Josh Aharonoff, CPA’s Post

The Excel Shortcuts Cheatsheet Learn every Excel ALT shortcut 👇 Tap the ALT key, then tap any of these key combinations to 10x your productivity. 🖨️ Print this out… 📌 hang it up in your office…. 💪 then practice practice practice 👉 Don’t forget about a ton of shortcuts using the control key: https://lnkd.in/eFdxGb2n Let’s explore the ones you NEED to know: ➡️ Alignment Align your cells with these shortcuts: Alt H A L align left Alt H A C → align center Alt H A R → align right Alt H AT → align top Alt H AM → align middle Alt H AB → align bottom ➡️ Cell styles Change the cell styles with these shortcuts: Alt H H → change cell color background Alt H F C → change font color Alt H FG → decrease font size Alt H FK → increase font size Alt H 9 decrease decimal Alt H 0 → increase decimal Alt H 6 → indent Alt H 5 → decrease indent Alt H M C → merge and center Alt H M U → unmerge cells Alt H K → format for number Alt H A N → format for accounting Alt H P → format for percentage Alt H N → change font format ➡️ Insert / delete columns, rows, cells Alt H I E → insert cut cells Alt H I C → insert column Alt H I R → insert row Alt H D R → delete row Alt H D C → delete column ➡️ Pasting Press CTRL C, then paste special with these options: Alt H V V → paste values Alt H V R → paste formatting Alt H V T → paste transposed Alt H V U → paste as picture Alt H B A apply border to all cells ➡️ Borders Control your borders with these: Alt H B S → apply border to all edges Alt H B P → apply top border Alt H B L → apply left border Alt H B O → apply bottom border Alt H B R → apply right border Alt H B N → remove borders ➡️ Data, grouping, filters, sorts Alt A G → group cells Alt A U → ungroup cells Alt A J → show details Alt A H → hide details Alt A V → apply data validation Alt A M → remove duplicates Alt A S A → sort az Alt H S F → apply filter ➡️ Windows Alt W F F → freeze panes Alt W V G → remove gridlines Alt W W → switch windows Alt W N → new window === These are all of the excel keyboard shortcuts using the alt key… At first these shortcuts will take you longer than using the mouse… but after a few reps, it’ll be 2nd nature, and you’ll FLY. What are some of your favorite excel keyboard shortcuts? Let us know in the comments below 👇 PS: 👉 Grab this and 30 other excel infographics / worksheets right here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eaG2By3x

Learn EVERYTHING there is to know about FP&A 👇 ➡️ What is FP&A? FP&A stands for Financial Planning and Analysis, and it relates to PLANNING and ANALYZING Financial data… So by PLANNING, that can be: • Create a 3-statement model • Allocating budgets • Creating a forecast for a specific area of a business and by ANALYZING, that can be: • Comparing budget vs actuals • Analyzing trends • Analysis on optimal pricing • Analysis on costing ➡️ How do you break into FP&A? 🎓 THE CREDENTIALS FP&A is one of those tricky fields where there is no direct path… there is no college major for FP&A. Instead, it’s common to major in a field like finance, accounting, or even economics… and many people who work in FP&A can have either a CPA license, MBA, or CFA. 🧠 THE SKILLS Regardless of what credentials you have, here’s what I suggest you focus on to break into the field, and excel in your career: 💪 Strong excel skills - I can’t imagine an FP&A function that doesn’t have some aspect of excel…even if you’re using a gigantic FP&A tool. Learn everything you can about Excel…whether that be functions, data structures, keyboard shortcuts, or data visualization techniques (to name a few) ♻️ 3 Statement Modeling - this one’s controversial Many feel that you don’t need to know how to create a 3 statement model in order to perform well in an FP&A function… and I can see that being true - but I’d also say by learning this skill, you will be infinitely better positioned. When you understand how to create a 3-statement model, you can: 💡Forecast cash flows dynamically 💡Understand the relationship between the 3 financial statements 💡Understand accounting treatments that led to the financial data you are working with ➡️ How do you create an awesome forecast? Oh man…so much to comment on this. Here’s what I’d prioritize: 📈 REVENUE → this is where many people start with creating a forecast, and is where early stage startups should focus, as pre-seed / seed investors want to see that you understand your business model above anything else 👥 HEADCOUNT → this will be our biggest operating expense…get it right or risk surprises 📝 PROFIT & LOSS → forecast the rest of your P&L by using an average of prior months, a fixed schedule, a yearly assumption, or any other assumption applicable. 🤑 CASH FLOWS (Balance Sheet) → when you have a 3 statement model, you can forecast changes to your Balance Sheet & P&L which will automatically flow through into your cash flows. When forecasting the Balance Sheet, utilize the BASE framework: Beginning + Additions - Subtractions = Ending 🤩 DASHBOARDS → here comes my favorite part. When you have your information, it’s time to present them in a pretty & professional manner. Focus on a cohesive color scheme, and assets around data, charts, and other objects === OK…that’s my download on everything I know about FP&A but there’s so much more to it! What would you add? Join the discussion in the comments below 👇

