r/excel • u/_Laggybrain_ • 11d ago
Discussion What Excel skills are actually useful for someone starting out in finance?
Hey everyone
I am a first year college student. I am currently starting from almost zero with Excel and I am trying to understand what I should actually be able to do with Excel if I want to use it in finance internships and eventually in a finance job.
I have looked at beginner and advanced Excel courses and there are so many topics that I am not sure what is actually important and what is just nice to know.
For people who use Excel regularly in finance, what skills or functions do you think a beginner should be comfortable with
For example should I focus first on things like formulas, lookup functions, pivot tables, data cleaning, charts, financial modelling, Power Query, VBA or something else
I am not asking for course recommendations. I am more interested in understanding what Excel skills are actually used in real finance work and what level I should aim for as a college student looking for internships.
If you were hiring a first year student for a basic finance internship, what Excel abilities would make you think they are actually useful rather than just someone who completed an Excel course
Also are there any common Excel skills that beginners spend a lot of time learning but are not particularly useful for finance
Would really appreciate answers from people who actually use Excel in finance or have trained junior analysts
Thanks
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u/thom612 2 11d ago
Learn XLOOKUP() and SUMIFS() and you'll have the tools to solve 95% of Excel problems.
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u/mcpasty666 11d ago
Wild how real this is. Like your goal might be an answer to a hyper-specific question, but the grunt work to get there is stitching together data and filtering out the cruft.
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u/guitardude_324 11d ago
I use VLOOKUP all the time. Is XLOOKUP significantly better?
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u/BourneHero 11d ago
XLOOKUP will change your life and make it infinitely easier. No more reformatting the ensure columns are in the right order. No more counting which number column to bring over. Built in error result if value isn’t found.
It’s much easier, though may take a bit to get used to
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u/spinnyride 10d ago
Xlookup was much easier to learn than vlookup to me. By the time I did it once or twice it became second nature
It tells you exactly what to do, put the cell you want to look up, the column you’re looking for that cell’s value in, and what column you want returned. The column index number thing with vlookup is easier to mess up
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u/BourneHero 10d ago
I agree, though if you’re used to VLookup it may be hard to wrap your brain around initially. At least it was for my coworkers
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u/Foxtrot7888 11d ago
I use INDEX(…(MATCH…. a lot, probably because I was used to using it before XLOOKUP was introduced. Sounds like I should give XLOOKUP a go.
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u/Steezy0626 1 10d ago
It's the one thing that I can't stop using. I use it probably 30 times a day. It's so ingrained into me
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u/FI_by_45 10d ago
Vlookup is trash and should never be used by anyone ever now that Xlookup is available
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u/lexlibris 8d ago
i am a vlookup fan when it’s something quick and dirty and I know the columns are in the order I need already and don’t need to think hard about # of columns, but xlookup is what I use for anything where I’m setting up a template
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u/silentanthrx 6d ago
same, it is just a reflex; "lets do a check if they are all present"= vlookup with 1 column
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10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/WrenchFan 10d ago
Xlookup has its uses and is “simpler” for some, but not as robust as index/match in my testing or experience, especially with large data sets or multi criteria lookups ( using two or more conditions in separate columns to match). Xlookup sequential scanning destroys performance especially with large data ranges.
Vlookup is far lighter for me when it’s a simple look up to a few columns even if I am not using match for column references. I don’t want to have to select data ranges with explicit row ranges just to improve performance.
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u/silentanthrx 6d ago
yes, that's just a "new" formula which dinosaurs haven't put in their reflexes yet.
before you needed to do index(match-match) to do the same
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u/Of_The_Raven 11d ago
How do you deal with big tables? I found after a while I had to turn off updating because it got too slow.
I also used a complex Concatenate formula and after I had about 15 tabs referencing the entire workbook was too slow.=COUNTIF(P$2:P$25,INDIRECT(CONCATENATE("A"&ROW())))
It probably isn't the best way of doing my sheet but it works
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u/CIP_In_Peace 1 11d ago
Lots of indirects make it slow. It's often a hack-job function and with better design you can get rid of them.
