[...]... helpful This can be quickly achieved using the automatic formatting features These are accessed via the FORMAT AUTOFORMAT command (HOME STYLES) Spreadsheet 3: Formatting In Figure 1.3 the data for the four quarters is totalled and reported as an annual figure The values in the plan have also been formatted 06_Y551_Ch01.indd 7 11/19/2008 12:33:38 PM Financial Planning Using Excel STYLE03.XLS 8 Figure 1.3... Documentation Spreadsheet developers are notoriously bad at supplying documentation and other supporting information about the plan 06_Y551_Ch01.indd 10 11/19/2008 12:33:42 PM Financial Planning Using Excel There are a number of features offered by Excel to assist in the documenting of plans including the INSERT COMMENT command (REVIEW: ADD COMMENT) Figure 1.5 shows a comment being entered onto a plan – notice... can then be referenced from within the plan as and when they are required Figure 1.8 shows the adapted layout for this plan after extracting the sales growth and cost factors Financial Planning Using Excel STYLE06.XLS Figure 1.8 Using cell references for non-changing values 14 Having the growth and cost factors in separate cells means that the formulae need to be changed to pick up this information Figure... cross-check on a calculation In the file STYLE08 the cross check control box has been placed on a separate sheet to the main plan Financial Planning Using Excel When creating calculation checks the first step is to select a number of key items from the model, whose result can be calculated using a different arithmetic reference For example, in Figure 1.12, the year-end gross profit has been calculated by referencing... process First, the cells into which data can be entered are unprotected using the FORMAT CELLS PROTECTION command and removing the tick on the Locked box (HOME : FORMAT : LOCK CELL) The second step is to then enable protection by selecting TOOLS PROTECTION PROTECT SHEET (HOME : FORMAT : PROTECT SHEET) TIP! Financial Planning Using Excel It is also important to save the file now as a Template file as... Figure 1.17 Data input form 06_Y551_Ch01.indd 21 11/19/2008 12:33:56 PM Financial Planning Using Excel for the quarterly plan, and Figure 1.18 shows the amended formulae in the plan, which picks up the data from the input form 22 Figure 1.18 Amended formulae to reference data input form There are many benefits to be derived from using data input forms including the fact that the data can be checked... This chapter has considered some of the principal design elements that need to be considered when embarking on the creation 06_Y551_Ch01.indd 22 11/19/2008 12:33:56 PM Financial Planning Using Excel of any business model or plan, be it a financial statement, a budgetary control system, a marketing model or a forecasting plan A small plan has been used for demonstration purposes, but many of the techniques... accompanying role as opposed to a central role Financial Planning Using Excel Objective forecasts 30 An objective or quantitative approach to forecasting requires a model to be developed which represents the relationships deduced from the observation of two or more different numeric variables This is generally achieved by first recording historic data and then using these historical facts to hypothesise... the task even easier and open the door to the ability to perform a wider range of analyses Financial Planning Using Excel The problem of course is first discovering just what is available and then learning how to apply the tool to the task in hand It is hoped that the reader will be better placed to produce useful Excelbased forecasts by working through the exercises in this book 32 08_Y551_Ch02.indd... the author, but it is unlikely to be helpful to anyone else This is clearly a quick one-off plan which has been prepared with very little care and which might not even be saved on the disk Financial Planning Using Excel STYLE01.XLS 6 Figure 1.1 Simple profit projection Problems with this spreadsheet The immediate obvious problems with this spreadsheet are that it has no title, it is not clear what the . PM11/19/2008 12:29:30 PM Using Excel 2007 xiii Using Excel 2007 This edition of Financial Planning with Excel incorporates the use of Excel 2007. Excel 2007 introduces. Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 and will indicate new fea- tures of Excel 2007 where appropriate. Excel 7 commands are placed in brackets after the Excel 2003 command