Got any plans on December 2 - 4? Come join me at the Excel & Financial Modeling Training camp in Las Vegas! There will be a lot of geeking out to Microsoft Excel  🤓 I cannot wait to meet several Microsoft MVPs, as well hundreds of Excel enthusiasts with Financial Modeling World Cup. If you use Excel in your career, this is not an event you'll want to miss... Register over here to get 10% off with coupon code "yourcfoguy": https://lnkd.in/dGhDhYew ...and while you're there, come say hello and let's meet in person See you there!

The Ultimate Business Dashboard your one stop shop for what you need to keep track of everyday… 📣 Now available on Excel! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eZvWgpHc If you’re running a business, you simply can’t stay in the weeds in every area… you need quick and digestible ways to understand what’s happening, and where you need to focus more attention. That’s why dashboards are SO vital for any organization. Here is my preferred set up for items to track every morning as a CEO: ➡️ REVENUE & GROWTH There are few things that are as important as sales, and growth. This is especially true if you’re an early stage startup, where revenue & growth is what determines your ability to get more funding from investors ➡️ CASH FLOWS OK…I said there are few things as important of sales & growth… cash flows is definitely one of them. I like to keep track of how much cash is coming in from receivables… how much cash is going out to employees… as well as to vendors… The last thing I want is to be taken by surprise with anything cash related ➡️ PROFIT & LOSS Your P&L is one of the most useful reports… and is designed to tell you ONE thing… how much profit (or loss) you are generating ➡️ HEADCOUNT Your headcount is one of the most important things to key track of… Why? Because it’s often times the LARGEST expense… and often times the BIGGEST contributor to your success ➡️ PIPELINE SALES It’s not enough to understand how much you’ve done in sales… it’s just as important to understand what you have coming in the pipeline. This can help you prepare resources, cash flows, and much more. ➡️ HIRING Are you in the process of hiring for a new role? It’s crucial to stay up to date on what’s happening with the job post… I like to review this snapshot every morning as we have an active role (which we do - check out our hiring page at Mighty Digits!) ➡️ BUDGET VS ACTUALS Budgets are a great thing - I don’t care how much backlash that comment gets. It allows you to create a blueprint for what you think the future will look like… and then track against that blueprint, understanding whether you need to tweak your assumptions, or whether all is going according to plan. This is by far my favorite report…I can’t get enough of it. === That’s my take on the metrics you should be tracking everyday, and the best way to ingest this information at a quick glance via an attractive dashboard… but every CEO has their own metrics which matter more to their business / industry. What metrics are you tracking? Let me know by joining us in the discussion in the comments below 👇

Excited to announce my LinkedIn learning course: Mastering Lookup Functions in Excel: Seven Powerful Formulas! For a limited time, you can now access this course entirely for FREE- and if you have Linked Premium, you can access it anytime 😎 I use Excel each and every day and am always looking for ways to get more out of the tool... What's the #1 function type that I use? Easy answer...it's lookup functions. Lookup functions allow you to pinpoint the EXACT cell that you want from a data set...whether that be a line item from a Profit & Loss...a detail from a customer order list, or countless other use-cases. Most people only know of 1 lookup function - VLOOKUP...but as you'll see when you go through this course, VLOOKUP is one of the most limited lookup functions out there. XLOOKUP is the new cool kid in town, allowing you to lookup values in both directions - something you could only do with a combination of VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP... but my favorite lookup function remains INDEX / MATCH, which is actually a combination of 2 powerful lookup functions. As an added bonus, this course also includes an additional lookup function you may not have heard of - GETPIVOTDATA. This function allows you to lookup values inside a dynamic PivotTable, unlocking some really neat use-cases. What's your favorite lookup function? Let me know in the comments below, and enjoy the course! 

