When you need to perform a lookup, your instinct tells you to use VLOOKUP. But, when your lookup uses multiple conditions and columns, you may be inclined to use SUMIFS. However, when the value you need to return is a text string, rather than a numeric value, you are precluded from using SUMIFS since it only […]
If you have ever created a PivotTable report that groups by month, you may have encountered an awkward situation where the PivotTable only displays the months that actually have data in the source. The PivotTable will summarize the data that exists and if there are no transactions for a given month, the PivotTable won’t display it. […]
If you haven’t checked out Excel’s conditional formatting feature recently, you’re missing out on some nice enhancements. The feature formats a cell based on its value. Excel continuously monitors the cell value and updates the formatting as the cell value changes. Conditional formatting has traditionally been limited to basic cell formatting such as fill and […]
I’m happy to announce the immediate availability of Excel University’s next guest lecture: Xtreme PivotTables by John Michaloudis. Earn 16 CPE hours while learning more about PivotTables…what could be better? This course provides a comprehensive examination of Excel’s PivotTable feature and explores many powerful capabilities. This course digs into so many details that even experienced PivotTable […]
With a simple custom format code, we can display negative numbers as positive…but…why would we want to? So that we can simplify our formulas and make our workbooks more reliable of course. Let’s check it out. Objective Before we get to the mechanics, let’s confirm our goal. We have a worksheet, in this case a little […]
Alright friends, I have an update about Excel University Volume 4. I’ve just about completed the initial draft, and am very pleased with how it is shaping up so far. Volume 1 is the foundations volume. Volume 2 is where we discuss formula-based reports. Volume 3 is where we cover PivotTable reports. Volume 4 is […]
In this post, we’ll perform a two-dimensional lookup with Excel’s VLOOKUP function. Objective Let’s begin by clarifying our objective and what is meant by the term two-dimensional lookup. We have stored our price list in a table, and the price for each item varies based on the region. This is illustrated in the screenshot below. To […]
Did you know that PivotTables can automatically group date fields by month? And by quarter and year? This date group capability makes it easy to summarize data in monthly columns without writing a single formula. Check out my recent California CPA Magazine article for the details. Publication: California CPA Magazine Author: Jeff Lenning CPA Date: May 2015 […]
Let me ask you a question. How do you know when a user has entered a value into a formula cell, essentially overriding your formula? Since this is Excel, there are several ways to address this issue, but starting with Excel 2013, we can use conditional formatting with the new ISFORMULA function. Objective Our worksheet […]
I’m excited to announce the Excel University scholarship program! Excel University will recognize outstanding accounting students enrolled in an accredited college or university in the US, and will provide a $500 cash award as well as free enrollment into our online training program. These scholarships are awarded annually. Please help me spread the word by forwarding […]