The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Course Notes

The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Advanced Excel in 10 days

Introduction & Formatting

 Why Excel and Why Modeling?

Excel and financial modeling go hand in hand.

Why Excel and Why Modeling?
 Why Excel and Why Modeling?

A financial model’s main goal is to reduce complexity and uncertainty. It can be very detailed or
rather short, but should always aim to be easy to understand and work with.
 Why Excel and Why Modeling?

It is a tool that has gained substantial popularity in the modern corporate world.
 Professional Formatting

Name of the spreadsheet - Arial 12, Bold; Dark blue

Highlighted text – White font color, Bold, Dark blue fill;
This formatting refers to the forecast period 2017 - 2021

Header - Bold, Italics, Header - Bold,

Dark blue bottom line; Dark blue letters, Dark
Displays the currency blue bottom border
and the unit of line;
measurement Represents the
forecast period

Subtotal - Bold,
Thin black top border
line;
Total – Bold, Thin top border line, thicker bottom border line; Shows total values Displays the subtotal
values in the table

Note: Remember – words are aligned to the left and numbers are aligned to the right
Professional Formatting
 Cell Styles

After you select a cell, in the Cell

Styles section you can create a
New Cell Style.
 Cell Styles

A small dialog box opens up. The characteristics of this

formatting are shown here. You can see the default formatting
of numbers, cell alignment, font, and so on. You can choose
which ones should be applied by ticking or unticking some of
these boxes.

By clicking on Format, all aspects of a cell’s formatting can be

readjusted.

Now, all you have to do is name this style. We recommend you

use names that are intuitive.

Once you have decided on a name, click OK.

 Cell Styles

The next time when you open Cell

Styles, you can see a new section
called Custom. And within Custom,
you will see the new cell style you
created.

You only need to create new cell styles

once. And once you do that, you can
use them in all new spreadsheets.
 Format Painter

Format Painter copies the formatting of a

selected cell or a group of cells, and Excel
is ready to apply it to other cells in the
spreadsheet.
 Paste Special

An alternative way to do that is to

copy the cells whose format you
would like to carry over, select the
range that must be formatted, and
use Paste special.

You must either expand the Paste

icon or use a keyboard shortcut.
 Format Cells

Right click on a cell and press

Format cells. Adjust the
settings in the dialog box.

When the values you are

working with are large, you can
remove the figures behind the
decimal separator (Decimal
places: 0). Since we are talking
about money, the thousands
separator is indispensable.

Make a snappy check of the

sample value. It shows how
the numbers will look like after
you press OK.
 Format Cells

As you probably know, Excel doesn’t work

only with numbers. Its cells can contain
information about text, date, time, currencies,
percentages, values, fractions, and other
types of data.
 Format Cells

These shortcuts can save you time when you need to change the cell formats quickly. Each combination
starts by holding the Control and Shift keys. And then the third key is a number from 1 to 6. Remember them
as Ctrl, Shift plus one of the numbers from 1 to 6.
 Custom Numbers

Rules:

1) # - a digit

2) Symbols in “ “

Exceptions:

~ ! $ % ^ & .
 Conditional Formatting

Conditional Formatting highlights cells from a given table

according to a rule that reflects the information shown in these
cells. Conditional formatting can serve as a quick rule of
thumb that helps you visualize and read data.

We can find it in the Home Tab. Note the different

visualization tools it offers– data bars, color scales, icon sets.
All of these can be applied to improve data readability.

For example, in Icon Sets, we can create the so-called traffic

lights formatting. we advise you to stick to a slightly more
professional approach: open the More Rules dialog box and
specify the rules and the threshold values yourself.
 Conditional Formatting

If a number is above a certain threshold, it will be

colored in green. If it is lower than the threshold, but
still higher than a lower bound threshold, it will be
colored in yellow. And then if it is lower than both
thresholds, it will be colored in red. If you specify no
criterion to be used to format the data, Excel will do
that for you automatically.

