e.g. Assets).
Adjust what value is shown by right-clicking in your values field, and selecting ‘Show value as’. You can choose from options
such as % of grand total, running total, and difference from.

2. Keep your cell references fixed with absolute references ($)

Excel uses ‘relative references’ as its default, which means that the cell reference (and any formulas) automatically change
when copied elsewhere. So, if you have a formula in cell A1 and you copy the formula to cell B1, the result will
automatically update for you in reference with the cell’s position.
However, there are times when you might want the cell references to remain fixed when you copy it elsewhere, and this is
where absolute references come in. Absolute references mean that no matter which cell the formula is in, the cell
reference will not change. If you decided to copy the formula to another cell or sheet, the formula will still refer to the
original cell reference.
To create an absolute reference, you just need to add a dollar sign ($) to your cell reference, to fix your column and/or row
references. Use the different absolute references below as required to anchor your references:
A$1: The row will not change when copied.
$A1: The column will not change when copied.
$A$1: The column and the row will not change when copied.
To avoid manually adding the absolute reference, try pressing the shortcut key F4 multiple times until the correct option is
displayed automatically.

3. Reduce errors with drop down lists

Data validation lists reduce errors in a spreadsheet and can make data entry easier, particularly if you have a spreadsheet
that multiple people use. They allow a user to select from a drop down list of defined data options within a cell, such as a
list of accounting codes. You can even add in an error message that will display if someone tries to enter data which isn’t in
the drop down list.
To create a drop down list, you first need to create your list of data options in a single column or row.
Next, give your list a name list by selecting your cells, and clicking the name box at the left of the formula bar, then
pressing Enter. The name of your cells must not have any spaces, eg: AccountingCodes.
To add your drop down list options to a cell, navigate to the Data Tab and click Data Validation.
Under the Settings tab, select List as the option under the Allow drop down list, then type the name of your list
under Source.
Select the cells, then click the name box at the left of the formula bar.
Fill out the Error Alert tab to set your error message to stop someone entering different information.

4. Improve your visibility with The Watch Window

The Watch Window is a handy tool to use when you are working with a large spreadsheet, possibly with multiple sheets.
It enables you to keep some of your data in view at all times, so you can quickly refer to it without having to navigate back
and forth between columns or sheets.
To add a Watch Window, select the cells you’d like to have visible all the time.
Go to the Formulas tab and click Watch Window to add them.

5. Highlight interesting data with conditional formatting

Conditional formatting is an extremely useful tool in Excel for accountants. You can use it to apply automatic formatting to
cells that contain a certain value, duplicate values and even specific text.
For example, you could use it to flag up overdue payments by creating a rule to format all cells red that fall within a certain
date.
To create conditional formatting, click on Conditional Formatting under the Home tab.
Select New Rule and choose from the different options and formatting selections. For example, you could choose to format
cells that contain a certain value, if they are greater/less than a certain value, or if they are duplicated values to help you
flag up errors.
Choose the cells the formatting should apply to and click ok.

6. Name your formulas with named ranges

If you are using complicated formulas, you can give them a name to help you and your team understand and remember
what they are. For example, you can name your first quarter sales formula ‘FirstQuarterSales’, or your income tax formula
‘IncomeTax’. This is very useful for spreadsheets that multiple people are working on.
To do this, go to the Formulas tab.
Click Define Name and select which cells it refers to.
By naming all of your different formulas in this way, Excel keeps a list of them under the Name Managerbutton, allowing
you to edit them and apply them to different cells quickly and easily.

7. Combine data from multiple cells into one cell

If you have data in multiple cells that you want to combine into once cell, you can use the CONCATENATEfunction to do it
automatically.
This can be really handy when you are working with spreadsheets that have names split into different columns for first
name and last name, or your supplier names in one column and their payment terms in the other.
To do this, insert a new column where you want your combined data to appear.
Select a cell in the column, then type =CONCATENATE(A1,B1) into the formula bar with your relevant cell references for the
data that is to be combined.
To keep a space between your different data, use this formula: =CONCATENATE(A1," ", B1). The ," ",keeps the space
between data, so don’t forget it!
Your new data will now appear in the cell.