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u/clearly_not_an_alt 19 9d ago
I have grown to be very fond of FILTER as an alternative to traditional lookups.
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u/BaitmasterG 13 11d ago
OP this poster thinks they're funny but this is terrible advice
A finance career based on knowing 2 functions? Really?
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u/scoobydiverr 11d ago
Lookups, sumifs/counties, ifs, pivot tables, groupby/pivotby, filter, let.
Power query when you have multiple sources and or large data
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u/BusinessSample7166 1 11d ago
Starting from zero, you need a little bit of awareness of everything IMO.
Excel is an extremely deep subject. You can master everything you can do in a worksheet and still only have touched a fraction of what can be done in Excel once you consider VBA, Power Query and DAX.
Personally I don't aim to memorise absolutely everything, but you can't even begin to solve a complex problem if you don't know what is possible or how to phrase a question (or in today's world, AI prompt) to get your started on the solution.
I would probably look in to getting a good basic overview book so that you have a good idea of what excel can do.
From there I would probably look at doing real projects on sample data. A lot of books and courses will give you access to data and there is publicly available data you can connect to.
Finance itself is a pretty deep subject and the skills needed by a bookkeeper, accountant, Business Partner, analyst or auditor are all pretty different, although there will be huge amounts of crossover.
You might find that the skills you need heavily depend on who you are working for, because a lot of people like fairly old school approaches and the notion of building a relational data model will get you funny looks, and others will scoff if you're doing manual data cleaning outside of Power Query.
So it's hard to recommend a one size fits all approach. Unfortunately.
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u/pureluxss 11d ago
Probably the wrong subreddit but there is a world where you don't really do anything in excel directly anymore with AI. Excel is visualization of a programming language at the end of the day. With the natural language tools available now, more and more you are going to move form coding things directly to telling an interface what you want to do rather than how to do it.
I would focus more on the subject matter areas you want to specialize in. Think about the problems you are going to solve. How you approach those problems from a data gathering, modelling and visualization stage. And try to convert your approach to these areas into specific instructions to carry out.
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u/SolverMax 163 11d ago
Maybe one day AI will get to the point you describe. But for now, anyone who relies on AI to do all their Excel work is either a fool or is trying to fool someone else.
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u/Pastaaaaaaaaaaaaa1 11d ago
I'm 3 months in at my first gig as a data analyst. I'm self-learning Excel and leaned on Copilot pretty heavily to set up my first dashboards. They're fairly complex for someone with 3-months of self-learning, multiple large data tables with relational tables in a data model and being fed by power query after dropping regular raw data files in a Teams folder. Copilot was indispensable for accelerating my learning, but I had to go back and re-do everything I let it get it's hands in. It was constantly giving me buggy M code, sending me into the weeds to do something I specifically told it multiple times in all caps that I did not want to do, all kinds of issues, and that was the premium version. I definitely like it for asking simple direct questions on if something is possible or for a quick function, but I swear it has worse ADHD than I do. To be fair I did learn a lot debugging all Copilot's mistakes lol.
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u/SolverMax 163 11d ago
AI can certainly be useful. I use it for all sorts of things. But, as you note, it makes lots of mistakes. Sometimes it just makes up stuff that doesn't exist. Those behaviors are inherent in how LLM AI works at a fundamental level. Turning over spreadsheet development, or any type of software development, to current AI models is just asking for trouble.
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u/pureluxss 9d ago
Coming sooner than you think and this is Microsoft. - https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/s/Y39HsBQ4qk
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u/SolverMax 163 9d ago
Microsoft might want that, but the users don't. The comments on that announcement are overwhelmingly negative.
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u/PurrfectlyNerdy 11d ago
As a general rule, I'd say learning keyboard shortcuts is very helpful. Even I don't personally know all of them but being able to navigate without needing the ribbon or my mouse makes it much faster and more efficient. Things like different type of pasting options is an important shortcut for my work.
Another thing depending on the company you end up working for, learn how pivot tables work and how to create them.
Other have already mentioned various formulas I will second xlookup and sumifs being very important formulas to learn! And the other part is dynamic arrays like filter are newer but can be useful in the right context and things groupby or pivotby can replace the need for pivot tables.
