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This e-book will help your business become more productive in Excel;
combined with a free trial of Filtered, youll be able to see for yourself
what our training platform has to offer.
10 Excel Tips To Make
Your Business More
Productive
Before starting, satisfy yourself that a spreadsheet is the appropriate tool for the
job. In businesses of all sizes, we are sometimes overzealous with spreadsheets.
Sometimes they just arent the best tool for the job. So spend time working out what
the alternatives might be e.g. an Access database, or a tightly defined spec to send
to the IT team.
Include an About or Welcome sheet to document the spreadsheet. When a
spreadsheet starts to get complicated, an About sheet helps remind you and others
what its purpose and mechanics are. A good version of this might include a map of the
data flow from sheet to sheet (especially when there are more than, say, three
sheets).
Work collaboratively, share ownership, peer review. Get colleagues involved and ask
them what they do or do not like about it. Ensure their names are cited in the About
sheet. Most spreadsheets you create in the course of your career may be used for a
short while and only by you; by being more careful of what you and your team create
and ensuring others can use it, your impact will be far greater.
1. Getting started with
Excel: Three key principles
There are three main areas of the Excel screen. At the top is the Excel Ribbon
containing the main tools and commands. At the bottom is the Excel Status Bar which
includes the zoom tool and the view buttons. In the middle is the Excel spreadsheet
area itself with the spreadsheet grid and the Formula Bar immediately above it.
The purpose of the Ribbon is to group together all the tools for a particular topic.
Clicking on the tabs at the top of the screen displays the tools for that topic. Below we
have clicked on the 'Page Layout' tab. As you can see, the tools are arranged into
different groups.
2. Familiarise yourself
with the Excel Ribbon
Hovering over each tool on the Ribbon brings up informative tips to tell us what each
is designed to do with most tools displaying a pictorial menu when clicked.
Note that it is possible to hide the Ribbon so that the tabs remain visible, but all the
tools and commands only appear when you click a tab. It is also possible to customise
the Ribbon by choosing which Ribbon tabs are displayed and which groups to show in
those tabs.
Its worth spending some time getting familiar with the keyboard shortcuts for Excel
commands, particularly those that let you navigate round a spreadsheet. These are
even more helpful in offices where laptops with a touch-pad are taking over the
mouse brigades.
Heres a good core of five shortcuts to get going:
1) Arrow keys to move from cell to cell.
2) Ctrl + arrow keys, to move to the edge of the block of data youre in.
3) PageUp / PageDown to scroll whole pages at a time.
4) Home to move to the beginning of the row youre on.
5) Ctrl + PageUp / PageDown to move between Worksheets within a Workbook.
Its also worth remembering a small core of shortcuts for very common operations:
Ctrl c Copy the selected cells
Ctrl v Paste whatever has been copied to the Clipboard
Ctrl z Undo the last action
Ctrl s Save the Workbook
3. Brush up on your
shortcuts
4. Learn to format your
spreadsheet
Dont save good formatting ONLY for the results of your work. Instead, focus on your
spreadsheet as a whole. Deciding on a few rules for formatting will make your
analysis more comprehensible to your team.
For example, shade raw input data cells one
colour, calculations another, parameters a
third; use consistent formatting for headings,
units and annotations. You can do this
with Excels built-in themes, but its not
necessary and arguably less transferable
more important that you get the rules straight
in your head.
Understanding how Conditional Formatting works is key. Conditional Formatting
changes the format of a cell dependent on the content of that cell, or a range of cells,
in the workbook. It helps users to focus quickly on important aspects of a
spreadsheet, highlight errors and identify important patterns in data.
You can find the Conditional Formatting options in the Styles group of the HOME
ribbon tab. This dropdown includes two sets of basic rules (Highlight Cells Rules and
Top/Bottom Rules), three graphical forms of conditional formatting (Data Bars, Colour
Scales and Icon Sets) and, at the bottom, more detailed options (New Rule, Clear
Rules and Manage Rules).
5. Save time on
calculations
If your business regularly deals with massive databases, and asks Excel to perform
many calculations, then you can hard-paste formulae once theyre calculated. This
will significantly speed-up a workbook that is slow to calculate.
Make sure you keep one row of the formula so you can copy down to update the
calculation when you add to or change your source data. And ensure you shade that
row differently, and clearly label what you have done. It will help your colleagues
understand how the spreadsheet works, saving everyones time.