8. Speed up your navigation and cell selection

If you have a big spreadsheet and need to navigate through it quickly, just hold down the CTRL key and use your arrows.
If you want to select lots of data at one time, just hold down Shift and CTRL and use the arrows in the same way.

9. Copy formatting quickly with the F4 key

The F4 key is a useful shortcut in Excel that enables you to copy any formatting you have applied to a cell to another cell.
To copy formatting from one cell to another cell (or column), just apply the formatting, click where you want the
formatting to appear and press F4.

10. Count how many times data appears

COUNTIF is a very useful and easy function to use in Excel. Quite simply, it will count the number of cells that meet your
specified criteria. For example, you could count how many times you paid one of your suppliers, or how many times the
word ‘January’ appears in your spreadsheet, or how many times ‘office supplies’ has been claimed on expenses.
The COUNTIF function will automatically search how many times your data appears.
In the cell you want your total to appear, enter the formula =COUNTIF(range,“criteria”).
Under range, specify the cells/columns it should search, and under criteria, specify the data it should search for. In your
criteria, you can search for text, a number, cell reference, or even a comparison, such as >50.
E.g. =COUNTIF(A1:A200,”STATIONERY”)

Quora
You will have a very enjoyable Financial Audit life if you can master the following Excel
functions:

if
vlookup/index/match
sumifs/countifs
trim/clean
left/right/mid
pivot tables

Being a Financial Auditor one must be well versed with MS Excel.I have been
auditing the Financial Statement for almost 2 years now. In the period of 2 years I
have learned and used more than atleat 50 Formulas which came handy for many
different Operations and Functions.
Following is the list of Formula which I find useful in Audit.

 VLOOKUP
 HLOOKUP
 SUM
 INDEX
 MATCH
 SUMIFS
 COUNTIF
 SUMPRODUCT
 IF
 IFERROR
 AND
 OR
 ROUND
 LEFT
 RIGHT
 INDIRECT
 OFFSET
 TEXT
 PROPER
 COUNTA
 LEN
 ABS
 CONCATENATE (&)
 AVERAGE
 TODAY
 WEEKDAY
 MOD
 ISNUMBER
 ISBLANK
 MIN
 MAX, etc
There might be multiple combinations of Functions that can be performed with these
set of Formulae.

I hope this list helps you.

Thanks !

https://www.another71.com/cpa-exam-forum/topic/crucial-excel-skills-for-1st-year-auditor-at-big-4/

Practice, Practice, Practice

 Six (6) Must-Have Excel Skills
for Accounts, Finance & Audit
Professionals
Published on August 23, 2017

Newton I. YakubuFollow
Business Data Analyst, Data Mining and Business Intelligence Consultant
 Like7
 Comment2
 Share

____________________________________________________________
_________

By: Newton I. Yakubu, Executive Director & Data Mining &

Analytics Consultant, Business Analytics Limited.

August 2017

____________________________________________________________
_________________

Excel has gained tremendous patronage in almost all spheres of business

because of its versatility, flexibility and user-friendliness as a productivity
tool. Perhaps, the most significant benefits of Excel is its ability as a
leverage to analyze financial data and deliver insights that facilitate data-
driven business decisions.

Given the recent growth in data across all functions in the enterprise, with
the right skills, Excel can be a reliable tool that helps Accountants,
Finance and Audit Professionals get actionable intelligence from financial
data to improve business decisions and performance. Here are six essential
Excel skills which they must gain mastery of, to effectively harness and
unlock the enormous analytic benefits locked up in Excel in order to bring
value to the business:
Formulas & Functions

Excel offers a wide array of formulas under various categories. However,

only a few handful of these are relevant to the Accountant et al jobs. They
include Logical Formulas such as AND, IF, FALSE, IFERROR, IFNA,
NOT, OR, TRUE, etc., DATE, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIFS,
etc.

Important Lookup References include VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP,

CHOOSE, MATCH, INDEX, etc.

Analyzing Scenarios with Goal Seek & What-If

Scenario analysis is another important feature for the Accountant and

Auditor. It includes ‘Goal Seek’ and ‘What-If’ features which allow
analysis of possible options and their impact on other variables.

Pivot Table Analysis

Producing multi-dimensional report, analyzing data from multiple sources

and drilling down data to a meaningful level are important functions that
can be performed with PivotTable and PivotChart.