The approach we propose is to use numbers, which

makes things much easier. Just type in the numbers
as decimals and everything will be perfect.
 Conditional Formatting

Now the formatting is much more meaningful – you

see the positive values in amber and those above ten
percent in green. Everything below zero is red. This
means you consider a change larger than ten percent
good, between zero and 10 percent just ok, and
anything below zero as negative.
 Conditional Formatting

Finally, if you want to get rid of a rule, it will

suffice to expand the already well-known
conditional formatting menu and then clear the
rule. The quickest way to do that would be to
clear the entire sheet.
 Filter by Color

To filter by color, you will have to create a filter.

Then once we’ve done this, you can select the type
of filter that will be applied to the rows of the table. If
you only want to filter rows colored in yellow, in the
middle of the drop-down list that opens, you can
select Filter by Color. Press the yellow rectangle
and only the highlighted cells of the table will be
displayed.

Alternatively, you could filter by No Fill, which would

mean you would see all the cells in the table that
have no color applied to them.
 Excel Macros

An Excel Macro is a set of instructions that can

be triggered by a shortcut, toolbar or an icon in
a spreadsheet.

Click Record Macro. Give it a name. Press

“OK”.

From this moment on, every action you do is

recorded.

A piece of advice: use macros which work on a

single sheet.

Do not record macros that involve operations on

multiple sheets as this carries risks for errors.
 Excel Macros

It can be any type of action – typing formulas, text, formatting

a sheet… anything.
Once you record it, you’ll be able to replicate the same
sequence of actions on a new sheet.

Once you have done that, you can click on the Stop
Recording button.
Every time you create a new sheet you’ll be able to format it
easily with the macro you’ve recorded. Go to the Macros
button and select the macro that you saved. Press the Run
button.
Excel is doing the operations you carried out while recording.

You can use macros for any kind of repetitious operations in

order to save time and be more efficient.
The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Course Notes
The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Advanced Excel in 10 days

Navigation
 Navigate Quickly

The Excel shortcut for fast scrolling is Control plus one of the Arrow
keys.

For example, by holding the control key and pressing “Down Arrow”
you can go downwards to the last non-blank cell.

If we want to select the cells, we have to hold Shift as well, in a

manner that we will be pressing Ctrl, Shift and an arrow key at the
same time.
 Navigate Quickly

If you would like to copy an item, you could use Ctrl + C.

You can paste it with Ctrl + V.

The shortcut for cutting an item is Ctrl + X. After you have cut an
item, you can use Ctrl + V and paste it into its new position.
 Navigate Quickly

You can easily find many

keyboard shortcuts by using the
Alt key. By pressing Alt without
holding you can activate the tabs
for the ribbon. Then you can click
the letter corresponding to the tab
that you want to open.

This approach allows you to

access any command in Excel.

For example, Alt + A + T adds or

removes a filter.
 Navigate Quickly

The Quick Access Toolbar

buttons are an alternative to
long shortcuts.

Click on the File tab and select

Options. Next, select Quick
Access Toolbar, where you
can find all of the commands
within Excel.

Once you have found the

command of interest, it will be
added to the Quick Access
Toolbar by clicking on the Add
button.
 Navigate Quickly

If you would like to remove a

command from the Quick
Access Toolbar, use the
Remove button instead.
 Navigate Quickly

You do not have to perform these operations every time you start a new presentation as each modification of
the Quick Access Toolbar will already be available.

For example, if you have added the Add or Remove Filters button to the Quick Access Toolbar, you can
select the data on the sheet, and click on the button with your mouse to add a filter.
 Navigate Quickly

By pressing Alt and one of the numbers that you see in the upper left part of the screen, you will trigger the
respective command.

Given that the first button in your Quick Access Toolbar is the Add or Remove Filters command, you can press
Alt + 1 and this would remove the filter that was added.
 Freeze Panes

Freeze Panes allows you to see the title of the table even if you are scrolling down.