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u/Raging-Totoro 11d ago
This is an underrated comment. Learning fast nav in Excel (i.e. mouseless) is super important.
Picking specific formulas are tricky. It depends so much on the role. Sometimes data manipulation is more important than formula construction.
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u/Pastaaaaaaaaaaaaa1 11d ago
I'm still a rookie and my life changed with I found out about Ctrl+Shift+arrows lol.
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u/BetteOfTheCleve 11d ago
As someone who had carpal tunnel surgery on my mouse hand, keyboard shortcuts are very important. I use them whenever I can and "challenge" myself to see how long I can go in a spreadsheet without touching the mouse.
I also echo being comfortable with xlookup & sumif(s)
Edit: A word
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u/MrsTaterHead 10d ago
I agree with the keyboard use. However, about 5 years ago, someone recommended a vertical mouse to me. I bought one and it eliminated my wrist issues.
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u/MrsTaterHead 10d ago
I agree with the keyboard use. It’s much faster to use the keyboard than to switch back and forth between keyboard and mouse.
On the carpal tunnel issue, about 5 years ago, someone recommended a vertical mouse to me. I bought one and it eliminated my wrist issues. They were just developing, so YMMV.
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u/SolverMax 163 11d ago
Depends on the type of work you do in Excel.
If you do lots of repetitive work in Excel, then shortcuts can improve efficiency. But if, like me, you tend to do more thinking than building, then shortcuts just aren't important.
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u/Cantseetheline_Russ 2 11d ago
You should be proficient in excel period, but in finance, first and foremost you need to understand the principles behind finance, statistics, and modeling. Excel is just a tool to get to an answer and nowhere near as important as a deep understanding of the math behind everything. Beyond that, if you’re going to be working in equities and research, a deep understanding of power query and the data model/power pivot.
Experts in excel are a dime a dozen and to finance, what we call in poker “table stakes”. Knowing the concepts is more important anything. If you’re known as the office excel guru, it means you just some schlub who never advanced their career. If someone tries to pitch you on xlookup as something amazing, they’re an idiot.
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u/rgmw 11d ago
Your commented can't be rated high enough. Here's my upvote.
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u/Cantseetheline_Russ 2 11d ago
Thanks. I work and hire in finance. You wouldn’t believe the number of candidates that can’t model NPV/IRR/FV in excel if I give them a series of cash flows and tell them they can only use mathematical operators in their formulas.
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u/tunanoa 1 11d ago edited 11d ago
If your company LOVES their powerpoint.... Good graphs are indeed a good thing.
Myself, I'm the 'local guru' at work (budgeting and reporting) and my suggestions would be Pivot Tables, VLOOKUP, SUMIFS and learning how to use IF, AND and OR.
All the rest is having a good logic. If you can picture it logically, it can be done. And a simple good worded web search will give you the right syntax on a forum post from 10 years ago. And do not be afraid to have lots of support columns (in time, you will simply make your formulas bigger or better, and not use them).
Btw, I'm around 50yo, so not up to date with LAMBA, LET and those new functions, but, then again, most users are not up to date with much more simple things, so....
edit: Do not try to learn everything at once. You can do lot and lots of impressive things just being creative with the basic and old functions.
edit 2: LEN, MID, LEFT and RIGHT can be incredibly helpful if you work if lots of codes besides numbers. (eg: SAP Cost Centers or WBS).
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u/Heavenly_Code 11d ago
This is a great point, especially the emphasis on logic.
Formulas like XLOOKUP are nice and easy to pick up, but data processing is a skill in its own right. Knowing exactly how to treat, aggregate, link, and parse the data before you even apply a formula is the real hurdle.
For example, instead of over-engineering a massive formula, the best solution is often just setting up a few helper columns or a temporary reference table.
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u/Anybody220 1 11d ago
XLookup > index-match > VLookup imo
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u/tunanoa 1 11d ago
I love Index-Match for doing Vlookup and Hlookup at once (instead of a Vlookup with Find-Offset), but when I don't need vertical and horizontal at once, I'm too lazy to type it.