Charts & Visualization

Financial data as well as audit findings are better comprehended when

presented graphically using common chart types like bar and line charts.
New visualization features such as sparklines and slicers can enhance
flexibility and user friendliness.

Managing Data with Tables

Tables are powerful tool for Accountants and Audits. It allows slicing and
dicing data easily. Tables automatically updates formulas in ranges and
charts when new data are entered without manual intervention. Also
formatting is automatically applied to newly appended data.

Conditional Formatting

Applying custom and conditional formatting to data and transaction to

selectively manage data.

These features of Excel represent the important skills that contemporary

Accountant and Auditors need to master them and use to improve
productivity and efficiency.

– I find that sorting and filtering seem simple, but are often an overlooked skill set. Know these functions inside and out

including multi-level sorting. Getting your data organized is one of the biggest parts of the battle.

– If statements are really handy, although I honestly don't really use them at work. I feel like they help me to understand the

way Excel thinks though.

– Keyboard shortcuts save you a ton of time and effort. Our teacher taught us to imagine that you had 50,000 rows of data

when you were learning how to do something. So we always had to think to ourselves, could I do this like this with all of

those rows or would I need a better way. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not, but consider the following shortcuts: Double

clicking the little black square at the bottom of the cell (the one that you click and drag to fill formulas) will fill the formulas

all the way down the column to where Excel deems a logical stopping point. Ctrl, Shift and an arrow will select all of the

cells in that direction. Ctrl, Home will take you to the top of your worksheet; or Ctrl, End to the end.

– I find it really useful to name a range of data by selecting it and typing a name in the box at the top left of the screen. This

is especially helpful when referencing the data with a Vlookup function because it saves the need for using absolute values.

– Also, Vlookups are a must know.

– You also need to make sure you know the difference between an absolute and relative cell reference.

– Some of the time and date functions are pretty handy. I use Ctrl, ; or Ctrl, : for a time or a date stamp sometimes.

– I tend to think up something that I would like to do in Excel and then Google what formulas to use. I've learned a ton that

way.
– Oh yeah and you should gain at least a little familiarity with pivot tables. They can seem scary if you've never worked with

them.

I recommend not using a mouse for at least 3 months. You'll be amazed at how fast you can get just using shortcuts.

Once you start memorizing even the ribbon chains (alt N,V,T for Pivot table or Alt O,h,r for naming tabe or alt o,h,i for

fitting data) things go by really fast.

Especially for formatting or “making PBC's pretty”. I timed my self once, and with a mouse it took me 5 minutes to format a

PBC, but with shortcuts it took me 2 minutes!. Think of the time savings in the long term.

https://chandoo.org/wp/top-10-formulas-for-aspiring-analysts/

op 10 Formulas for Aspiring Analysts

Learn Excel - 157 comments

Few weeks ago, someone asked me “What are the top 10 formulas?” That got me thinking.

While each of us have our own list of favorite, most frequently used formulas, there is no standard
list of top 10 formulas for everyone. So, today let me attempt that.

If you want to become a data or business analyst then you must develop good
understanding of Excel formulas & become fluent in them.
A good analyst should be familiar with below 10 formulas to begin with.
1. SUMIFS Formula

If you
listen very carefully, you can hear thousands of managers around the world screaming… “How
many x we did in region A, product B, customer type C in month M?” right now.
To answer this question without the song and dance of excessive filtering & selecting, you must
learn SUMIFS formula.

This magical formula can sum up a set of values that meet several conditions.

The syntax of SUMIFS is like this:

=SUMIFS( what you want to sumup, condition column 1, condition, condition column 2,
condition….)

Example:

=SUMIFS(sales, regions, “A”, products, “B”, customer types, “C”, month, “M”)

Learn more about SUMIFS formula.

2. VLOOKUP Formula
Pop quiz time ….
Which of the below things would bring world to a grinding halt?
A. Stop digging earth for more oil
B. Let US jump off the fiscal cliff or hit debt ceiling
C. Suddenly VLOOKUP formula stops working in all computers, world-wide, forever
If you answered A or B, then its high time you removed your head from sand and saw the world.