In order to freeze the third row of a table, select the row below – the fourth row – go to the menu bar and
select View, Freeze Panes and once there, pick the first option Freeze Panes.
 Freeze Panes

In case you want to remove the freezing of the third row, go to the menu
bar, select View, go to Freeze Panes and click on Unfreeze Panes.
 Split Screens

At some point, you may need to work with cells

that are distant from each other. Split Screen is
the right tool to help you see both parts of the
spreadsheet simultaneously.

To split the screen horizontally, you must select

a cell from the first column A of the table, and
then in the View tab of the Ribbon, press the
Split button.
 Split Screens

A thin grey line appears across the top border

of the selected cell and the rest of the screen.
The two sides you see here are called panes.
You can work in the upper pane anyway you
like. The same is valid for the lower pane. It is
as though you have opened the same sheet
twice, but you have opened it just once.

You can move the separating line by pressing

and dragging to the place where you want it to
be. To remove it, you can either release the
Split button under the View tab or merely
double-click with the mouse over the gray line.
 Split Screens

Usually, you will need to split the screen vertically. To do that, select a cell
from the first row of the sheet, and repeat the same operation – press the
Split button.

To move from pane to pane, just click on a cell and Excel will automatically
direct its attention to the relevant pane.
 Split Screens

You can even split the screen into four panes, both horizontally
and vertically at the same time.
Here, you shouldn’t select a cell from column A or row number
one. Instead, you need to select a cell that lies in the mid part of
the sheet. This is the only difference.
 Named Ranges

In the table on the left we have a two-year If I go to C8 and type Sum and within brackets
breakdown of sales. You can select the cells write “Sales12,” I’ll obtain the sum of the range
from C4 to C7, and in the box on the upper left which was named earlier.
part of our screen you can type “Sales 12”.
Perfect – you named the range.

What if you use the name range in a formula without a function in front of it? The formula will produce an
error. Named ranges should be used only within formulas and can facilitate your work when entering the
arguments of a new formula.
 Drop-Down Lists

Go to “Data” and click on the “Data Validation” box. In the first

window which opens we can select as validation criteria “List”.

Indicate which are the values in your list. You can either select
them individually, as done here…
 Drop-Down Lists

… or as a range. There isn’t any difference.

 Drop-Down Lists

Finally, press “OK”.

 Drop-Down Lists

Once you have done that, your drop-

down menu is ready and you can
select the correct entries for each of
the rows.

If you try to type within these cells, you will receive an error
message. Error messages can be switched off by going to the
data validation menu, selecting the third window “Error Alert”
and unclicking the first box. Once this is done, even if you type
over the cells of the range something different you will not
receive an error message.
 F Keys

Help Spell check

Edit cell Anchors the start of a range

Paste a range name into

Calculates part of a formula
a formula while typing it

Repeats last action once/ Same as Alt – activates the menu

Anchor cells in a formula bar (even if currently hidden)

Go to Creates a chart

Switch to next pane “Save As”

 Select Visible Cells

The right way to copy and paste visible

cells is by using the Visible cells only
functionality. There are a couple of ways to
do this.

First, you have to select the area to be

copied.
Then you can open the Find and Select
functionality, which can be found either on
the Home tab or through a shortcut. Select
Go To Special. From the box that opens,
pick Visible cells only, and if you press
“OK”, you will have selected only the
visible cells in the range.
 Select Visible Cells

The second way to carry out this operation is very

different. Instead of using the Find and Select button, it
will be easier and faster to apply a shortcut, which is Alt
plus semicolon. And then the steps that must be carried
out are exactly like the ones that we saw earlier.

