Having Actuals, Budget and Variances for each month going across the page is a very common reporting construct. Here is an easy way to sum the correct YTD values as the year progresses.
Tag Archives: functions
Creating Sentences in Excel
If you want to automate journal descriptions or create sentences the TEXTJOIN function is your friend. It can combine words and insert the spaces for you.
Olympic Average in Excel
Averages are affected by outliers. If Bill Gates walks into a room the average net worth per person jumps substantially. In the Olympics some sports deduct the top and bottom scores before calculating the average score. Here’s a formula to do that in Excel. You need the subscription version of Excel for this solution.
Solving a Date – Time Issue in Excel
Often when you import data into Excel the dates may include a time. This can make summarising the data more difficult as time is included as a fraction of a date. You can use an old function to fix the problem. This solution requires the subscription version of Excel.
IFERROR Function Now Handles SPILL Errors
Not sure when it happened, but a recent update to Excel has enabled the IFERROR function to handle spill errors.
SUMIFS Magic Solution
A client recently had a problem. He was chasing a formula that identified if a text string contained one of three words. He wanted to base an allocation on finding those three words. SUMIFS offers a solution.
Solving a Conditional Summing Text Problem in Excel
I was checking out an old Excel book Excel Outside The Box by long time Excel MVP Bob Umlas and noticed he used the N function in his SUMPRODUCT functions. I then realised why. It converts text to a zero. That gets around an issue with adding up ranges that contains text, thanks again Bob.
More Adjusting in Excel
Following on from last week’s post on a single adjustment formula this post will share a more robust solution for including or excluding adjustments.
SUMIFS Wildcard Limitation
SUMIFS can use wildcard characters, but the wildcards only work on text-based codes.
Calculating YTD percentages in Excel
When working with YTD percentages you must be careful with the calculation. Adding up values or amounts is easy. Working with YTD percentages require a bit more work.
Percentage Movement in Excel
It is common in Excel to calculate the percentage movement or difference between two values. This may be between this year and last year or between actual and budget. There are two common issues you will face when doing this calculation. The first is handling zeros and the second is handling negatives.
FILTER Function Technique
An application I use recently updated it’s filtering options to allow you to filter by any filters or all filters. This was a useful addition to the software and I thought that I could apply the same idea to Excel’s FILTER function.
Comparing Averages in Excel
It is common in Excel to use averages to summarise large data sets. It is also common to compare the averages across different segments. Here’s a technique you might find useful when comparing a segment against all other segments.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 4
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible. The single function allows you to perform 11 different calculations. In this post we will amend the custom function we have created to add an extra column plus headings.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 3
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible. The single function allows you to perform 11 different calculations. In this post we will create a custom function to summarise a data set.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 2
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible and in this second post we build an automated summary report using SUBTOTAL.
SUBTOTAL and Dynamic Arrays in Excel – Part 1
The SUBTOTAL function in Excel is quite flexible. The single function allows you to perform 11 different calculations. It can also ignore hidden rows, something that not many Excel functions can do.
Average Top and Bottom Values in Excel
When analysing data you may want to check for outliers. You can use MIN and MAX to get minimum and maximum values but you may want to average a certain number of top or bottom numbers. Here’s how you can do it.
TEXTBETWEEN function in Excel
Excel has new TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER functions. It doesn’t have a TEXTBETWEEN function. Let’s make one.
Extract Text Before a Number in Excel
Excel’s new TEXTBEFORE function simplifies extracting text from the left. In this example I share how to extract all the text before a number in a code.
Custom Function for an Ordinal Date
A while ago I posted about creating an ordinal (1st, 2nd etc) for a date. With the inclusion of the LAMBDA function I thought I would create a custom function to simplify the process.
Rounding to the Nearest 9 Cents in Excel
A client recently requested a formula to round to the nearest 9 cents. This avoids getting to a price point. This is a common requirement in retail businesses. The solution was simpler than I thought it would be.
Last Weekday of the Month in Excel
Excel has a function to find the last day of the month. To find the last weekday of the month you can combine a couple of functions. Here is a custom function that also works.
One Minute to Excel #30 – Extract Data Based on Sheet Name
Shortcut to speed up name creation
Here’s a technique I use a lot to speed up report development.
Sheet names have to be unique, so they can’t be duplicated. This makes them great for department names or states.
This short video combines a few techniques to extract from a data set based on the sheet name.
All in less than a minute.
A Cell Reference Custom Function
The formula to return a cell reference is quite long. This makes it an ideal candidate for a custom function.
Not So Random Entries in Excel
Sometimes when you are testing or training in Excel you need to create random entries. That is easy to do with the RANDBETWEEN or RANDARRAY functions. What if you wanted to emphasise some entries more than others in the random list created? There is a way.
Avoid the #DIV/0! Error in Excel
DIY Function
If you have the subscription version of Excel you can create your own functions. One that you may want to create avoids the #DIV/0! error.
MIN and MAX and Dates in Excel
Automating the latest date
The MIN and MAX functions can provide easy ways to capture current dates.
One Minute to Excel #26 – Fix AutoSum’s Weakness
Get the right range every time
AutoSum’s cryptonite is a blank cell – it stops AutoSum in its tracks every time.
Here’s how you can avoid AutoSum’s blind spot.
UNIQUE Function and Blank Cells in Excel
Zero in on a problem
The UNIQUE function has a bit of an issue with blank cells, formulas that return blank cells and zeroes.