The answer is C (Well, if all coffee machines in the world unite & miraculously malfunction that
would make a mayhem. But thankfully that option is not there)
 VLOOKUP formula lets
you search for a value in a table and return a corresponding value. For example you can ask What
is the name of the customer with ID=C00023 or How much is the product price for product code
=p0089 and VLOOKUP would give you the answers.
The syntax for VLOOKUP is simple.

=VLOOKUP(what you want to lookup, table, column from which you want the output, is your table
sorted? )

Example:

=VLOOKUP(“C00023”, customers, 2, false)

Lookup customer ID C00023 in the first column of customers table and return the value from 2nd
column. Assume that customers table is not sorted.
Click here to learn more about VLOOKUP Formula.
Bonus: Comprehensive guide to lookup formulas.
3. INDEX+MATCH Formulas
For every 10 people using VLOOKUP, there is someone realizing its most annoying
limitation. VLOOKUP formula can only search on left most column.
That means, if a table of customers has customer ID in left column and name in right column,
when using VLOOKUP, you can search for customer ID only.

You cannot ask questions like what is the customer ID of “Samuel Jackson” ?
VLOOKUP would choke and bring your Excel world to a grinding halt.

Thankfully, INDEX+MATCH formulas come to rescue. These 2 beautiful formulas help us lookup on
any column and return corresponding value from any other column.

Syntax:
=INDEX(list of values, MATCH(what you want to lookup, lookup column, is your lookup column
sorted?))

Example:

=INDEX(customer IDs, MATCH(“Samuel Jackson”, Customer names, 0) )

Click here to learn more about INDEX & MATCH formulas.

4. IF Formula
Q: What do you call a business that does not make a single decision?
A: Government!

Jokes aside, every business needs to make decisions, even governments!!! So, how do we model
these decisions in Excel.
Using IF formulas of course.

For example, lets say your company decides to give 10% pay hike to all people reading
Chandoo.org & 5% hike to rest. Now, how would you express this in Excel?

Simple, we write =IF(employee reads Chandoo.org, “10% hike”, “5% hike”)

The syntax of IF formula is simple:

=IF (condition to test, output for TRUE, output for FALSE)

Click here to learn more about IF formulas.

5. Nesting Formulas
Unfortunately, businesses do not make simple decisions. They always complicate things. I mean,
have you ever read income tax rules?!? Your head starts spinning by the time you reach 2nd
paragraph.

To model such complex decisions & situations, you need to nest formulas.
Nesting refers to including one formula with in another formula.

An example situation: Give 12% hike to employees who read Chandoo.org at least 3 days a
week, Give 10% hike to those who read Chandoo.org at least once a week, for the rest give 5%
hike.
Excel Formula: =IF(number of times employee reads chandoo.org in a week >=3, “12% hike”,
IF( number of times employee reads chandoo.org in a week >0, “10% hike”, “5% hike”))
You see what we did above? We used IF formula inside another IF formula. This is nothing but
nesting.
You can nest any formula inside another formula almost any number of times.
Nesting formulas helps us express complex business logic & rules with ease. As an analyst, you
must learn the art of nesting.

Lots of nested formula examples & explanations here.

6. Basic Arithmetic Expressions
=(((123+456)*(789+987)) > ((123-456)/(789-987)))^3 & " time I saw a tiger"
If you read the above expression and not had to scratch your head once, then you are on way to
become an awesome analyst.
Most people jump in to Excel formulas without first learning various basic operators & expressions.
Fortunately, learning these requires very little time. Most of us have gone thru basic arithmetic &
expressions in school. Here is a summary if you were caught napping in Math 101.

Operator What it does Example

+ – * / Basic arithmetic operators. Perform 2+3, 7-2, 9*12, 108/3, 2+3*4-2

addition, subtraction, multiplication &
division

^ Power of opetator. Raises something to 2^3, 9^0.5, PI()^2, EXP(1)^0.5

the power of other value.

( ) To define precedence in calculations. (2+3)*(4+5) calcuates 2+3 first, then

Anything included in paranthesis is 4+5 and multiplies both results.
calcuated first.

& To combine 2 text values “You are ” & “awesome” returns “You
are awesome”

% To divide with 100. 2/4% will give 50 as result. Note:

(2/4)% will give 0.5% as result.

: Used to specify ranges A1:B20 refers to the range from cell A1

to B20

$ To lock a reference column or row or $A$1 refers to cell A1 all the time. $A1
both refers to column A, relative row based
on where you use it. For more refer
to absolute vs. relative references in
Excel.