The thin grey line you see here is Excel’s

indication that you have selected visible cells
only.
The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Course Notes
 The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Advanced Excel in 10 days

Mechanics and Functions

 Fixing Cell References

Case 1:
Because the references are not fixed, Excel automatically adjusts
the column letter and the row numbers, and you won’t need to do it
cell by cell. The conclusion is that, if you are pasting a formula
along the vertical or the horizontal axis, the program will
automatically change the column and row references accordingly.
Therefore, we can say the references are moving – they are not
static.
 Fixing Cell References

≡
 Fixing Cell References

Case 2:

This time, I would like to calculate the prices in Euro. In cell D9 we have the USD/Euro conversion rate. I
basically need to multiply these three cells by zero point nine. It is easy to calculate the price for Product A.

The way to paste the same formula below is to put a dollar sign in front of the reference you would like to keep
still. Here – both the column and the row value of the conversion rate must be fixed.

The much quicker way to do that is to press F4 while typing the formula.
 Fixing Cell References

Here are the results:

 Fixing Cell References

Case 3:

Suppose the products were sold at various discount rates.

By putting a dollar sign in front of the column letter “D”, we’ll make sure that when we copy the formula to the
right, this argument will remain fixed and we’ll be able to multiply the price by one minus the discount rate for
the respective month correctly.
 Fixing Cell References

2x
Row references can be fixed as well. If I fix the row reference 11 after “C,” when I copy the formula
downwards, the cell row will remain static.

The quicker way is to use F4 again, but this time, it should be pressed not once, but twice.
 Group Columns & Rows

The professional way to hide rows and columns is by using Excel’s Group functionality.
 Group Columns & Rows

Whenever we do, a symbol will appear on the top of the sheet if we are hiding a column, and on its left side if
we are hiding a row.
 Group Columns & Rows

The dots above each column show the column is part of a group. The thing is that we are not certain which
group they are part of, as there can be multiple groupings. The thick line above helps us figure this out. It
continues to the right, where you get to the minus sign, which would allow you to hide the group when you
press it.
 Group Columns & Rows

These little numbers on the left represent the different rows in the hierarchy of the grouping. The higher the
number, the more columns that will be visible! See how, when I press each one, the number of columns
displayed changes. Remember this field with the group's hierarchy will always be here to help you!
 Group Columns & Rows

To ungroup a group, you must again select the two adjacent columns or cells that have already formed a
group and then press the Ungroup button located just below the Group button in the Data tab.
 Group Columns & Rows

Group:

Ungroup:

Remember that grouping works only for adjacent rows and columns and never on multiple ranges. Besides, a
single column or a single row can still form a group!

When you get accustomed to this functionality, you want to learn a shortcut and apply it faster. The shortcut
for adding a group is Alt, Shift, and Right arrow. If you would like to remove a group, you can do that by
pressing Alt, Shift, and Left Arrow.
 Group Sheets

Whenever you have to carry out the same operation on multiple sheets, you can use the grouping
functionality.

There are two ways to group sheets in Excel. The first one involves holding the Ctrl key and then selecting the
other sheets, one by one. The second way is to hold the Shift key and press the last worksheet to be
grouped.
 Group Sheets

You should always remember that you are working in Group mode, and every time a cell in one of these
sheets changes, the other sheets will change as well. Therefore, try to be alert when grouping sheets.

You can exit group mode easily – click on one of the sheets outside your group without using Control or Shift,
and you can edit sheets as usual – one by one.
 Find and Replace - Formulas

Often, you want to replace a word, name, or reference with another one. Find and Replace is Excel’s go-to
tool, allowing us to find and replace text. It can find and replace text in cells and formulas.

The Find & Replace is in the Home tab, under Find & Select. A much quicker way to open Find & Replace is
to use the Ctrl and H shortcut.
 Find and Replace - Formulas

And here we have a second tab, which is called

Replace.

For instance, here, you can look for “1.1 full

year 2014”. You see Excel found many cells
with this reference. You want to replace this
sheet name with “1.2 full year 2015”, which is
the name of the second sheet in this workbook.

Press the Replace All button. Done!

