This Is how I maximize Efficient Use Of Excel And Save Time
Microsoft Excel is one of the basic software that I have been using over more than 10 years and since the use of it creates both presentable and useful information, it is on top of the list of my favorite softwares. More you explore it; more you get to know the details and useful functions within the sheets. Excel is used from the college level to infinity level of life if you know how beneficial it is.
Detailed and proper usage of Excel can save your time almost automize your working flow once created using proper formulas and functions and use other essentials to make it presentable that is easy to understand. This can also be accompanied with graphs and images to better explain the data. You can be a statistician or a mathematician only beginning with Excel and operating with SAS or Python or using it with Azure, AWS, Vertica or Aster to draw insights. Or maybe you are into creating financial models with a team and want to improve the usage of Excel to generate both efficient and effective results.
In this article, I have provided the groundwork for using Excel more efficiently, so that you can work with it with great pleasure. Let ‘s continue with a couple of concepts that should be taken into account. To do this, the following five basic concepts should be considered.
Simplicity, the ease of setting up data and research tools, decreases the risk of accidents and helps new people grasp situations and outcomes quickly.
Traceability, to enable all the users, including who did not prepare it, can trace the dependents and precedents easily throughout the excel sheets.
Consistency should be ensured throughout the sheets to enable the users understand it easily or else it will be quite confusing. For example, that all the details are of the same language, layout, all sorts of items, making it easy to follow the overall plan.
Adaptability, that enables the ease of adopting changes accurately and fast in the assumptions and underlying data or rules without highly re-tooling of formulas or sheet.
Finally, ease of use, by designing well thought-out and recorded templates, you encourage the use of the resources you have created and make ownership transition without the need for a steep curve of learning.
If the above concepts are kept in mind when preparing the excel sheets, it will be extremely useful later and saves drastic amount of time. These are the concepts thar i have learnt over time and have practiced to improve my work results. For example, If I know that I have to prepare same type of sheet for a number of projects or I have a sheet that is beautifully prepared, I extract a template and save it without data. I can then later, easily access the template and copy it to kick start the work without working from scratch.
Once you know these basics, start planning the preparation of the excel sheet. We have a series of guiding principles to help us accomplish this streamlined simplicity which I hope you would find helpful.
1- Note that Excel is a deliverable tool and is used to share the results. It should be prepared by keeping in mind the requirements of consumers. Therefore, you should take time to think about the layout, arrange and evaluate your thinking process. It will help you concentrate your study on basic items like headers, sources, and footnotes. I normally start with this stage as if this is done at the end, there are chances to make several changes to make it consistent with the other data. To avoid this, preparing these items at the beginning can save your time and energy.
2- Start with keeping the results in mind that is what outcome you want to see at the end of preparation and how it should appear. You will significantly develop your job and its results within the few minutes you take to formulate an evaluation and create a storyboard. I consider this stage the most important.
3- Then, start with a template. The odds are that you do several basic tasks regularly, delete grid lines, put headers and format them. Establish print zones, footers, headers, other stuff. More advanced users may have an MPV model or another tool built. Why don’t you once build a prototype or template and hop off for your next task?
4- Categorize and identify the raw data separately. Keep the basic one type of data used in the main sheet in a separate sub-sheet and link it in the main sheet to access it with comfort. Then the main sheet can only contain the analysis including the formulas and functions to meet the required results. This will allow the user to access the raw data easily used in the analysis and separate the formulas used for calculations from the data to let the users to better understand the scenario.
5- Limit hard coding & if used highlight it. This is something that has helped be a lot in identifying the data source of the analysis. I highly discriminate the use of hard punching the raw data directly into the main analysis sheet. However, in some cases it is better to do it instead of making a whole separate sub-sheet. In such instances, for example when an assumption of growth rate is to be used, highlight it by using a different color to make it distinct from other data. I normally use colors like blue.
6- When using large and complex formulas, try to break it down into several cells to provide self-explanatory workflow. This step has saved me a lot of energy when explaining the analysis to other users. I highly recommend it.
7- Final review: doing this at the end of the preparation of analysis is a significant step. I normally make copy of the final results and name it as draft 1 before reviewing and editing it. In the 2nd draft I review and make necessary changes to avoid any loss of work and extend it to 3rd draft if required.
8- One final Tip: one of the most practiced things that is agreed by all the Excel experts is using shortcuts instead of using mouse. This has evident reduced time of preparation and increased efficiency.
These are the general principles and concepts that I use and have proved to increase the efficiency of my work. Over the years I have learnt these Excel essentials and making it more resourceful. In this article I have discussed about the basic concepts and principles. In the coming articles I will discuss about formulas and functions that increases the efficiency of using Excel. Therefore, stay tuned and keep following me!