[ ] Used to structurally refer to columns in ourSales[month] refers to the month

table column in the ourSales table. Works
only in Excel 2007 or above. Know
more about Excel Tables.

@ Used to structurally refer to current row ourSales[@month] refers to current

values in a table row’s month value in oursales table.
 { } To specify an inline array of values {1,2,3,4,5} – refers to a the list of
values 1,2,3,4,5

< > <= >= Comparison operators. Output will 2>3 will be FALSE. 99<101 will be
always be boolean – ie TRUE or FALSE. TRUE.

= <> Equality operators. Check whether 2 2=2, “hello”=”hello”, 4<>5 will all
values are equal or not equal. Output return TRUE.
will TRUE or FALSE

* ? Used as wild cards in certain formulas COUNTIF(A1:A10, “a*”) counts the

like COUNTIF etc. values in range A1:A10 starting with a.
For more on this refer to COUNTIF &
SUMIF in Excel

SPACE Intersection operator. Returns the
range at intersection of 2 ranges
A1:C4 B2:D5 refers to the intersection
or range A1:C4 and B2:D5 and returns
B2:C4. Caution: The output will be an
array, so you must use it in another
formula which takes arrays, like SUM,
COUNT etc.

7. Text formulas
While there are more than two dozen text formulas in Excel including the mysterious BHATTEXT
(which is used to convert numbers to Thai Bhats, apparently designed by Excel team so that they
could order Thai take out food #), you do not need to learn all of them. By learning few very
useful TEXT formulas, you can save a ton of time when cleaning data or extracting
portions from mountains of text.
As an aspiring analyst, at-least acquaint your self with below formulas:

 LEFT, RIGHT & MID – to extract portions of text from left, right & middle.
 TRIM – to remove un-necessary spaces from beginning, middle & end of a text.
 SUBSTITUTE – to replace portions of text with something else.
 LEN – to calculate the length of a text
 TEXT – to convert a value to TEXT formatting
 FIND – to find whether something is present in a text, if so at what position
You can find several examples of all these formulas & their users in our site. Just search.

8. NETWORKDAYS & WORKDAY Formulas

“There aren’t enough days in the weekend” – Somebody
Whether a weekend has enough days or not, as working analyst, you must cope with the working
day calculations. For example, if a project takes 180 working days to complete and starts on 16th
of January 2013, how would you find the end date?
 Thankfully, we do not have to invent a formula for this. Excel has something exactly for this.
WORKDAY formula takes a start date & working days and tells you what the end date would be.

Like wise NETWORKDAYS formula tells us how many working days are there between any 2 given
dates.

Both these formulas accept a list of additional holidays to consider as well.

 NETWORKDAYS: calculate the number of working days between 2 dates (assuming

Saturday, Sunday weekend)
 NETWORKDAYS.INTL: Same as NETWORKDAYS, but lets you use custom weekends
[Excel 2010+ only]
 WORKDAY: Calculate the end date from a start date & number of working days
 WORKDAY.INTL: Same as WORKDAY, but lets you use custom weekends. [Excel 2010+
only]
More on working with Date & Time values in Excel.
9. SMALL & LARGE Formulas
Almost nobody asks about “Who was the second person to climb Mt. Everest, or walk on moon or
finish 100 mtrs race the fastest?”.
And yet, all businesses ask questions like “Who is our 2nd most valuable customer?, third vendor
from bottom on invoice delinquency? 4th famous coffee shop in Jamaica?”
So as analysts our job is to answer these questions with out wasting too much time. That is where
SMALL, LARGE formulas come in handy.

 SMALL: Used to find nth smallest value from a list. Use it like =SMALL(range of values,
n).
 LARGE: Used to find nth largest value from a list.
 MIN: Gives the minimum value of a list.
 MAX: Gives the maximum value of a list.
 RANK: Finds the rank of a value in a list. Use it like =RANK(value, in this list, order)
 10. IFERROR Formula
Errors, lousy canteen food & dysfunctional coffee machines are eternal truths of corporate life.
While you can always brown bag your lunch & bring a flask of finely brewed coffee to work, there
is no escaping when your VLOOKUP #N/As. Or is there?
Well, you can always use the lovely IFERROR formula to handle errors in your formulas.