Follow these 7 Easy Steps to Build a Financial Model 👇 1️⃣ Start with our existing data Start with importing your existing data, as it will set the foundation for many areas of your model Almost every model has a combination of projections & actuals… and many of your projections are DEPENDENT on your actuals. Here are some examples • P&L - forecasting opex based off of past performance • Balance Sheet - forecasting balances by starting with your ending balance as of your last month of actuals • Headcount - forecasting payroll expense by analyzing who is currently on your team • Sales - forecasting sales from existing customers. 2️⃣ Connect the financials to get a basic 3 statement model The foundation of any financial model is the output from the 3 financial statements. Once you have your financial statements imported from the prior step, it’s time to connect them… this way cash will be able to be forecasted dynamically with ease. 3️⃣ Projecting Revenue Now, focus on the most crucial aspect of your forecast – your revenue. Begin by examining the transactions from your current clients and those in your pipeline. Utilize the A∙R∙S∙R framework to guide your analysis: Acquiring customers, Retaining them, Selling to them, and Recording revenue along with related Profit & Loss/Balance Sheet items. 4️⃣ Headcount Now comes time to forecast your biggest opex account - your headcount. Be sure to set up your formulas to be as detailed as possible… forecasting for mid month hire / terminations, bonuses / commissions, and fully loaded costs. 5️⃣ Projecting Operating Expenses With your headcount projections set, it’s now time to forecast all the rest of our opex. Analyze each and every GL account, and set your driver. Some examples are: • 6 month average • fixed schedule • prior months amount and more 6️⃣ Estimating Balance Sheet OK, we’re almost there! This last step may be the most challenging…but is actually fairly simple. Start with your ending balances as of your last month of actuals… then forecast Additions, subtractions, and you’ll get your new balances, 7️⃣ Designing an Engaging Presentation Finally, my favorite part – presentation! This is where all your effort pays off. Whether you're presenting to the CEO… management team… investors, or the board… make your presentation captivating. Your model should be so pretty that people enjoy consuming it, regardless of the data 🤩 === I’ve built 100s of financial models from my career, and there are few things I enjoy geeking out more over 🤓 While this is my tried-and-true method for building a Financial Model - everyone has their own spin How do you build models? Let us know by joining the conversation in the comments below 👇

Here’s how to stay organized and coordinated with a Finance & Accounting function We literally couldn’t last a day without it a task management tool like Asana… Your job in Finance & Accounting requires you to keep track of a LOT of things...and these things can be very sensitive. Consider what happens if one of these tasks is missed: • Processing payroll → angry employees 😤 • Sending out Invoices to customers → angry customers 😤 • Processing bill pay → angry vendors 😤 But those are just a few reasons...there are many more. Another reason is to add transparency to what everyone in your organization is working on. By transparency, I mean: • Who is working on what • When something is due • Where things stand in terms of progress • What questions/comments/bottlenecks exist While there are many tools out there, we’ve been using Asana for the past 5 years or so. Here’s how we have things set up: ➡️ THE STRUCTURE Each task (or card) generally has the structure as such: • Staff preparation - what the junior staff will do • Manager review - the manager’s review of the staff’s work • Send to client - finalizing the task and sending it to the client Each of these tasks are subtasks inside a parent task related to a specific task that needs to be done. ➡️ STAFF PREPARATION In this subtask, we get to create additional subtasks outlining all of the details that go into the work the staff accountant would do. As the staff accountant checks each of these off, there can be an optional notification sent to the manager regarding the completion status ➡️ MANAGER REVIEW Now the Managers get the opportunity to review the information. If there are questions, the manager can leave a comment on the task itself. If there are material items that need reworking, the manager can assign back the Staff preparation task, this time with additional steps required ➡️ SEND TO CLIENT With the tasks completed & fully reviewed, you can now send the information to the client, and mark the parent task complete ➡️ DUAL PROJECTS One of the things that I like about Asana is the way you can create relationships - both between parent tasks and subtasks (as we just discussed), but also between projects. We mark each month’s end close to a specific client, and we also create a month-end close board that brings in each of these projects. This gives us 2 views: 1 for the client, and 1 for all clients as it relates to month-end close. ➡️ OTHER TIPS There’s a lot more that you can do with Asana, such as… • Set up recurring tasks • Set up dependencies • Create a separate view of an asana board in Kanban style • Use task templates, and set up rules & automations === Asana has been a gamechanger for our company… but the key is to ensure people are using it correctly, and keeping things up to date. Do you use a task management system in your Finance & Accounting function? I’d love to hear how you have things structured in the comments below 👇

