Featured article
10 must-read tips for designing and formatting your spreadsheets
- Listing
- 03 Feb 2023
- Excel Community
Welcome to the Excel Community! To help you get the most out of the community content, we've rounded up 10 top articles, drawing on content from years gone by, to help you master the design and format of your spreadsheets.
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Read the latest support and guidance from the Excel Community, including our very popular Tip of the Week series.
10 must-read tips for designing and formatting your spreadsheets
- Listing
- 03 Feb 2023
- Excel Community
Welcome to the Excel Community! To help you get the most out of the community content, we've rounded up 10 top articles, drawing on content from years gone by, to help you master the design and format of your spreadsheets.
Add-ins or bad-ins? The dangers of Excel XLL files.
- Article
- 02 Feb 2023
- Simon Hurst
Most Excel users know about the dangers of running macros received from an untrusted source. However, as Microsoft strengthens its security procedures relating to macros, the danger might increasingly come from another direction: Excel add-ins and, in particular, .XLL files.
Exclusive
Excel Tips & Tricks #465 - Using #N/A in charts redux
- Article
- 02 Feb 2023
- Bani Lamba
Hello all and welcome back to the Excel Tips & Tricks! This week we have a Creator level post in which we're taking a look at how to make use of the #N/A error to help customise charts. This was previously covered in Tip #297.
A robust data entry table in Google Sheets
- Article
- 02 Feb 2023
- David Benaim
One key aspect to robust data entry is Data Validation, and Google Sheets’ version got a hefty upgrade last month making it far superior to Excel’s equivalent. Watch the video or see the descriptions with updated tips.
Lookout for VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP
- Article
- 24 Jan 2023
- Liam Bastick
Often you will need to look up data in a table – and two functions most modellers are very familiar with are VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, even in these new halcyon days of XLOOKUP – but let’s discuss that function next time. For now, do you realise it’s very easy to make a mistake with these functions?
Exclusive
Excel Tips & Tricks #464 - Refreshing Keyboard shortcuts
- Article
- 20 Jan 2023
- Bani Lamba
Hello and welcome back to Excel Tips and Tricks! To start off the new year, we have a Basic User level post in which we’re taking a look at keyboard shortcuts that will improve your experience of using Excel. All of our posts are written with Excel for Windows in mind, but for this post especially so!
Exclusive
Using Power BI bookmarks to highlight report content
- Article
- 19 Jan 2023
- Simon Hurst
In order to support a short series of articles on the four current ICAEW spreadsheet publications, we have added a bookmark navigator to our Power BI archive article portal to allow the display of the list of articles relevant to a publication with a single click. Here we look at how to create bookmarks in Power BI including which page settings they can hold and apply, before creating a ‘navigator’ that automatically adjusts as we add and change our bookmarks.
Exclusive
Welcome to the Excel Community: Twenty principles for good spreadsheet practice
- Article
- 11 Jan 2023
- Simon Hurst
Simon Hurst introduces the ‘Twenty principles for good spreadsheet practice’, and other key publications, to members who have recently joined the Excel community.
View our archive of Excel Community webinars.
Find out here about the Excel community's forthcoming webinars.
Excel tips and tricks live - your questions answered
- Webinar
- 20 Jan 2023
Join our experts as they tackle your Excel questions, quandaries, and more.
Excel vs Google Sheets: the battle of the spreadsheets
- Webinar
- 08 Dec 2022
This webinar from the Excel Community will cover a range of themes including core formulae, collaboration, visualisations and advanced functionality.
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Excel success stories
- Webinar
- 07 Nov 2022
This webinar from the Excel Community will explore the best of the best examples of making the most of Excel.
New 2021-22 features for Excel, PowerPoint, Teams & Microsoft 365
- Webinar
- 26 Oct 2022
This webinar from the Excel Community will keep you up to date with the new features from Microsoft 365.
Exclusive
Applying the financial modelling code beyond Excel
- Webinar
- 04 Oct 2022
This webinar considers the Financial Modelling Code in the 'new world' of modelling.
How to review a spreadsheet (2022 edition)
- Webinar
- 08 Sep 2022
This webinar from the Excel Community provides keyboard shortcuts and tips for easy spreadsheet reviewing.
Exclusive
Hooray for Arrays! The formula revolution that lets Excel take the strain
- Webinar
- 06 Jul 2022
If you don't know what array formulas are, or don't know how to use them, then this webinar will provide the answers.
Exclusive
Power Query - the Excel TARDIS (Totally Avoid Running out of Dimensions In Spreadsheets)
- Webinar
- 17 Jun 2022
The introduction will cover a guide to using the Power Query editor and a range of key techniques and features, all of which can be used to solve practical problems and automate time-consuming processes.
The Excel community has produced an extensive list of helpful tips and tutorials including its 'Excel tip of the week' series.
Exclusive
Excel Tips & Tricks #465 - Using #N/A in charts redux
- Article
- 02 Feb 2023
Hello all and welcome back to the Excel Tips & Tricks! This week we have a Creator level post in which we're taking a look at how to make use of the #N/A error to help customise charts. This was previously covered in Tip #297.
Exclusive
Excel Tips & Tricks #464 - Refreshing Keyboard shortcuts
- Article
- 20 Jan 2023
Hello and welcome back to Excel Tips and Tricks! To start off the new year, we have a Basic User level post in which we’re taking a look at keyboard shortcuts that will improve your experience of using Excel. All of our posts are written with Excel for Windows in mind, but for this post especially so!
Exclusive
Excel Tips & Tricks #463 – Top Tips of 2022
- Article
- 14 Dec 2022
As we approach the end of the year, we pause to look back at the best content from the Excel Community this year.
