Excel like a finance pro.
Colour the cells that need attention
AltH, LFormattingMake the problems visible without reading a single number.
Difficulty
1What it does
The built-in presets colour one cell at a time, which is fine for a data bar and useless for a report. The rule worth learning is the formula-driven one: it colours the whole ROW when a condition is met, so an aging report shows you the overdue accounts as stripes rather than as numbers you have to scan. The trick is the reference style — lock the column with a dollar sign and leave the row relative, so the rule walks down the rows testing the same column each time.
2The shortcut
- 1Select the whole range, then
Alt + H,L,Nfor a new rule. - 2Choose **Use a formula**, and enter a test against the FIRST row of the selection —
=$E2>60, with the column locked and the row not. - 3Set the format. The rule applies row by row down the whole selection.
3Before → after
Press the shortcut to play it on a sample sheet.
Before — the overdue ones are in there somewhere
| A — Customer | B — Amount | C — Days overdue | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acme Supply | 4,200 | 12 |
| 2 | Globex | 9,800 | 71 |
| 3 | Umbrella Co | 1,450 | 38 |
| 4 | Soylent Ltd | 6,300 | 94 |
Two of these are more than 60 days overdue. Reading that off the numbers takes a moment; seeing it takes none.
4When you use it
- Stripe an aging report by days overdue.
- Flag any margin below target across a whole product table.
- Highlight rows where actual is more than 10% off budget.
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Learn the moves here — or let Wauvel run them on your numbers.
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