Find & Replace is a very, very useful tool. However, you have to be very careful too! Make sure
you are not changing cells that are outside the area you would like to change. That’s an important
check to make that will prevent costly mistakes.
 Find and Replace - Formatting

Excel allows you to find and replace the formatting

of cells and not only their content. And this can be
invaluable!

Press the Format button and then precisely select

the format you are looking for.

You can combine a few formatting characteristics.

For example, you can look for a date format, which is
written in bold.

Finally, click on Replace All.

 Find and Replace - Formatting

Sometimes, you can format cells

differently.

You can click here and select Choose

Format from Cell, which allows you to
select the cell whose format you would
like to assign as a find format.
Then you can select the desired cell
format and press Replace All.
By doing this, you are using multiple
criteria.

Finally, click on Replace All.

 Set Print Area

How to set a print area:

1) Select the area that should be printed.

2) Go to the menu bar and select Page

Layout where you have the Print Area
menu. Click on it and select Set Print
Area.

Excel will put a border to the print area

of your sheet. If you print it, only the
selected area will be printed.
 Set Print Area

Excel will put a border to the print area of your sheet. If you print it, only the selected area will be printed.
 Circular References

A circular reference occurs when a formula points directly or

indirectly to itself. When the output cell is included in the input we’ve
entered into a formula, you will run into a loop that will be performed
recurrently – an iteration.

When you work in Excel, there will be situations when you will run
into circular references unintentionally.

- Excel indicates a circular reference through the blue line you can
see here;
- Excel will display an error message
- In the bottom left corner, Excel will always tell you which cell
contains a circular reference
 Circular References

In the table we have here, you can see the forecast values for Capex. Now, try to imagine if the main input for
the calculation of D&A was not Beginning PP&E, but Ending PP&E. Then, the D&A should equal the product
of the Ending PP&E and the D&A rate.

However, that’s a circular reference - the D&A value is one of the three addenda that sum up to Ending
PP&E.

To calculate it, allow iterative processes in this document.

 Circular References

Open the File tab, and then

click Options. In the
Formulas section, you need
to tick Enable iterative
calculation. Press “OK”.
Done!
 Trace Precedents

You can open the Formulas tab and press the Trace Precedents button to
check the input cell references of a given cell.
By clicking on Trace Dependents, you can verify which cells use the given
cell as an input.

The blue lines indicate input cells that serve for

the calculation of the given formula.
It is important to know this functionality can be
used multiple times, as long as there are more
and more precedents involved in any previous
calculation.
We can trace precedents and dependents at the
same time too. To remove the respective arrows,
click on Remove Arrows and all the lines across
the sheet will disappear.
 Trace Precedents

Another functionality from the Formula Auditing group that must be mentioned is Show Formulas. Instead of
their results, the formulas will appear in the cells of the spreadsheet. After you unclick the button, the sheet
will revert to its initial appearance.
The shortcut for this command Ctrl and back quote (or Ctrl and Grave). This functionality will help you when
you are at a later stage of creating a worksheet, and you want to verify if your formulas are correct quickly.
 Nested Functions

In general, we can say that functions allow

the interaction between the information in
different cells in a spreadsheet.

When you use functions inside of other

functions, it is more appropriate to say that
you’ve written a nested function.

For instance, here Average() and Sum()

are nested functions.
 Sum; Sumif; Sumifs

C4:C12

E4:E12
C18

SUM() allows Excel users to add the numbers within a given cell range.

In this example with football teams, let's say that you would like to sum the number of games played by Italian
teams. You have to type SUMIF(): =SUMIF(C4:C12; C18; E4:E12)
 Sum; Sumif; Sumifs

SUMIFS() function is a lot like SUMIF() although it is able to work with more than one condition.