Learn the most POWERFUL Excel function SUMPRODUCT 📽️ Watch the FULL VIDEO over here: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eqY38Jik SUMPRODUCT is so powerful, it replaces the need for these functions: ❌SUMIFS ❌INDEX/MATCH ❌XLOOKUP ❌COUNTIFS ❌AVERAGEIFS Let's go through step-by-step to learn how it works ➡️ THE SIMPLE USE CASE Most people use SUMPRODUCT with a very basic use case - take the PRODUCT of 2 fields…and SUM them together. A perfect example is if you have a pipeline export from a CRM that showcases the close likelihood. To get the weighted average you would simply enter the following: =SUMPRODUCT(contracts, close likelihoods) But SUMPRODUCT is much more powerful than that ➡️ THE LOGIC SUMPRODUCT allows you to SUM the values that meet one or more CONDITIONS… and those CONDITIONS can pretty much be anything. Let’s assume we have a 3x3 grid of values with the following X and Y axis. Our X ↔ axis will showcase Jan Feb and March Our Y ↨ axis will showcase Revenue, Gross Profit, and Net Income We can take all of our values inside our 3x3 grid and sum the amounts that intersect with a TRUE condition for our X axis for Y axis For example…to get the Jan amount for Gross Profit, we would write =SUMPRODUCT((VALUES)*(MONTHS=”JAN”)*(ACCOUNTS=”GROSS PROFIT”)) Notice how this formula works? It’s taking the values inside these parenthesis and placing them in arrays. It then MULTIPLIES these arrays against each other, where the arrays with conditions get converted to 1 for true, and 0 for false. Here’s how to now scale this formula for other functions… ➡️ SUMIFS Let’s say we wanted to get the values for Gross Profit from Jan - Feb… using the same structure, we can rewrite as such: =SUMPRODUCT((VALUES)*(MONTHS>1/1/2024)*(MONTHS≤2/29/2024)*(ACCOUNTS=”GROSS PROFIT”)) ➡️SUMIFS OR Let’s say we wanted to get the values for Gross profit OR Net Income from Jan to Feb… for that, we’d ADD conditions together, and wrap them around a new parenthesis like such: =SUMPRODUCT((VALUES)*(MONTHS>1/1/2024)*(MONTHS≤2/29/2024)*((ACCOUNTS=”GROSS PROFIT”)+(ACCOUNTS=”NET INCOME”)) ➡️ AVERAGEIFS To get the average, it’s fairly simple - but first, we need to get the count. Using the example above, all we need to do is remove the (VALUES) array, so that we’re just left with 1s and 0s from our conditions. We then take the values from our example above and divide them by this count, like this: =SUMPRODUCT((VALUES)*(MONTHS>1/1/2024)*(MONTHS≤2/29/2024)*((ACCOUNTS=”GROSS PROFIT”)+(ACCOUNTS=”NET INCOME”)) / =SUMPRODUCT((MONTHS>1/1/2024)*(MONTHS≤2/29/2024)*((ACCOUNTS=”GROSS PROFIT”)+(ACCOUNTS=”NET INCOME”)) === The SUMPRODUCT function has been a total gamechanger for me and is something I use extensively in my dashboards course. Have you ever used SUMPRODUCT? Let us know your experience in the comments below 👇 PS: Don’t forget to watch the full video of how this function works to become a pro

