ITOM 2308

Intro to Excel

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 Excel Uses
• Math
– Forecasting
– What if analysis

• Graphing
• Data management

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 Components of Excel
When you open a new Excel file you get the
following:
• Workbook
– Note: you can have one to many open

• Worksheets (Sheets or Tabs)

• Cells (A1, B2, AA2500)

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 Excel

Current cell Address

Ribbon (Menu System)
Pointer to active cell

Active worksheet (tab)

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 Excel Cells
• Cells contain (Data Types)
– Strings (Text)
– Numbers
– Dates (Note: just a number)
– Formulas
• Formats
– Date/Time
– Currency, commas

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Formatting Details

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 Ranges
• A cell or a group of cells are called ranges
• Designated as
– First cell (Top Left): Last cell (bottom Right)
– A2:A10
– $A$2:$A$10

• Ranges can have names to help move to

locations in the workbook quickly

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 Building A Model
• First tab should be the Assumptions page

• Tabs 2 … n should be where the math happens

• Assumptions include
– Sales Growth
– Interest rate
– Purchase Price

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 What If Analysis Concept
• The process of manipulating one or more
assumptions to obtain a desired financial
result

• Example:
I want to save funds for my children for college
How much do I need to put away each year?

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 Functions
• Excel has hundreds of built in functions
– Statistical
• Sum, Average, Min, Max

– Financial:
• Calculate mortgage payments
• Future values
• Internal Rate of Return

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 Functions Details
• Start with = sign

• Type function name

• Open parenthesis

• Enter parameters
– Note not all parameters are needed

• Close parenthesis
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Example

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 Series Fills
• Excel can fill a series of cells with:
– Months
– Days
– Numeric sequences
– Custom Lists
• Start the series then drag the bottom right
corner to fill

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 Graphing
• Graphs are used to help visualize large sets of
data
• Excel has hundreds of graph types
– Line
– Bar
– Pie

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 Line and Bar Chart Graphs
• Good for understanding trends in data.

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Column Chart

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 Pie Charts
• Aids in understanding percentages of the
total.
• Example: Product mix by color

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 Excel Recap
• Excel is an excellent program for doing:
– What if analysis

– Financial modeling

– Data visualization

– Data manipulation
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