Financial professionals rely heavily on Excel for analysing and managing large amounts of financial data. Employers demand advanced Excel skills for financial professionals. This enables them to streamline work and produce precise and enlightening reports. Below are some of the most valuable Excel functions that can help enhance financial professionals’ productivity and effectiveness.
VLOOKUP
If you’re a financial professional, you’ve likely heard of VLOOKUP, one of the most commonly used Excel functions. VLOOKUP is a lifesaver when searching a table for specific information and retrieving related data. Not only does it make financial analysis, budgeting, and forecasting easier, but it also saves precious time. For example, imagine a financial analyst searching for a particular product’s sales figures and the corresponding cost of goods sold – VLOOKUP comes to the rescue. It’s the perfect tool for swiftly accessing specific data from large datasets.
IF Statements
Regarding Excel functions, the IF function is another gem financial professionals should have in their toolkits. This function allows users to test a condition and return one value if it’s true and another if it’s false. This function is great for creating financial models and analysing financial data. For example, a financial analyst must determine whether a company has met a specific revenue target.
With the IF function, the analyst can quickly figure it out. If the revenue exceeds the target, the function will return “Met Target.” If it falls below the target, the function will return “Did Not Meet Target.” The IF function is perfect for financial professionals looking to simplify complex data analysis.
SUMIFS
This function is a real game-changer, enabling users to add up values based on multiple criteria, making it perfect for analysing large datasets and tracking expenses. For instance, imagine a financial analyst needs to calculate the total expenses of a particular department for a specific period. With SUMIFS, the analyst can quickly and efficiently sum up values based on multiple conditions like department name, expense type, and date range.
Excel Functions for Financial Professionals
It’s a real time-saver for financial professionals who must accurately process massive amounts of data. Plus, it’s incredibly versatile, and you can use it for various other tasks, making it a must-have function for any finance professional’s Excel arsenal.
PMT
Financial professionals can use the PMT function in Excel, which computes loan payments based on a steady interest rate and payments, making it a valuable tool. This function helps calculate loan payments, such as mortgages, car loans, and student loans.
For instance, a financial analyst can compute a mortgage’s monthly payment using the PMT function. After entering the loan amount, interest rate, and loan term, financial professionals can utilise this function to compute the monthly payment.
PivotTables
PivotTables are a powerful tool in Excel that allows users to summarise and analyse large datasets. Financial professionals can benefit from this function as it allows them to analyse substantial volumes of data swiftly.
For example, a financial analyst may use PivotTables to analyse the revenue data for a particular product. PivotTables can summarise data, such as total sales, average sales, and sales by region.
Excel for Financial Professionals
Excel is an essential tool for financial professionals, and mastering these functions can improve productivity and effectiveness. VLOOKUP, IF, SUMIFS, PMT, and PivotTables are some of the most useful Excel functions for financial professionals. Financial professionals can streamline their work, save time, and deliver accurate and insightful reports by learning and using these functions.
Excel Training Courses for Finance Professionals
We offer a range of Excel training courses for finance professionals. We have delivered many live classroom and virtual classroom courses to finance professionals and companies. Here you can read about one of our trainers delivering Excel Corporate Training to finance professionals in a multinational. We also offer a more affordable online training course our Excel for Finance Course.