Syntax:

IFERROR(formula, what to do in case of error)

Use it like:

IFERROR(VLOOKUP(….), “Value not found!”)

Click here to learn more about IFERROR Formula.

3 Bonus Formulas
If you can master the above 10 formulas, you will be ahead of 80% of all Excel analysts. Here are
3 more important formulas that can come handy when doing some serious data analysis work.

 OFFSET formula: to generate dynamic ranges from a starting point and use them
elsewhere (in charts, formulas etc.).
 SUMPRODUCT formula: Unleash the full power of Excel array processing by using
SUMPRODUCT.
 SUBTOTAL formula: Calculate totals, counts & averages etc. on a range with filters.

https://chandoo.org/
useful for keyboard shortcuts aswell

http://www.mbaexcel.com/excel/how-to-use-vlookup/

http://www.mbaexcel.com/excel/the-eight-most-impactful-excel-shortcuts-that-you-should-master/

keybardshrtuc
http://www.mbaexcel.com/excel/how-to-learn-excel/ - summary

https://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/the-most-useful-microsoft-excel-formulas-for-accountants

Given the nature of our business, perhaps it is no surprise that this software is
so popular. During the first stages of accountancy training, it is likely you used
Excel to initially keep track of figures. As a familiar product, it makes sense
that you would carry it over into your day-to-day work.

Although you might view yourself as an Excel expert, there is always room for
improvement. Potentially, you could save hours of time with just a few
formulas. Excel training experts Wise Owl shows two functions that can make
your working life easier: IF and VLOOKUP.

Conditional IF Formula

The =IF function in Excel allows you to test whether a condition is true or not,
and returns different results accordingly. The syntax of this handy little
function is as follows:

=IF ( condition to test, what to do if it’s true, what to do if it’s false )

For example, suppose you are an accountant trying to work the US income
tax for 2018 for a series of (unmarried) clients:

You want to find out the income tax that each client would pay. Let’s suppose
a simple world in which people pay no income tax up to $9,525, and income
tax at 12% thereafter (would that life were like that!). You could use this
formula to calculate people’s income tax liability:

=IF(B2>=9525,B2*12%,0)

For example, if the income in cell B2 is greater than or equal to $9,525,

charge income tax at 12 percent of a person’s income; otherwise, charge $0.
This would give you this result when you copied the formula down:
Nesting IF Functions

Suppose now that the income tax regime is a bit more complicated: incomes
above $9,525 attract tax at 12 percent, but properties above $38,700 attract
tax at a higher rate of 22 percent. You could cope with this by nesting one IF
function within another:

The formula in cell C2, which has been copied down to the other cells, is:

=IF(B2>=38700,22%,IF(B2>=9525,12%,0%)) * B2

What this says (in English) is as follows:

• If someone’s income is more than $38,700, take the income tax rate as 22
percent;

• Otherwise, if the house price is more than $9,525 (but less than $38,700,
since we’ve already eliminated this), take the income tax rate as 12%;
• Otherwise, take the income tax rate as 0 percent.

For a nested IF function like this, you have to take the values in order: either
start with the highest value and work your way down to the lowest, or work
from the lowest value to the highest. The more bands you introduce, the
harder it will be to understand and maintain your nested IF function — which is
why a VLOOKUP function is nearly always a better solution to problems like
the one above, as explained below.

VLOOKUP Formula

Suppose now that the income tax regime is more complicated and is charged
as follows (these approximate to the rates for single people for 2018, although
as with anything else to do with the U.S. tax regime, the reality is slightly more
complicated):

That is:

• Incomes up to $9,525 are exempt from income tax.

• Incomes between $9,525 and $38,700 are charged tax at 12 percent.

You could solve this with a multiple nested IF function, but it would be hard to
set up and difficult to change if the thresholds or tax rates altered. A better
solution is to use a VLOOKUP function to find the income tax payable for any
client. The syntax of this function is as follows:

=VLOOKUP( The value you’re looking up, the table you’re looking it up
against, the column number you’re returning)
Using this formula, you could calculate the income tax payable on each of
your possible purchases as follows:

The formula in cell C11 (shown selected), which has been copied down, is:

=VLOOKUP(B11,$A$2:$B$8,2)*B11

This looks up the income of the client ($45,000, as held in cell B11) against
the lookup table held in A2:B8, and returns the value of the second column in
this table (in this instance, 22 percent), which it then multiplies by the client’s
income.