Let's say that you would like to find out how many points English teams which participated in the Champions
league earned.
 Sum; Sumif; Sumifs

C4:C12 D4:D12 F4:F12

C16 D16

Therefore, your first condition is England, and the second one is Yes under “Champions League. Please note
that unlike SUMIF(), SUMIFS() starts with the sum range:

=SUMIFS(F14:F12; C4:C12; C16; D4:D12; D16)

 Round Functions

To round the output of a function, you need ROUND(). You only have to indicate the number you would like to
change and the number of digits around the decimal point you would like to consider.
 Round Functions

ROUNDUP(), for example, will always round numbers upwards. it pushes negative values down, towards
minus infinity, away from zero. Don’t fall in the trap of thinking negative values will move towards 0.

ROUNDDOWN() uses the opposite logic of ROUNDUP() – values will be rounded downwards towards zero.
 Round Functions

Finally, sometimes, you will see the MROUND() function. Its output is a number rounded to a specified
multiple. Here we have chosen a multiple of three ( MROUND(#,3) ).

Why do we see an error at the end? That’s because Excel displays a number error whenever the multiple and
the number reference are with different signs.
 Iferror

In Column H has been calculated the percentage of

points each team has earned out of the total of points.

There is one slight problem, though. If we suppose that

the number of points Hamburger earned is not
available, the formula calculating Hamburger's
percentage out of the total points will display an error
message.
 Iferror

IFERROR() has two parts: first, you need to indicate

which formula is being tested for an error, and second,
you need to select a value that it should have in case
there is an error:
“n.a.”

=IFERROR(F7/$F$13; “n.a.”)

F13
The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Course Notes
The Power Modeling Bootcamp: Advanced Excel in 10 days

Tips and Tricks

 Ctrl + Brackets

It takes concentration to locate the right cells included in the formulas within a spreadsheet.

By holding the Ctrl key and pressing the brackets, you could explore the interactions between cells and the
formulas in Excel sheets.
 Ctrl + Enter

This shortcut is going to speed-up the process of copying cells

Select all the cells in which you will use the formula, and type it as if you were writing the formula only for the
first of the five cells. Here is the trick: Instead of pressing Enter, hold the Ctrl key first, and then, press Enter.
Consider that Excel transposes the reference cells to the right correctly; it does this automatically for you.
Remember the logic – for more than one cell – hold the ctrl key before pressing Enter!
 Ctrl + A

Every time you press A while holding the Ctrl button, a bigger area is selected. If the selected cell is within a
table, the Ctrl and A command will select the whole table, but not the entire sheet. You need to press A a
second time to select the whole table.
 Ctrl + F1

Often, you won’t be able to fit everything you have in one

sheet on the screen. But if you press Ctrl and F1, the
ribbon will disappear. And this opens some space.

Well, if you hold both the Ctrl and the Shift keys and then
press F1, you can hide the menu bar, too! And this will free
up even more space!

To get back to the previous situation, repeat the combinations: Ctrl plus Shift plus F1 for the menu bar, and
Ctrl and F1 for the ribbon.
 Drag with Shift

Imagine you wanted to switch the two tables you see here - Debt Facilities and Financial Sponsors.

Select the Financial Sponsors table, hold the Shift key. Then “grab” the table and drag it to the place you
would like it to be in. The thick green line that appears indicates where the table would be positioned. Once
you’ve found the right place, release the left mouse button. In addition, all the calculations in the sheet will
remain intact!
 Hide Repeating Column Titles

If you think some names in the

first column are redundant, here’s
what you can do.

The trick is to apply a specific

conditional formatting.

Create a new rule, but this time,

focus on using a formula that
determines which cells to format.
The formula should start with
“equals B3”, which is the first cell
in the range. Next, type “equals
B2”. That is, formatting to be
applied only if the information in a
given cell coincides with the
The letters could be made appear white, so they will not be information in the cell above.
visible on the printed white paper!
Hide Repeating Column Titles

Make a quick check in the

print menu.

