Breaking Down Excel Formulas

Level: Intermediate

Available Durations:

  • 50 minutes
  • 60 minutes
  • 75 minutes
  • 90 minutes
  • 100 minutes
  • 120 minutes

Description:

Sometimes your Excel formulas can grow out of control, or, more likely, you’ve inherited spreadsheets from others that you’re to take ownership of. In this insightful presentation, Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, shares various ways to make sense of complicated formulas in spreadsheets. You’ll have an abundance of tricks at your disposal to quickly decipher even the most complex formulas after attending this webcast.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2019, 2016, 2013, and earlier) during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the webcast.

Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new-feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don’t change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2019, Excel 2016, and so on.

Topics/Areas Typically Covered:

  • Giving yourself more room to work by expanding the formula bar when needed.
  • Utilizing the New Window and Arrange Windows commands to view two different worksheets simultaneously.
  • Leveraging Excel’s color-coding to detect cells related to a formula, especially in Excel 2013 and later.
  • Making copies of formulas safely to provide a fallback position.
  • Stepping through formulas in slow motion with the Evaluate Formulas feature.
  • Auditing portions of a formula by using the F9 key to temporarily convert part of a formula to a value.
  • Adding a macro to Excel that adds the ability to display any formula in a cell comment.
  • Shortening worksheet names, even temporarily, to make formulas easier to comprehend.
  • Building formulas faster by way of the Use in Formula command.
  • Identifying other cells a formula relies on by way of the Trace Precedents feature.
  • Utilizing the Error Checking command to locate cells that contain errors within a worksheet.
  • Identifying the various # sign errors Excel formulas can return.
  • Mastering the IFERROR function to display alternate values in lieu of a # sign error.
  • Employing the ISERROR function to determine if a formula returns a # sign error as the basis for triggering alternate calculations.

Learning Objectives/Why You Should Attend:

  • List the benefits of using range names.
  • Apply the Trace Precedents and Trace Error features to identify linked cells.
  • Identify how to implement the IFERROR function to compensate for temporary situations where a formula may return an error.

Target Industries:

  • Accounting and Finance
  • Business
  • Excel Users
  • Consulting
  • IT
  • Auditing
  • Human Resources
  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Government
  • Tax

Target Job Title:

  • Accountants
  • CPAs
  • CFOs
  • Controllers
  • Income Tax Preparers
  • Enrolled Agents
  • Financial Consultants
  • IT Professionals
  • Auditors
  • Human Resource Personnel
  • Bookkeepers
  • Excel Users
  • Marketers
  • Government Personnel

About the Instructor:

David H. Ringstrom, CPA is the owner of Accounting Advisors, Inc., an Atlanta-based spreadsheet consulting firm that he started in 1991. Throughout his career David has spoken at conferences on Microsoft Excel, and written dozens of freelance articles about spreadsheets. He offers Excel and Access training and consulting services nationwide.

Pricing and Format Options:

Click here to learn about the presentation format and view pricing information.

Click here to view other topics.