Is EBITDA a good metric? That depends on who you ask… and what you use it for. First… ➡️ What is EBITDA? EBITDA stands for Earning before Interest, Taxes, and Depreciation It’s a very common term you’ll hear in Finance & Accounting ➡️ How do you calculate EBITDA? Like the name suggests… Start with Net Income [+] add back your interest expense [-] subtract out your interest income [+] add back your taxes [+] add back your depreciation [+] add back your amortization OK…now that we know what EBITDA is and how to calculate it…is it a good metric? ➡️ Pros to EBITDA ✅ Can be a good proxy for free cash flows → although not perfect, EBITDA can be a good measure of a companies free cash flows ✅ Simplifies Comparisons → EBITDA helps you compare businesses in a similar industries against one another ✅ Valuing a company - it’s common to use EBITDA as a multiple in order to get to a valuation ✅ Focuses on operating performance → EBITDA removes metrics that aren’t part of the normal course of business ✅ Widely accepted → everyone knows the term EBITDA ✅ Useful for high growth companies → since depreciation & amortization are not included, it tells more of a story related to profitability & growth ➡️ Cons to EBITDA ❌ Ignores changes in working capital → EBITDA doesn’t account for changes in items like inventory, accounts payable, or accounts receivable ❌ Is not a GAAP metric → EBITDA is not a metric that you’ll find in a Profit & Loss ❌ Vulnerable to Manipulation → you’ll often times hear of an alteration of EBITDA, that can be misleading ❌ Fails to consider capital structure - EBITDA won’t show you how the company is capitalized, and how much debt needs to be repaid ❌ Does not Represent cash flow → EBITDA can wildly differ from your actual cash flows ❌ Lacks industry specific considerations → your EBITDA won’t inform you of whether it’s a strong or weak indicator of performance in your industry ❌ Ignores the Quality of earnings → income from recurring sources are more attractive than non recurring sources, but EBITDA won’t inform you of this ❌ Excludes important expenses → Taxes, Interest, Depreciation, and Amortization can all be material expenses that the business faces What do you think? Comment with your thoughts below 👇

The Month end Close calendar 📅 Follow these steps for each day of the month to close your books on time I’ve closed the books 100s of times in my career… and I’ve found that with the right organization, you can get your month end close completed in record timing. Here’s my schedule: 🗓️ Days 1 - 4 → Classify & Reconcile ✅ Import remaining transactions ✅ Classify remaining transactions ✅ Collect outstanding bills from last month ✅ Send remaining invoices from last month ✅ Download bank statements ✅ Perform bank reconciliations 🗓️ Days 5 - 7 → Book adjustments ✅ Prepare workpapers in excel ✅ Book adjusting journal entries ✅ Match workpapers to trial balance 🗓️ Days 8-10 → Review for accuracy & finalize ✅ Review Balance Sheet ✅ Review P&L ✅ Review AP Ledger ✅ Review AR Ledger ✅ Finalize review for accuracy ✅ Publish Month End Close 🗓️ Days 11 - 15 → Financial Reporting ✅ Review Budget vs Actuals ✅ Review Comparison against prior month ✅ Meet with CEO, and Management ✅ Prepare Board Report 🗓️ Days 16 - 20 → Feedback & Open Items ✅ Respond to any ad hoc requested and open items ✅ Regroup with team on learnings & feedback ✅ Follow up on action items 🗓️ Days 21 - 30 → Prepare for Next Month ✅ Import transactions from Bank & Credit Card ✅ Classify transactions by category, class, and vendor ✅ Upload and process bills from vendors ✅ Import and send invoices to customers Some important notes: 1️⃣ Don’t wait till the end end to get started The key here is NOT to wait till the beginning of the month to do the work It’s doing the workout throughout the month to prepare for the following month’s close 2️⃣ You can close the book even faster The above schedule shows how you can close the books by the 10th of the month but the truth is you can close even faster if you are strategic with your resources 3️⃣ You don’t need to work weekends 😇 The calendar below includes weekends, but if you are well staffed, that shouldn’t be needed! === How long does it take you to do your month end close? Let us know by joining in on the discussion in the comments below 👇