To undo the whole trick,

simply clear the rule.
 Formula Bar

At times, formulas can get really long, and after a while, a part of them can be hidden, as in this case. The
formula bar can be expanded by clicking on this tiny arrow on the right.
 Formula Bar

You could drag its lower border down if you would like to extend it even more. To get it back to its previous
dimensions, either drag it back… or close it by pressing the tiny arrow again.
 Select Special

Select Special allows users to select a range of cells simultaneously based on a specific criterion.
 Select Special

You select a range of cells, click F5 and select the “Special” button.
 Select Special

Choose the criterion according to which you would like to select some of the cells within the range. For
example, select the blank cells in our table. Click on blanks, and all blank cells in the table will be selected.
You can do the same thing for cells containing formulas, constants, comments, etc.
Double-Click and Go Back (F5)

First, you must make an

adjustment to the default
options in Excel. After you open
the Options window, select the
Advanced tab and make sure
the “Allow editing directly in
cells” box is unticked.
By doing this, you are telling
Excel you don’t want to edit
cells when you double-click on
them. Instead, it will do
something much more useful –
take you to the source cell, even
if it is in a different sheet.
Double-Click and Go Back (F5)

The roundtrip is completed by using

the double click of the mouse and
the Go To command, that is,
pressing the F5 key.

Press the F5
button. The Go To
window opens, and
you can just press
Enter to go back to
the previous sheet.
The last cell you
used is always
placed on top of
this list.
 Custom Formatting

Very often in your models you will

need to represent numbers with a
specific formatting.

The proper way to do this is to assign a custom

formatting to the cell while it is a number. You need
to right-click on the cell and select “Format Cells”,
once you are there you have to pick “Custom”
which is on the bottom of the page. Here, you can
type any type of format.

If you need a format for a multiple, you’ll have zero

point zero X, which results in the required multiple
format.

For example, if you multiply the formatted cell by 2,

you’ll obtain 10.
 Error Checking

Sometimes, little triangles, or flags,

that are supposed to be green by
default will appear in the top part of
some cells where you’ve written a
formula.

These triangles say there is an error in

this calculation. By default, Excel is
programmed to conduct a background
error check to find potential errors.

But given that you’ve verified there is

no mistake here, these flags are
useless.

it is considered unprofessional to leave

these triangles on the worksheet
 Error Checking

From the File tab menu,

select Options, and in the
Formulas section, you have
to untick the Enable
background error checking
functionality. Confirm by
pressing “OK” … and enjoy a
cleaner version of your
sheets.
Error Checking
 Data Tables

Wouldn't it be nice if we were able to see how the amount which has to be repaid varies if one or two of the
inputs were different? For example, what if the interest rate was 11 or 12 percent? Or how much would the
company have to pay if it had borrowed the money for four years?

Excel allows us to do that through the use of data tables. Type a few possible values for the interest rate on
one row (e.g. 10, 11, 12 and 13%). Type some values about the number of periods for which the company
takes the money. Let’s say 2, 3, 4 and 5. OK.
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We left the intersection of the two sets of numbers empty as there you will put a reference to the formula
calculating the amount to be repaid; it is in C8. I just need to type “Equal” and then select the cell C8.

Next, select the cells in the following way and go to the menu bar.
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Select the Data tab, choose the What if Analysis button and pick Data Tables.
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The two parameters in the dialogue box are "Row Input" and "Column Input." They are the parameters which
we typed within our selection.

So, for the row input we shall choose C4 – the interest rate. Note that this parameter is included in the
calculation of the amount to be repaid. For the column input we shall choose C6 – the time parameter. It is
another cell that is considered within the amount-to-be-repaid calculation.
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The result which we obtain is a nice table with many values. These values show how changing the two
parameters of our formula will affect the result.
The table contains many values. Each of these values shows the amount that needs to be repaid for a given
combination of interest rate and borrowing period.

Data tables are quite useful when dealing with uncertainty. They are a preferred tool for many high-level
decision-makers.