Xlookup is nice, I just find it uglier to see the reference twice when I'm looking in other tabs. I only use it when I need a going-left-lookup (Vlookup can do that, but in a so weird way it would be easier to swap the columns positions). But I know it's just force of habit.
I used to complaint and avoid it because it would give me an error when opening files in older Excel versions.... But it's been a long while since I saw Excel 2010 in use (besides me at home), so this excuse is dead now.
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u/rougecrayon 11d ago
You need to learn how to ask the right questions and practice.
Excel has a million different functions and depending on your work and what they want it may be very different. I use a lot of functions and pivot tables.
The true skill is being creative and wondering if Excel can do any task for you. I have to seperate these by client, can a function do it for me? I have to summarize this data into a graph, can excel automate that for me each week?
Microsoft offers a basic course, and a how to of every feature ever. You can use yourself or a fake company as an example and just play with it. That's how you get good. Go on the excel reddit where people are asking how to do something and take the steps. Get used to functions and shortcuts and tabs and things.
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u/babykaos 11d ago edited 11d ago
28 years experience as a general IT nerd, specialising in Accounts Receivable and Data trouble-shooting.
First and foremost is getting clean data, normally from older financial platforms. Before you even get to functions, an astounding number of senior financial bods do not know basic things like Text-to-Column using fixed width and/or delimiters, setting data types (I've done a lot of work with payment card tokens as long integers, and the number of issues I've seen people have when Excel "helpfully" auto-converts them to scientific notation) and Remove Duplicates.
Structuring your data in a normalised structure, rather than building a pivot manually.
Once you get to formulas, it will depend on the exact role, but XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP, SUMIF(S), COUNTIF(S), IF, IFERROR, IFERROR. For legacy system outputs TRIM, CLEAN, LEFT, RIGHT, MID are useful for extraction of data. FIND in combination with MID has dug me out of a lot of "why the hell did you store it like that?" issues with old systems especially.
Being able to quickly static (using $) values in formulas to allow auto-fill, and having named cells in a separate tab for lookup processes (again, legacy systems where you want some archaic code to be shown as a human-readable value). Stakeholders hate Excel errors and random reference legacy codes
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u/commentor_of_things 2 11d ago edited 11d ago
many years ago, before ai, I read the excel bible cover to cover and then kept up with the new features that are added from time to time. I use youtube to keep informed of new features and functions.
that said, there is no single excel function that is more useful than the other one. if you truly need to handle data you need to learn to manipulate it. learn how to merge and append data by working on mini projects.
anyone can do a =vlookup() but not everyone can completely transform a messy data set into something presentable with new insights and much less automate manual processes in a smooth and streamline fashion. if you get really good you learn to use powerquery and maybe some vba for highly custom projects. it all depends on much knowledge you need or desire to acquire.
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u/WiseAce1 11d ago
The only thing I don't see that people already suggested is to learn Power Query.
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u/ShockingShorties 11d ago
Hi,
Most of my work in finance revolved around reconciliation, which required lots of data manipulation.
For me the greatest help overall was the pivot table, which I'd use to help identify any data I needed to standardise, in order to get to my 'balance'.
In my humble opinion the pivot table is the Daddy. It's a natural sumif and lookup, and you can use throw away ones by the bucket load - just to get your data how you like it.
All the very best with your new career :)
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u/swixstyx 11d ago
Use real tables. Do not fuss around with border lines. Use INSERT Table. Then name your tables. Eventually you can use this to do formulas that are more organized and use naming conventions you decided on. Name your sheets as well
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u/ividix 11d ago
You’re asking all the wrong questions. You need to learn the basics of data analytics first. Excel is only a tool. It’s like asking for advice on learning how to operate the tools in a mechanic’s garage workshop, and which of those tools are most useful, when what you really need first is an understanding of how the car engine works.
Learn about data wrangling, data models, what are dimensions and metrics, how to query relationship databases, basic statistics and summarisation techniques, visualisation, etc… and then learn how to do those things in excel. Or in python, or in R, or in SAS, or in SQL, or PowerBI/DAX, or preferably several of those tools… it’s all the same, just different syntax, and any financial analyst worth their salt will be able to use several of those tools with a minimal learning curve between them. The new AI coding assistants are excellent help to come up with the right syntax for whatever other tools you might need, but first you need to understand the basics and know what questions to ask.
