Course: Business Valuation and

Spreadsheet Modelling

Excel Methods Session 1:

The Basics For Workbook1
The Basics
The width and height of a cell in excel may
vary based on version.
It is usually 8.43 characters for width and 15
points (1 point = 0.035 centimetres) for
height.
 Copying and Formatting
 Simply dragging a cell can either make copies of
it or fill series, or formatting, or a combination of
all these.
Time Functions
Always enter date values in excel
using “Date” function to avoid
errors.
Example: =DATE(2014,1,10) will
return:10-01-2014
Series and Time Functions
Go to the first tab of ‘Workbook1’
Create your own series
Enter date and time
Play around with formatting
Adjusting Cell Width and Height
Clickon ‘Format’ in home tab, select the
options.
General Formatting Options
 Right click on any cell and select ‘Format Cells…’ options
cell. Go to ‘Clear Button’ and select ‘Clear Formatting’ to
clear the format applied
 Conditional Formatting in Excel

You can use normal and advanced

conditional formatting to signalize
cells:
Exercise 1: Basic
Formatting
Go to Workbook1 Sheet 1 named
‘Conditional Formatting_Basic’
The instructions are given in the
workbook
Format the data as per the
instructions
Advanced Formatting
 Excel allows you to use advanced formatting
for your data.
 Go to ‘Conditional Formatting’ and Select
‘New Rule…’
Exercise 2: Advanced
Formatting
Go to Workbook1 sheet named
‘Conditional
Formatting_Advanced’
There are two data tables.
Format each table as per the
instructions
Basic Formulae
The signs are as follows:
◦ ‘+’ for addition
◦ ‘-’ for subtraction
◦ ‘*’ for multiplication
◦ ‘/’ for division
◦ ‘=‘ equal to
◦ ‘^’ raised to the power
◦ ‘%’ denotes percentage values
Always put the ‘=‘ sign before
writing any operation in excel
Dragging Formulas; Fixing
Cells
When you drag a cell containing a
formula with reference to another cell,
e.g. C4*D4, the cells in the formula is
also dragged, e.g. to C5*D5 (dragging
down)
However you can ‘fix’ one or more
reference cells by adding the ‘$’ sign:
C$4: fixes row 4 but keeps column variable
$C4: fixes column C but row is kept variable
$C$4: Fixes the cell absolutely. Shortcut: F4
or fn + F4 for some computers
Naming Cells
 Naming cells helps with array-based
operations in a few steps
 Select the range you want to name; go to
Formulas, and click on define name.
 Enter a name or choose default
 Go to the ‘Naming Cells_Sumproduct’ sheet
and try out the exercise.
Exercise 3: Copy Formula
Go to the sheet ‘Copy
Formula’ in Workbook1.
Insert formula such that I can
be dragged to adjacent cells
with the desired result
Using the inbuilt sum
formulae
 Thein built sum function can be used to find sum,
average, count, maximum, and minimum of any
data series
SUMIF, COUNTIF,
COUNTIFS
SUMIF(range, criteria,
[sum_range]) can be used to sum
a range of cells using a criteria on
different range of cells
COUNTIF(range, criteria) is used
to count the number of cells with
a certain criteria
COUNTIFS(criteria_range1,
criteria1, [criteria_range2,
criteria2]…) can include multiple
Exercise 4: sumif, countif,
countifs
Go to the tab named
SUMIF_COUNTIF in Workbook1
Carry out the exercise as
dictated.
SUMPRODUCT Formula
 We will go back to the ‘Naming
Cells_Sumproduct’ sheet.
 We want to find the total revenue of each
product with a single formula. Names may
also be used.
 We will use the SUMPRODUCT formula
The ‘IF’ function
The most versatile and widely used
conditional function in excel
Can be used alone or in conjunction with
other formulas
Can be easily nested
Structure:
◦ IF(logical_test, [value_if_true],
[value_if_false])
◦ Logical_test: The logic which should be
tested, e.g. A5 >= ₹20,000
◦ Value_if_true: What the excel should do if
logical_test is true, e.g. A5*30%
◦ Value_if_false: What the excel should do if
logical test is false, e.g. return zero, etc.
Exercise 5: Basic IF
function
Go to the tab named T-Bill Decision in
Workbook1
In this workbook, several treasury bills
with their respective details are given
For now just focus on the ‘Annual Yield’
If the annual yield value is less than 6%,
the ‘Buy or Not?’ column should reflect
‘Don’t Buy’, else it should reflect ‘Buy’
If the yield is below 6%, entire column
should turn light red with deep red text,
else it should turn green with black text
in bold.
Exercise 6: Advanced IF
function
Go to the tab named Result
Calculation in Workbook1
Follow the instructions provided.
Exercise 6: Advanced IF
function
The following functions may be
useful:
1. AND(logical1, [logical2], ...):
Returns TRUE if all its arguments
evaluate to TRUE; returns FALSE if
one or more arguments evaluate to
FALSE.
2. OR(logical1, [logical2], ...): Returns
TRUE if any argument is TRUE;
returns FALSE if all arguments are
FALSE.
Exercise 1: Tax Calculation
This is a recap of the IF function.
You can also add the AND
function with this.
The tax slab under the current
‘New Regime’ is provided in the
sheet ‘Income Tax’.
Use a IF with a combination of
AND to determine the correct tax
amount.
VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP
Two of the most widely used lookup
functions are VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP.
VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array,
col_index_num, [range_lookup]):
◦ Lookup value will be looked up in the table
array, in the specified column number. Type
FALSE in [range_lookup] for an exact match.
HLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array,
row_index_num, [range_lookup]):
◦ Lookup value will be looked up in the table
array, in the specified row number. Type
FALSE in [range_lookup] for an exact match.
Exercise 2: VLOOKUP and
HLOOKUP
Try out the exercise in Lookup tab
in Workbook 1.
The data contains sales in units
of a certain product by 25
salesmen, with names from S1 to
S25 for the January to December.
INDEX+MATCH Function
We will use a very powerful
combination of Index and Match
functions.
This combination can be used to
search in any direction.
Learn more about the functions
INDEX and MATCH separately
first.
Use the data in the sheet
‘Index+Match’ and complete the
Tables
 Go to the tab called Table Data in Workbook1.
 Select the first cell
 Click ‘Table’ in ‘Insert’ menu to convert the given
data into a table.
 Explore Various options of the table
Pivot Tables
 Go back to the tab named Table Data in Workbook1.
 Select the first cell.
 Go to ‘Insert’ and click ‘PivotTable’ to create a Pivot Table
 Explore various options of the Pivot Table
To be continued in the next
session…