How to Fight Spreadsheet Hell with Three Excel Lookup Functions
(I wrote this long ago, and there's much to be added. It's high on my Update list. Charley)
Many Excel users build their reports like...
What Inflation? How Excel Charts Can Help You Avoid Fake Economic News
The business news on Valentine's Day, 2018, was dominated by talk of rising inflation. A search of Google News showed 67,100 results for the...
Down With Gauges!
It's possible to carry an analogy too far.
Dashboards for managers are logically similar to dashboards for cars. Both types of dashboards provide key information...
Highlight Normal Results in Line Charts to Make Exceptional Results Stand Out
Line charts that show trends in performance are the most useful type of chart that management reports can contain.
All managers want good performance to...
Error Handling in Excel Spreadsheets
It’s virtually guaranteed. If you have a bunch of formulas like this…
M43: =C43/D43
…then the divisor, D43 in this instance, will have a value of...
Show Key Stats Automatically in Periodic Excel Reports
Each issue of Business Week magazine used to include several figures titled "The Stat". These figures emphasized key data related to the article on...
The Most Powerful Ways to Summarize Excel Data for Reporting and Analysis
(Note: I wrote this before Microsoft introduced Excel Tables or SUMIFS. This post is scheduled for an update.)
Excel users often need to summarize data...
How to Return Random Numbers from a Normal Distribution for Your Excel Forecasts
(This is the first of two articles about normal distributions. The second article is, How to Create Monte Carlo Models and Forecasts Using Excel Data...
Create Variable-Length, Dynamic Reports Linked to Excel Tables
Excel Tables are a powerful feature introduced in Excel 2007. Not only can you report from them directly, you can use them as a...
Use Excel’s INDEX-MATCH or VLOOKUP Functions to Populate Invoices and POs
A visitor asked how to set up a simple invoicing system in Excel.
This is a common problem in many small businesses, divisions, and sales...