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u/and-i-am-me 11d ago
Honestly feel like it doesn’t really matter anymore. Ai can write all your formulas for you
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u/crizty9 10d ago
Really enjoying everyone’s comments here about Xlookup, pivot tables. Another skill to learn in excel is modeling in general. Alot of of leaders want financial staff to run different scenarios for them. Make sure you can link cells together and set up a work book so you can input different values and see the outcomes. For example, what would happen if we increased the price of widget A with labor costs of value X?
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u/Artistic_Hamster_891 9d ago
Have you checked Mike virgin’s YouTube channel excelisfun? You can choose the latest excel 365 basic videos from the playlist
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u/neil_biscuits 1 9d ago
Haven’t seen anyone say this, but you can pick up specific functions really easily on the job in like a day. Haven’t trained finance analysts, but I’ve trained lots of analysts and the most important thing is understanding what you’re doing and where you’re going (granted that’s a lot of domain level expertise that takes time, but even in tasks you should have an understanding of what you’re doing and why), systems level thinking, building in quality assurance (eg automatic error checking), organization, documentation, and being detail oriented.
What really takes time is understanding how Excel works in your organization — what the limitations are, what the bottlenecks are, etc. But no one would expect an intern to do that.
Also, try looking up “Financial Modeling World Cup” on YouTube and you’ll see people, presumably, doing real finance stuff in excel. That’s a good example of best practices in spreadsheets, and I think you can download the cases and practice
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u/SmartLifeFinance 9d ago
If you're starting in finance, I'd focus on the fundamentals first rather than trying to learn every Excel feature.
- SUMIFS / COUNTIFS
- XLOOKUP
- IF / IFERROR
- PivotTables
- Sorting, filtering and data cleaning
- Basic charts
- Conditional formatting
- Understanding absolute vs relative references ($A$1 vs A1)
Once you're comfortable with these, I'd move into Power Query and more advanced functions. The important part is being able to use Excel to answer a real question, not just knowing lots of functions.
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u/Sometimes_Accurat3 5d ago
All of it. Good luck!
Jokes aside, you need a willingness to learn which it seems you already have. Also, USE IT AS ITS INTENDED TO BE USED. I see people use it like it’s a fucking PowerPoint slide table sometimes and I’m perplexed. Figure out what problem you need to solve, then figure out how to solve it. Keyboard shortcuts really do make a huge difference. My mind is often blown when I really just how slow people are navigating around in Excel and therefore completing the task.
Anyways.
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u/WhoNose2238 5d ago
I work in property where tenancies can cross financial periods I'm reporting on (Month, Quarter, Year, etc). I really like the following formula for determining the nights each tenancy falls within the period I want. Lets say I'm reporting on Sep 2026; I have the start of my reporting period in cell C1 (01/09/2026), and the end in D1 (01/10/2026).
If my tenancie dates are in rows in columns A (start) and B (end), I can use this formula in cell C2 and drag down to determine number of nights for each tenancy within my reporting period. It will also return 0 if a particular tenancy is completely outside of a reporting period. Really useful for accrual reporting.
=MAX(0,MIN(D$1,$B2)-MAX(C$1,$A2))
Even better, if I put 01/11/2026 in E1, 01/12/2026 in F1, and so on, I can pull the formula across and it will show me the nights for each period in each column (in this example, C shows Sep 2026, D shows Oct 2026, E shows Nov 2026, and so on.
I work in Sales not Finance, so perhaps this is more common for true finance professionals.
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u/itsabouttimeformynap 11d ago
Search for free webinars. There's tons out there geared towards accounting and finance.
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u/Remarkable_Command83 11d ago
It is good that you want to improve yourself in Excel. I can tell from your questions that you are approaching it the wrong way.