6. Use Macros to speed
repetitive tasks (part 1)
How much time does your business spend on repetitive tasks in Microsoft Excel? Do
you ever suspect that there must be a better way? If this sounds familiar, then it's
time to learn to use Macros.
An Excel Macro is, at its simplest, a set of several actions that can be combined into
one command. Macros can automate almost anything you can do in Excel.
Macros can be created by 'recording' the required actions which Excel will 'translate'
into Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code. Although you can write the code directly,
the great thing about Macros is that you don't have to be a developer or possess
programming knowledge to use them. Once created, Macros can be attached to
toolbar buttons, menus, form buttons or objects, and ultimately increase the quality
of your spreadsheets and your companys productivity.
Before you start Security settings
The Excel default security setting is to disable all Macros. This is because, as well as
being useful, Macros can be used maliciously and such code can be triggered
automatically when you open a workbook. If you want to check and change your
Macro security settings, go to FILE > Options > Trust Center and click the Trust Center
Settings button. This will take you to the Macro Settings section of the Trust Center
screen:
6. Use Macros to speed
repetitive tasks (part 2)
Now choose an appropriate option such as Disable all macros with notification. This
will not allow Macros to run automatically, however will ask you whether you wish to
allow the Macros in the workbook to run.
Recording and Viewing Macros
You can include a button on the Status Bar to show whether or not a Macro is in the
process of being recorded and, if not, to start recording one. Alternatively, you can
access the basic Macro options via the Macros group of the VIEW ribbon tab:
Saving a Workbook Containing a Macro
Excel also doesnt allow normal Excel workbooks to contain VBA projects which all
Macros are. Accordingly, when you try and save a workbook to which you have added
a Macro for the first time, you will see this notification:
To preserve your Macro, click No which takes you to the Save As screen. Now click on
the Save as type: drop down and select Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook. You will see
that the file extension is changed from xlsx to xlsm to indicate it contains a Macro.
7. PivotTables are your
best friends (part 1)
PivotTables take tables of data, usually with hundreds or thousands of rows, and help
you make sense of those tables of data by summarising them by any of the column
headings.
To create a Pivot Table (INSERT > Tables > Recommended PivotTables), make sure
your data has column headings or table headers and that there are no blank rows.
Click any cell in the range of cells or table. You will then work on the below:
For a PivotTable to work correctly, the data, whether it is an Excel table or from an
external source, needs to be set up in a particular way. Each column must contain the
same type of data and the data must be as 'raw' and unprocessed as possible for
instance, one column holding a date rather than separate columns for the monthly
totals.
7. PivotTables are your
best friends (part 2)
An example of the sort of task a PivotTable can help with would be taking a large table of
a business invoices and working out which products are selling best or which salespeople
are making the most sales, or which customers have the fastest growing sales figures.
Advantages to using PivotTables
Simplicity PivotTables use a graphical approach to create summaries. You just drag
a column heading to the area of a PivotTable where you want to see it, rather than
having to construct complicated summary formulae. Its that easy to display data
graphically, that a PivotChart can be created from a PivotTable with a single click.
Multiple dimensions You can summarise data utilizing both row and column
headings, including using multiple fields in each area. You can also use a series of
criteria fields that filter all the data in the table. Excel 2010 introduced Slicers:
interactive criteria controls that are linked to each other and can be linked to multiple
PivotTables.
Speed PivotTables are quick to produce, it only takes a few clicks of the mouse.
Interactive analysis Once youve arranged your data in the PivotTable, if you think
of other useful information the data could provide, you can rearrange the data simply
by dragging fields to different areas.
Automation Although even the very simplest PivotTable can be very useful in its
own right, PivotTables can also be used as the data engine behind a set of
management reports or an interactive business intelligence dashboard. In particular,
when linked directly to external data, PivotTables can be automatically refreshed to
include new and amended data.
8. Must know Formulas
to be productive (part 1)
1. COUNT
Formula: =COUNT(A1:A10)
The count formula counts the
number of cells in a range that have
numbers in them. The formula is
extremely useful, however it only
works with numbers.
2. IF Statements
Formula: =IF(logical_statement, return this if logical statement is true, return this if
logical statement is false)
When youre analysing data in Excel there are a lot of scenarios you might want to
discover, and the data should react differently based on different situations. In the
example below, the formula tells us whether our salesmen have met their targets or not.
