EFB210 Finance 1: Excel Formatting Guide
Purpose: Outline Excel formatting standards for the Finance 1 Assignment.
Set by: Mark Doolan
Guiding Principles: Be consistent and keep it simple
Font:
• Calibri 11 point font (excel default) preferred
Input Cells:
• These are the cells where we input values. Given that the inputs drive the spreadsheets output, we want to highlight them for ease of reference. As such, highlight with yellow fill. One exception is that you may choose ‘no fill’ for an input cells that are not variable. For example, all input cells (primary data entry cells) in Figure 1 have been highlighted yellow except the year references that form the column headings.
Output Cells:
• Do not contain any hard inputs (e.g. written in variable values – number such as 365 that don’t change are not considered inputs), which means they are made up entirely of cell references [e.g. = A2 * (A3 + A4)].
• Use standard font with no fill. Can use red for negative values (occurs automatically for some formats, e.g. dollar or accounting number formats).
• If you want to highlight a particular value, use bold.
Figure 1: Excel Table Formatting Example
Table Formatting:
• Top row of table headings ‘Bold’ and ‘Centred’, may left justify left most cell of column headings – refer figure above
• Try to only use horizontal lines – in design less is more, but don’t confuse this with the basic economic premise that more is more….
• For column headings, use a single line on top and double line at the bottom
• Last row ends with single line on the bottom
• Where appropriate use other horizontal lines
• May use double lines to indicate sum
Graph Formatting:
• Use the right graph for the particular form of analysis
• Include meaningful Headings and Axis Titles (note I haven’t included y-axis label in Figure 2 because values are self explanatory)
• Ensure that headings, plots and other information don’t overlap each other.
• Choose an appropriate font
Figure 2: Comparative Graph of Share Price
Assumptions Sheet for Capital Budgeting Assignment
• All inputs for the capital budgeting assignment must be on the one separate sheet.