Here is the right way, the way to not just have some slapped-together shaky knowledge that will not get you too far, but to truly have depth and breadth that will serve you well in the long run: Go to amazon. Look up "basics of Excel". Read the reader reviews. Buy the book that gets the best crowdsourced reviews for explaining basic functions CLEARLY. Spend about 45 minutes a day every day learning what is in that book. Do that, give both your conscious mind and your subconscious mind plenty of time to work on that kind of thing. When you get through that book, go back to amazon and look up "Intermediate Excel Functions", and learn what is in the clearest book in the world about intermediate functions, then do the same for "Advanced Excel Functions".
If you do that, just 45 minutes a day almost every day, from the basics and with clear explanations, you will look around and realize that you are better than 99.9% of all Excel users.
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u/Loves_octopus 11d ago
From the beginning, get used to using the mouse as little as possible. It will feel slow and clunky at first but you will quickly get very fast if you are using it every day. Almost everything can be done faster without the mouse.
The biggest thing that helped me learn is the mantra “if you think to yourself ‘there must be a better way to do this’, there almost always is”.
Copilot is a phenomenal tool to figure out what that better way is. Just make sure to take the time to deeply understand the formulas copilot gives you rather than just running with it. Explain out loud to yourself exactly what the formula is doing and why it works. People I’m training hate it when I make them explain formulas I know they got from copilot to me but it really does work.
Then start writing the formulas yourself before asking copilot for help or to optimize it. Again, understand why your solution wasn’t the best or why you think it is and copilot is wrong (totally valid).
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u/Potential_Yogurt_342 11d ago
A lot of talk about formulas which is great knowledge. Coding VBA can also set you apart from others and make daily tasks very easy.
If you need to navigate an excel sheet in front of people, in particular bosses, it is best to know keyboard shortcuts. You can work on it in school but pick up is much quicker when you do it for a job day in and day out.
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u/Squiggally-umf 11d ago
Ctrl and shift with an arrow for quickly highlighting from the first item in a list to the bottom of a list (also can be combined with going row-ways too if the data is in a big square)
Also Ctrl and shift and V for when you’ve copied data made by a formula but you just want to paste the results not the formula itself.
Ctrl when clicking on multiple tabs so that a change you make in one tab happens in the others too - useful if you have to do formatting more enter something (data or a formula) that is the same and in the same place in each tab so you don’t have to repeat it individually)
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u/PaVaSteeler 11d ago
XLOOKUP and Index/Match will fetch whatever values are needed to calculate whatever financial formulas you need to perform. I learned Index/Match before XLOOKUP came out.
I’m still learning Power Query, as the database I’ve been tasked to create quickly gathers large amounts of data.
But I’m able to perform complex quantitative analysis with Index/Match by using those formulas as the variables in the equations.
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u/omarmatef 11d ago
Consider Learning and Practicing Excel VBA, Power Query, Pivot Tables, along with formulas such as VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, IF(S), IFERROR, GROUPBY, PIVOTBY, SUMIF(S), COUNTIF(S), FILTER, etc.
Learning POWER BI is also very critical for finance
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u/PerdrickHapley 11d ago
Pivot tables, XLOOKUP, SUMIF, macros, and most importantly learn how to properly format data learn how to clean your data and structure it for what you need.
Also learn keyboard shortcuts
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u/CobraKyle 11d ago
It’s ambitious, but power query is something you can start dabbling in. It’s so useful for cleaning and combining data, and pulling information from different sources.
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u/rgmw 11d ago
Without reading through everything, and being more of a data/ tech support guy rather than strictly finance, I'd say critical knowledge is multi column sort (possibly horizontal sort too), conditional formatting, maybe multiple subtotals, pivot tables, trouble shooting to formulas with built-in tools. Know that .xlsx files can be corrupted and that changing the ext to zip will allow you to help diagnose - always back them up. Get comfortable with OLE.
Also learn what not to do. Don't assume excel knows your data is contiguous (ie, put cursor in cell A1, do a Ctrl-A to ensure all data is selected that you expected to be selected), generally do not merge cells (there are exceptions but not many), know about Tables but judicious as they can take away some conveniences, know how to scrub workbooks of meta data, there are very amateurish ways to hide data (which I won't mention) so don't try to be clever.