Exclusive
Excel Tips and Tricks #462 - New text manipulation functions - TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER
- Article
- 01 Dec 2022
Hello and welcome to the Excel Tips and Tricks! This week, we are back with a Creator level post in which we are looking at specific examples of using the new TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER functions in Excel.
Exclusive
Excel Tips and Tricks #461 – Things Google Sheets (still) does better than Excel
- Article
- 22 Nov 2022
Hello and welcome back to Excel Tips and Tricks! This week, we’ve got a General User post that looks at some of the functionality you can find in Google Sheets that Excel is yet to fully master.
Exclusive
Excel Tips and Tricks #460 - Revisiting hidden worksheets
- Article
- 11 Nov 2022
Creator level article looking at how hiding and unhiding worksheets works.
Exclusive
Excel Tips and Tricks #459 - Examples of using LAMBDA() in Excel
- Learning material
- 01 Nov 2022
Hello all and welcome back to the Excel Tips and Tricks! This week we have a Creator level post in which we’re looking at examples of using LAMBDA() in Excel.
Exclusive
Excel Tips and Tricks #458 - Revisiting Line breaks in Excel
- Article
- 24 Oct 2022
Hello and welcome back to Excel Tips and Tricks! This week we have a short Basic User-level post in which we are going to quickly summarise how line breaks and multi-line formatting works in Excel.
Introduction to Financial Modelling
This 19-part series from 2020 and 2021 works through the chapters of our Financial Modelling Code and explains how each element translates into practice.
Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 1: Model definition and purpose
- Article
- 23 Jan 2020
The development and use of financial models in Excel continues to proliferate, as does the variety of approaches and methodologies adopted. Without a universally accepted set of agreed principles, it can be difficult to know what good looks like in financial modelling terms.
Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 2: Layout & Structure - Laying out a model
- Article
- 20 Feb 2020
The layout and structure of a model is arguably the most important piece of a model. It is the foundation on which the rest of the model is built: the model infrastructure.
Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 3: Layout & Structure - Navigation
- Article
- 19 Mar 2020
In this instalment of the blog series, I will be talking about the principles covered in page 5 of the Financial Modelling Code, “Make Navigation Simple”.
Intro to Financial Modelling - Part 4: Layout & Structure - Managing Inputs
- Article
- 23 Apr 2020
Following from last month’s blog on Layout Structure – Laying Out a Model, we continue with this theme and examine some common ways to manage model inputs.
How to review a spreadsheet
- Thought leadership report
- 20 Oct 2021
Reduce the risk that your spreadsheet gives you the wrong answer.
Improve your financial modelling practice
- Thought leadership report
- 12 Nov 2018
ICAEW’s Excel Community has worked with a broad swathe of modelling organisations and experts, taking a half dozen methodologies and paring down to the commonly held, widely accepted beliefs about what constitutes good modelling.
Spreadsheet Competency Framework
- Report
- 05 Jul 2016
The framework is a structure for assessing ability and proficiency when using spreadsheets.
Twenty spreadsheet principles
- Helpsheets and support
- 13 Jun 2014
Twenty principles for good spreadsheet practice aims to reduce spreadsheet errors and wasted time.
Search the Excel Community archive
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eBooks
The ICAEW Library & Information Service provides full text access to a selection of key business and reference eBooks from leading publishers. eBooks are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users. If you are unable to access an eBook, please see our Help and support advice or contact library@icaew.com.
Exclusive
Hands-on financial modeling with Excel for Microsoft 365: build your own practical financial models for effective forecasting, valuation, trading, and growth analysis
- eBook
- 17 Jun 2022
Financial modeling is a core skill required by anyone who wants to build a career in finance. This book explores financial modeling terminologies with the help of Excel. Starting with the key concepts of Excel, such as formulas and functions, this updated second edition will help you to learn all about referencing frameworks and other advanced components for building financial models.
Exclusive
Guerrilla data analysis using Microsoft Excel: conquering crap data and Excel skirmishes.
- eBook
- 01 Mar 2022
Includes examples and case studies that teach users the tricks for analysing data in Excel.
Exclusive
Excel data analysis for dummies
- eBook
- 15 Feb 2022
For those new to data analysis. Takes the reader on a tour of Excel's data analysis tools.
Exclusive
Financial modeling in Excel for dummies
- eBook
- 19 Jan 2022
This books provides practical hands-on exercises to help you build powerful models from scratch, and to work with existing financial models in Excel. Includes chapters on tools and techniques for financial modeling, applying scenarios, charting and presenting model output, building an integrated financial statements model, discounted cash flow valuation, and budgeting for capital expenditure and depreciation.
Exclusive
Data visualization with Excel dashboards and reports
- eBook
- 01 Apr 2021
Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel dashboards and reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for budgetary reasons.
Exclusive
Financial modeling for decision making: using MS-Excel in accounting and finance
- eBook
- 01 Sep 2020
This book provides accounting students in post-secondary institutions with an advanced level understanding of how to use MS-Excel.
Exclusive
Using Excel for business and financial modelling: a practical guide (3rd edition)
- eBook
- 15 Apr 2019
A hands-on guide to using Excel in the business context. Contains step-by-step instructions of how to solve common business problems using financial models, including downloadable Excel templates, a list of shortcuts and tons of practical tips and techniques you can apply straight away. Formerly titled Using Excel for business analysis.
Exclusive
Building financial models: the complete guide to designing, building, and applying projection models
- eBook
- 27 Apr 2018
Teaches how to build financial models using spreadsheets.
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