There are over 300 built in functions in Excel. Of course youre not going to site there and
memorize them all, so we have picked a few that will increase your efficiency in Excel.
8. Must know Formulas
to be productive (part 2)
3. VLOOKUP
Formula: =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup)
When using a VLOOKUP, you define a value (the lookup_value) and the formula looks
for it in the leftmost column of a table (the table_array). Why is it useful? A VLOOKUP
allows you to find a specific value within a large range of data and, once the value has
been found, pick some additional information associated with such value and display
it somewhere else.
4. SUMIF, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF
Formulas: =SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range), =COUNTIF(range, criteria),
=AVERAGEIF(range, criteria, average_range)
SUM, COUNT and AVERAGE are relatively basic formulas, but if you want to use them
with any criteria that is of particular interest to your business, then familiarize yourself
with SUMIF, COUNTIF and AVERAGEIF.
5. CONCATENATE
As the word suggests (to link together), this function joins up to 255 text strings into
one text string. The joined items can be text, numbers, cell references, or a combination
of those items. For example, if your worksheet contains a person's first name in cell A1
and the person's last name in cell B1, you can
combine the two values in another cell by
using: =CONCATENATE(A1," ",B1). Its
particularly useful to clean large databases
quickly by avoiding repetitive manual work.
9. Create powerful
presentations in Excel
There are three simple steps in Microsoft Excel which, if followed regularly, can hugely
impact your presentation style.
1. BE CONSISTENT
Make spreadsheets more understandable by applying a simple set of rules
consistently to formatting. For example:
Use just one font.
Headings for groupings of data / formulae should be bold.
Comment on your analysis in italics.
Shade cells with a colour key e.g. raw data shaded grey, results yellow.
2. BE SMART
Use the order of Worksheets, and the layout of data and calculations on each
Worksheet, to suggest a natural and logical flow through the spreadsheet (left to
right, top to bottom). For instance, you can achieve a Worksheets flow from inputs
(assumptions and raw data) through calculation to the results.
3. BE RELEVANT
Make important data and results stand out:
Soften the non-data elements of graphs and tables. For example, make axes and
gridlines the same colour but paler than the data points.
Set the Print Area so that the important areas (and only the important areas) of
a spreadsheet are printed. Make sure page boundaries are set sensibly so each
page of printing makes sense in itself.
10. How to eliminate
errors in Excel
Ultimately, try to eliminate errors in Excel. A way of achieving this is to build in
formula-driven checks, so that your spreadsheet automatically reports when figures
dont tally with known totals.
When working on spreadsheets its possible that added rows, edited formulas,
different users and so on have undesirable effects on whats going on. In this example
we have a set of sales figures followed by a sum/total. At first glance to most users
this will look fine. But in fact the sum is wrong.
The check =E9=SUM(E4:E8) returns the
value TRUE if the total sales figure at the bottom
is the same as the sum of the constituent five
sales items, and FALSE otherwise. (Theres also
some conditional formatting so that the cell E11
is red if and only it contains the value FALSE, so
the user is adequately alerted to the
discrepancy.)
Auditing someone elses work
In a complicated spreadsheet, find its beginning and its end. That is, use Excels Trace
Precedents/Dependents functionality to find which cells are inputs (that is not
calculated from other cells), and which cells affect no others (its ultimate results).
Then work through methodically for one thread of cells from beginning to end.
Add your own colour scheme to keep track of inputs/calculations/outputs etc.
Define important cells as Named Ranges to give them meaningful names.
Finally, dont be surprised if you discover a few mistakes they are quite common!
How does our online training work?
FILTER LEARN MASTER
Simple questions filter
out anything your staff
don't need or already
know.
Your team focuses entirely
on whats most relevant to
your company, learning from
a blend of text, videos and
exercises written by subject
experts.
Testing throughout the
course ensures proficiency
is achieved quickly and
efficiently, helping you
boost productivity sooner.
For Managers
The company dashboard monitors all
employees progress throughout the
course, showing you their target IQ
levels and modules completed.
You can customize the course based
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For Staff
Trainees have 24/7 access to learning
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Side toolbar to navigate easily through the
course and focus on whats relevant.
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