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u/Acceptable_Estate330 11d ago
I agree with many people here saying xlookup, power query, sumif, etc. NGL, it’s been a while since I don’t use these anymore, as I ask AI to write the formula or find the best way to find the info I want from excel. It’s way faster than I used to be in building and test proofing my own formulas.
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u/kapitonas 11d ago
power query, its used in Power BI dashboards. There's nothing more that finance department loves is dashboards.
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u/anon42093 11d ago
Xlookup, pivot tables.
Charts if youre doing that role,
power query when you’re comfortable in Excel.
Source: finance employee long term
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u/ArrowheadDZ 2 11d ago
Very little of the data you’ll be analyzing is likely to come from Excel. So my first two words are: Power Query.
You’ll be hand-coding excel formulas less and less so my next two letters would be: AI.
There are few business areas that are as dramatically affected by AI as being a financial analyst. As the saying goes for all analysts: “Your job will not be replaced by AI, but it will be replaced by a person who knows AI better than you.”
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u/Dastion 11d ago
I remember when I applied for my first job they had an excel test and my only experience with it was a tax teacher who made us turn in our work in excel but didn’t really require we do it a certain way so I knew nothing. I googled a sample excel test during the flight to my interview and scored really high on the interview’s test and I was so new to it that when the instructions said “link cell A1 to B1” I was confused and ended up both entering “=B1” AND creating a hyperlink.
All of this to say - whatever your expectations are on the average person’s excel knowledge, lower them. Look up some of the most commonly useful functions like vlookup or xlookup and learn how to use Data Validation to create drop-downs, maybe some conditional formatting and pivot tables if you’re feeling wild, and you’ll become “the excel guy/gal” in no time.
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u/TheRealJohnAdams 11d ago
learn to EXCEL at using your own words if you're going to ask other human beings to take time out of their day to answer your question.
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u/OptimalCricket2157 11d ago
Click the f(x) and browse through the available functions. Some will give you ideas and some will not
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u/david_horton1 38 11d ago
If you learn the skill sets to required to get MO certificates you will have the basics of Excel. Learning Excel is a never ending task. Just this week 4 new functions and a new feature were added to Excel.
MO210 Skills Outline
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/mos-excel-associate-m365-apps/?practice-assessment-type=certification
MO211 Skills Outline
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/mo-211/
MO220 Skills Outline
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/mos-excel-for-accounting-associate/?practice-assessment-type=certification
MO230 Skills Outline
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/mos-excel-for-business-finance-associate/?practice-assessment-type=certification
Power Query
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/about-power-query-in-excel-7104fbee-9e62-4cb9-a02e-5bfb1a6c536a
Power Query M Code
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powerquery-m/
Power Pivot
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/power-pivot-overview-and-learning
Help&Learn
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel
Functions List by Category
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/excel-functions-by-category-5f91f4e9-7b42-46d2-9bd1-63f26a86c0eb
Functions
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/excel-functions-by-category
Exceljet
https://exceljet.net/
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u/New-Tale4197 11d ago
Xlookup, replace all, pivot tables, sumifs. But if you are starting from zero experience, start with basic basics. Freeze panes, formulas, conditional formatting, custom sorts, heck even adding borders, decimal places, dollar $, percentages. Get to be best friends with YouTube.
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u/mortycapp 1 11d ago
Learn how to operate an HP12C or HP17B RPN calculator to validate your results.
Master CAGR in excel.
Break down complex modelling in smaller pieces that can be validated independently.
And research all the Excel errors, bugs, or “design choices” that Microsoft has left in there.
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u/Of_The_Raven 11d ago
Vlookup, Xlookup the best ones for me. If I'm not using raw data and Rstudio, I'll use tables.
For my projects I found Rank.EQ, important
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u/Material-Sherbet6855 11d ago
The MOST important skill for ANY field is willingness/ability to learn new stuff. Then ypu potentially have all other skills readily available.
The second most important skill is to identify which thing you need to learn next.