There are a couple of important things to notice about this:

1. It’s vital that the income thresholds we’re looking up against are in the first
column of the lookup table and are in ascending order.
 2. You must make the reference to the lookup table absolute (that’s what the $
signs are for), to make sure that when you copy the formula down it always
refers to the fixed table A2:B8.

1. Format spreadsheets faster

When working on a spreadsheet, there are ways to add special formatting
to different cells, columns and rows with less effort.

After applying any formatting to the spreadsheet — such as making a cell

yellow or adding borders to a group of cells — you can use the format
painter function to copy that formatting to other cells. If you double-click on
the format painter icon, you can lock the function and single-click on any
parts of the spreadsheet that you want to format. When you’re done, hit
escape to unlock your cursor.

For circumstances when you need to format a large amount of data, Excel
offers time-saving shortcuts for many common formatting functions.
Experiment with these handy ones:

 Format numbers to include two decimal places: Ctrl+Shift+1

 Format as time: Ctrl+Shift+2

 Format as date: Ctrl+Shift+3

 Format as currency: Ctrl+Shift+4

 Format as percentage: Ctrl+Shift+5

 Format in scientific/exponential form: Ctrl+Shift+6

Read a CPA's 5 Excel Skills to Become a Fanatic Like Me.

2. Use Sparklines to display data

Sparklines are a built-in feature of Excel that allow you to display small
charts inside individual cells. These can be line charts, bar charts or simple
win/loss charts. To create a Sparkline chart, select the range of numbers
you’d like to include, click the “Insert” menu, then choose one of the chart
options. Select a location range, which must be located along a single row
or column in the same worksheet as your data range. Sparklines can help
you easily display trends in your data in a compact format.

3. Manipulate data with pivot tables

When you have a large, detailed data set, pivot tables allow you to easily
manipulate your data. These tables are interactive and can help you
analyze data, detect patterns and make comparisons. Creating a pivot
table is as easy as using the built-in PivotTable and PivotChart Wizard,
located in the “Data” drop-down menu. The wizard helps you choose the
data to include in your PivotChart and format that information in a
meaningful manner.

4. Move between formulas and results

To efficiently switch between the cell data and formula, use the Ctrl+tilde
(~) keystroke. This allows you to rapidly check formulas when working in a
large spreadsheet.

5. Hide zero values

Hiding zero values can be helpful within large data sets by allowing you to
see data more clearly. To hide zero values, you simply need to change the
options in your Excel setup. Navigate to this function by clicking the “File”
drop-down menu, and choose “Options.” Then choose “Advanced” from the
left-hand menu and uncheck the box for “Show a zero in cells that have
zero value.” (Mac users: Go to the “Excel” drop-down menu and choose
“Preferences,” then uncheck “Show zero values.”)

6. Use Excel templates


Templates are available for any version of Excel. If you want to create an
amortization table using a template, right-click on a blank worksheet and
gain access through the “Insert” command. Under the “Spreadsheet
Solutions” tab, you will find various templates, including an amortization
schedule, which can then be inserted into the spreadsheet. You can also
create your own templates by saving a worksheet as an Excel template.
7. Save time looking for worksheets
If you access the “File” menu or “Office Button” in Excel — depending on the version you are using — there’s a handy button called
“Recent.” Using this function, you can quickly generate a list of the workbooks you recently worked on.
In the “Advanced” section of the “Options” menu, you can expand your view and adjust the number of recent documents shown. You can
change the number to 50 for better access to recent folders and files.
These are just a few of the helpful Excel features that can decrease the time you spend on spreadsheets and increase the amount of work
you get done.
GET THE BENCHMARKING REPORT
https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/do-you-know-these-excel-tips-for-accounting-professionals

