5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

Login

KNOWLEDGE BASE  Excel  How to Color Code in Excel for Financial Models (PC/Windows Version) [Tutorial Video] (32:42)

How to Color Code in Excel for

Financial Models (PC/Windows
Version) [Tutorial Video] (32:42)
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to apply color coding and
formatting to nancial models and x problems with decimals,
currency signs, indentation, alignment, links vs. formulas vs.
constants, and more – and you’ll practice by xing the formatting
on the Summary spreadsheet.

Tutorial Summary Files & Resources

Premium Course

For Aspiring Investment Bankers Only:

This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
options, see our privacy policy.

I Understand Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 1/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

Claim Your FREE Discounted

Cash Flow (DCF) Video Tutorial
Series
Master Financial Modeling As It Is Performed In Real
Life, With Our Simple 3-Step Method

FREE INSTANT ACCESS

This sample lesson from our Excel/VBA course covers how to color code in Excel
and some of the key principles for formatting nancial models.
Table of Contents:
1:06: Formatting Principles
11:02: Demonstration of Walmart Model Fixes
19:59: Exercise – Summary Spreadsheet Fixes
30:34: Recap and Summary
We have some general guidelines for model formatting, but these are not like the
laws of physics (gravity, momentum, speed of light, etc.) – they’re “rules of thumb”
rather than “laws of nature.”

How to Color Code in Excel: Key PC and Mac

Shortcuts
This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
options, see our privacy policy.

I Understand
We use the following colors for different types of cells: Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 2/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

To nd and select these cells, you can use the following PC/Windows shortcuts:
F5: Jump to Cell
F5, Alt + S, O, X: Select Constants (Drop the X if you want to highlight text constants)
F5, Alt + S, F, X: Select Formulas (Drop the X to highlight textual formulas)
Ctrl + 1: Format Dialog Box
Ctrl + F: Find
For example, if you press F5, Alt + S, O, X, that will highlight all constants on the
spreadsheet. You can then press Ctrl + 1 to change their font color to blue, or you can
access the font color commands from the “Home” tab in the ribbon menu.
To nd direct links to other spreadsheets in the le, you can press Ctrl + F and search
for the “!” character, which always indicates links to other sheets.
To nd links to other les, search for “.xls” using Ctrl + F, and change the font color to
red for each instance.
In the Mac version of Excel, you can use these shortcuts instead:
F5 or Ctrl + G: Jump to Cell
F5 or Ctrl + G, Special, Constants: Select Constants (Drop the X if you want to
highlight text constants)
F5 or Ctrl + G, Special, Formulas: Select Formulas (Drop the X to highlight textual
formulas)
⌘ + 1: Format Dialog Box
⌘ + F: Find

How to Color Code in Excel: What Financial

Models Should Look Like
If you follow these standards for color coding, your nancial models should look like
the examples below.
Here’s the normal color-coding scheme:

This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
options, see our privacy policy.

I Understand Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 3/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

We use a yellow background and grey border for “input cells” that are assumptions or
drivers in the model, while we use a white background with no borders for historical
nancial data:

Here are a few other examples of cell colors based on their categories and contents:

Other Principles of Financial Model Formatting

In addition to the points above about color-coding, we follow these guidelines with
other types of formatting:
Centering: We use the “Accounting” format and variations of the “Percentage” format
for most numbers, so centering is not an issue there. For the input boxes, we prefer to
center percentages, dates, text, and normal numbers, but we do not apply it to
anything in the “Accounting” format.
Dollar or Other Currency Signs: Only display these in the top row and bottom row of
schedules. Sometimes it’s a bit ambiguous what a “schedule” is – often, we’ll display
these in the top and bottom rows of each major segment.
“Units”: We like to use an extra column to display the units, especially in schedules
that mix $ per Sq Ft and Sq Ft and other gures with actual $, to remove ambiguity.
This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
Indentation: We indent the individual rows within each category, and we use multiple
options, see our privacy policy.
indents for sub-categories. We also indent percentages used for informational
I Understand
purposes such as the margin formulas. Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 4/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

Signs: On the IS and CFS, we often use (+) and (-) when it is meaningful to do so – for
example, if everything in a row is going to be positive or negative, and it’s easy to
specify which is which.
Italics: We usually italicize percentages used for informational purposes – so, the
overall margins and revenue growth rates, but not the assumptions used to calculate
them in the rst place. Those are in the yellow input boxes!
Decimals: It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you’re consistent. Use 1 decimal,
0 decimals, or 2 decimal places for all the nancial gures in your model… exceptions
apply for the Share Price and EPS gures, which almost always use 2 decimal places
because of how share prices are displayed.
We also usually use at least 1 decimal place, sometimes up to 2-3, to display the
company’s share count. Usually 1 decimal place for valuation multiples and
percentages as well – even if the nancial gures in the model have 0 decimal
places, as is the case here.
Headers: We use a blue background color, white text, and the “FY” format for the top
header with the Historical and Projected years. We then use a grey background color
for the other headers in a schedule – sometimes display the years on top depending
on the spacing.
You can view examples of these standards in action below:

This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
options, see our privacy policy.

I Understand Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 5/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

How to Automate the Color-Coding Process in

Excel
It’s di cult to automate “all” this formatting, but you can automate much of the color-
coding process if you feel comfortable using VBA, which we cover in the nal module
of this course.
In short, you can use the .SpecialCells, Union, and Intersect commands to nd the
appropriate cells, loop through them, and change the colors appropriately.
You can get the full Excel le (.xlsm) or just the .xlam le for the VBA code itself
below:
Full Excel File with Color-Code Macro
Color-Code Macro VBA Code
Note: You must know Excel fairly well to use macros. If not, you could do serious
damage to your spreadsheets. If you have little experience in Excel, then you should
not mess around with this macro.

Premium Course Signup

Breaking Into Wall Street

Breaking
This Into
website Wall
and ourStreet is the
partners set only nancial
cookies modeling
on your computertraining platform
to improve that
our site anduses
the real-life modeling
ads you see. tests
To learn and
more interview
about casewestudies
what data collectto give
and you
your an
privacy
unfair advantage in investment banking and private equity interviews - and
options, see our aprivacy
leg uppolicy.
once you win your offer and start working.

I Understand Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 6/7
5/29/2020 How to Color Code in Excel - Shortcuts for Formulas, Constants & Inputs

Our Company
About Us
FAQ
Why Choose BIWS?

Quizzes and Certi cations

Reviews

Support
Contact

Privacy Policy
Terms and Conditions
DMCA Policy
Disclaimer

Courses
IB Networking Toolkit IB Interview Guide
Excel & VBA: 2020 Edition Financial Modeling Fundamentals

Advanced Financial Modeling Bonus Case Studies

Real Estate Financial Modeling and REIT Financial Modeling Bank & Financial Institution Modeling
Oil & Gas Modeling PowerPoint Pro 2.0

Courses

Free Tutorials

Help

© 2020 Breaking Into Wall Street

This website and our partners set cookies on your computer to improve our site and the ads you see. To learn more about what data we collect and your privacy
options, see our privacy policy.

I Understand Privacy - Terms

https://breakingintowallstreet.com/biws/kb/excel/how-to-color-code-in-excel/ 7/7