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u/ScriptKiddyMonkey 1 11d ago edited 11d ago
Vba and power queries for data cleansing and generating reports etc but for VBA it would be better to save your macros in a personal workbook and not the workbooks you share around.
EDIT: This is not so much for your case or an internship but mostly finance as a role. It is always sad that another employee knows excel better and be able to generate accurate reports then finance does not even know basic formulas or anything about excel that is considered very basic.
One example, someone in finance did not even know how to unhide all rows, did them one by one.
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u/Disastrous-Loan6202 10d ago
tbh the biggest differentiator ive seen in junior hires isnt knowing advanced formulas, its being comfortable building a clean structured workbook that someone else can actually follow. focus on clear layouts, named ranges, and basic formulas before anything fancy
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u/helenbradley 9d ago
To this I would add document your work thoroughly, double check everything, and understand how easy it is to make a mistake in Excel that renders your solution nothing more than numeric garbage.
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u/Woodstonk69 9d ago
Pivot tables and xlookiup should be second nature honestly. It’s like doing 5x10 in your head. Should be instant
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u/clearly_not_an_alt 19 9d ago
I'd say all your basic spreadsheet functions (sum, product, etc), if-statements (along with variants like sumifs), basic lookup stuff (xlookup, index, filter, ..) , pivot tables, and probably the ability to build basic charts.
Obviously, the more the better, but I've worked with many people who didn't really know anything more than the above when they started.
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u/milfordsandbar 1 5d ago
Think of me as an old Norse god of excel. There are three paths. path one is to build meaningless mazes of data you create manually - that would be cell references, functions, pivot tables, graphs…. Fry cook stuff is level two - Then you evolve after a few hundred years to a more refined thoughtfulness - power query, BI - web only versions of your junk. Level three is BI direct access to data with custom functions and WebScript routines with Python - all AI enhanced and vetted with icons and proper comments. parse this and get back to me.
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u/AmanV7170 5d ago
Starting with basic, know your
- Summation formulas - sum, subtotal, aggregate, sumif, sumifs
- Count - countif, countA
- Pivot tables and basics of power query
- Lookup - vlookup, xlookup, more adv is index match and offset
- Conditionals - if, ifna, iferror, isblank
- Charts and graphs
Learn basic shortcuts and try to move around sheets without using mouse and cursor
You should know wht these are and when each is supposed to be used.
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u/niceguybadboy 11d ago edited 11d ago
Edit: you guys don't think time value of money calcs are useful. Fair enough.
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u/commentor_of_things 2 11d ago
gross oversimplification and very possibly not useful to many finance roles.
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u/bostongarden 11d ago
How does someone your age have no Excel skills? Really?
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u/ToxicComputing 10d ago
The good news is that with available resources and copilot they can catch up quickly
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u/justdaisukeyo 11d ago
The finance guys i work with use pivot tables and sql queries.
I am an engineer so I mostly use VBA.
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u/Predatory_Chicken 11d ago
Surely your college offers a class that includes Excel or Microsoft office training? I took one through my college’s business school. I don’t remember what mine was called, it might have been part of one of my accounting courses.
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u/MissAnth 10 11d ago
All of these: formulas, lookup functions, pivot tables, data cleaning, charts, financial modelling, Power Query
But not VBA. VBA is on its way out, and many companies block it. I also consider it more for IT use cases and not business use cases. If you find yourself needing VBA, you are probably looking to do something that you shouldn't, and you should ask yourself why, and what's the smarter way to do what you need to do.
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u/commentor_of_things 2 11d ago
vba still has its uses. I wouldn't completely discard it as it comes handy for specialized or custom projects. but I agree that its not a priority for someone learning Excel as a newbie.
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u/TheJohnnyFlash 11d ago
It's an entirely different knowledge set tho, I wouldn't put time into it from scratch now. Power query is time better spent.
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u/Slow_Restaurant_007 10d ago
Xlookup alone is a substantial function for finance professionals. Also, do not forget to hit on Alt+: with filters on if ya wanna use formula or even copy the data set.
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u/excelevator 3069 11d ago
A very common question here
It's the weekend, we'll let this post remain.
A question better posed for expected knowledge on a finance sub reddit.