11 Excel secrets for accountants

11.17.2017 | CPA CANADA
Everyone in business will cross paths with a spreadsheet at some point. But how do you get the most out of the ubiquitous Excel program?
Read on to find out
It’s no secret that CPAs make good use of the almighty Excel spreadsheet program; it’s an invaluable tool that helps us process
complicated data sets and communicate large amounts of information to clients and colleagues. But working with data and multiple
sheets can also represent a significant time suck, with most of us only ever using 10 per cent of what Excel has to offer. Whether you stick
to basic functions, or are a macro-writing, pivot-table-creating, multi-referential workbook workhorse—these 11 tips might yet turn you
into an Excel superstar.
1. COPY FORMATTING USING THE FORMAT PAINTER FUNCTION (F4)
Save yourself the irritation of repeating a cumbersome three- or four-step format process via the dropdown menus with the Format
Painter button. It will copy the formatting of any cell you choose, and pressing it again while on the target cell will transfer the format.
Double click on the format painter button to change multiple cells at one time. It’s like magic.
2. EDIT WITHIN A CELL USING F2 (PC) OR CONTROL + U (MAC)
Double-clicking into a cell to make changes is frustrating. And often results in typing over the whole cell instead of making an edit. Try F2
or Control + U and save yourself the headache.
3. SELECT A ROW WITH SHIFT + SPACEBAR / SELECT A COLUMN WITH CTRL + SPACEBAR (PC & MAC)
Manipulating rows and columns through the dropdown menus is a big waste of your precious time. These two shortcuts will allow you to
quickly select the portion you need.
4. PASTE VALUES WITH CTRL + ALT + V (PC) OR CONTROL + OPTION + V (MAC)
Dealing with changing formats in an Excel spreadsheet template that you use frequently (or that others have access to) can make you feel
like you are on a hamster wheel of pasting, undo-ing, changing, and re-doing. No fun at all. Using the Paste Values function allows you to
just plug in the numbers you want, and leaves out any formulas, calculations, and formatting that might be attached to the original. To
find this function, use the Paste > Paste Special menu, or get there with Ctrl+Alt+V.
5. APPLY CURRENCY FORMAT WITH CTRL + $ (SHIFT + 4) (PC & MAC)
There are a bunch of formatting shortcuts you might find useful, but if you are dealing with money, Ctrl + $ is the way to go.
6. MOVE FROM TAB TO TAB WITH CTRL + TAB (PC) OR OPTION + TAB (MAC)
Multi-tabbed worksheets can be powerful archives of information. The more data you have, the more mindful you need to be of how to
quickly navigate through it. Ctrl + Tab is a quick way to cycle through all tabs in a workbook.
7. INSERT AN AUTOSUM FORMULA WITH ALT + = (PC) OR COMMAND + SHIFT + T (MAC)
A fairly basic function, the AutoSum formula can save you a good chunk of time. Go pro with the keyboard shortcut of Alt + = (PC) or
Command + Shift + T (Mac).
8. APPLY THE COUNTIF FORMULA (PC & MAC)
Dig into your data with the very useful =COUNTIF formula. This versatile formula can help you determine how often something is or isn’t
happening. Say you wanted to know how often your company’s daily sales total exceeds $5,000. If you have a list of days in column A and
the totals in column B, this would do the trick: =COUNTIF(B1:B31,">5000").
9. INSERT A LINE BREAK WITHIN A CELL WITH ALT + ENTER (PC) OR OPTION + ENTER (MAC)
Using data to communicate requires that you make your presentation of the data clear. This isn’t necessarily Excel’s strength. Using a
function like inserting a line break within a cell can give your data a bit of room to breathe, and help you make your case to clients or your
colleagues.
10. TOGGLE BETWEEN FORMULAS AND VALUES WITH CTRL + ~ (PC & MAC)
Formulas are a powerful part of the Excel arsenal, but it can be easy to lose track of where you are in a complex nested formula. Ctrl + ~
displays the formula in any selected cell so that you can suss out where you’ve gone wrong. Tap that combination again to go back to the
values view.
11. SAVE YOUR SANITY WITH CTRL + S (PC) OR COMMAND + S (MAC)
This is a very basic function, and one that most users will be familiar with, but it’s arguably the most important on this list. If you use Excel
at all, you know that its propensity for freezing is astounding, and that the chances of a crash increase depending on how busy you are,
how tight of a deadline you are under, and the amount of work you’ve done since your last save.

“excel sample data vlookup” – into google

Fiveminutelessons.com
 https://fiveminutelessons.com/
 https://spreadsheeto.com/
