I'm pretty good at Excel,

but did you know I only use 2 "advanced" formulas?

Don't get me wrong,

Excel's got some 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨 functionality.

But, I still find a lot of it complicated.

So, I really only use 2 advanced formulas:

【1】INDEX/MATCH

【2】SUMIFS

(and 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 SUMPRODUCT if I'm feeling dangerous)

(btw, the advanced functions above are generally used to pull things into summaries. They're not used at the detailed level much)
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The rest of the time I live here:

▪️ SUM

▪️ AVERAGE

▪️ = (directly linking to a cell)

▪️ plus ( + )

▪️ minus ( - )

▪️ divide ( / )

▪️ multiply ( * )

Yes, sometimes I have to get a little fancy and calculate IRR,

Or use dynamic array functions.

But it's not that often and rarely needed in FP&A "Operating Models."

———

I've been modeling for a long time and I've found one thing to be consistently true:

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚.

𝙎𝙤, 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨.

Keep it simple where you can (so it's user-friendly),

scalable on the back-end (to reduce error),

and only complicate it when you truly have to.
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Disagree? Please do so respectfully so we can all learn from the conversation.

—Chris

If and when the time is right, I offer refreshingly straightforward Financial Modeling Courses for FP&A and Private Equity Professionals that have been recognized all over the world.  Check them out if you're interested (if not, that's cool too 👍).  Just click here.