A Beginner’s Guide to Excel Formulas

Gone are the days when old school accountants used to spend several hours working on manual payrolls and large-scale databases, because they didn’t had access to computerized spreadsheets. Electronic spreadsheets have not only revolutionized the entire concept of tracking records and internal data, but it has also proved to come in handy for private purposes. Ledger book accounts can usually take a substantial amount of time to be completed if it is not being encrypted by synchronized software, because all the data entry tasks are being haphazardly inserted into different columns. Microsoft Excel provided an automated method of maintaining files and records without having to do anything manually. As soon as it was available to the masses, people started realizing its importance and how it can help them save up time while doing accounts related tasks. Back in the days when everything in a spreadsheet used to be hand-calculated not only were the chances of errors substantially high but it was also quite exhausting for the accountants. 

Once you install Microsoft Excel in your laptop or computer, you should be able to use and edit all the important formulas that are available as a built-in feature so go for STL Excel training. These formulas not only increase the accuracy of your bookkeeping or data entry tasks, but it also provides a time-effective way of tackling high intensity work. The formula “SUM” comes in handy for most home and office users, and it allows people to add all the entries in a specific sequence into a total form. This way, you would not be required to sum up each entry before finally writing down the summed up amounts in the total column. Cell referencing allows you to make changes in the final answer as soon as you make adjustments in each individual cell. Depending upon the template of your task, you might have to write down total amounts in horizontal and vertical manner. If you are looking for more insights, then make sure to check out the link as various formulas are covered in depth in this epic Excel formulas guide

When you want to find out the final answer of a specific formula, you would have to begin writing your formula entries with an “equal sign” or “=”. Make sure to type down the equal sign in the cell where you want your final calculated amount to appear in the screen. As soon as you are done writing down all the necessary components of your formula, you would have to hit the “Enter” key so that the actual amount can appear in the cell. When you write left-click on any cell in which the calculated amount appears, you can see the related formula in the formula bar which is situated right above the worksheet. Cell references are highly useful for large-scale tasks in which the chances of errors and mistakes might be high. In case of a mistake, rather than re-entering the entire formula you can just edit the text in that specific cell. In order to reference a specific row or column in the spreadsheet you would need to click the cursor on the lower left corner of the first cell, and then drag it all the way towards the last cell, so that the final answer can be generated through the formula. Each row is designated by a unique number written down in the left-most corner of that row, for example 1, 2, and 3. On the other hand, each column is designated to a unique alphabet which is situated at the top-most edge of that column. Typically, the first cell on a spreadsheet is identified as “A1”, in which “1” identifies that it belongs to the first row whereas “A” identifies that it belongs to the first column. In order to find out the cell reference of any unique box in the worksheet, you just need to left-click on that cell, and you would be able to see its reference in the bar situated just below the clipboard ribbon above the worksheet. In order to have full access to each cell, you can go to the formula tab to select the “function” option in which various general formulas would be shown. In the “AutoSum” option you can select various formulas that are designed for everyday usage. This saves the time of going through the specific rule of writing Excel formula every time. For accountants or general users who are accustomed to monotonous tasks, they can select recently used formulas in the “Recently Used” tab situated just beside the “AutoSum” tab. The “AVERAGE” function is a useful feature that comes in handy for users who want to find out accurate average numbers after writing down a long list of entries. Once you know how to use formulas to write down various numeric values you find it highly useful for you spreadsheet tasks.

Author: elli schmitt