Microsoft Excel is a very demanding software in various industries. It is important to know the advanced Excel skills for professionals to help them do their work more efficiently. Excel has evolved over the years with more advanced features. Having advanced knowledge of Excel can help in career growth. Here are some essential advanced Excel skills that are essential for today’s professionals. These are especially useful for those working in data analytics, project management, and financial sectors.
When cells share some common properties, ‘SumIf’ adds cells together. This formula can be used to get summary information about enrollment or sales. This formula has two parts: one is finding out which cells should be added together, and the second is finding the sum range.
In many companies, especially before presentations or board meetings, it is necessary to format Excel tables in such a way that they provide a visual representation of data. For example, if a loss occurs, then the cell will be ‘red’. So, you won’t have to look into the figures of the cells to find out which cells represent ‘loss’. Using conditional formatting those cells will be highlighted. Conditional formatting is used to change the appearance and color of the contents and cells depending on some conditions. You will find the ‘conditional formatting’ option in the Style group of the Home tab in Excel. It’s a great way to analyze data visually, without the need to read figures in each cell.
This function is a combination of the ‘Index’ and ‘Match’ functions. You can look inside the Excel sheet and assess information using this function. Here the ‘Match’ function is embedded in the ‘Index’ function. You can find a specific type of data and connect this data to other data in the row. You can use this for two-way lookups, that is, on rows and columns separately or at the same time. It will find the best match from the data at hand. It is better than the VLOOKUP function.
This function is used to get relevant information from large workbooks and convert them into small tables. Data is rearranged enabling you to manage data more efficiently. You can look at data from various perspectives which will help you in decision making. For example, you can use it to see and analyze trends in the data.
You can automate repetitive tasks in Excel by making macros in Visual Basic for Application (VBA). This important function is used by financial analysts to generate periodic sales reports. This function lets you record data and then associate the data with various events to automate it.
These important advanced Excel skills for professionals not only make daily tasks easier but also help to analyze data better. These formulas and functions also work well on large and complicated datasets. They help you to make important financial and administrative decisions. They also save time and reduce the chances of errors in calculation and analysis.
