This document provides recommendations for setting up Excel for financial modelling. It suggests unticking options like "After pressing Enter, move selection" and "Allow editing directly in cells" to increase efficiency. It also recommends hiding the ribbon, working in manual calculation mode, and showing the developer tab to access VBA tools. The document is from the Financial Modelling Handbook, which aims to build better models using collaborative guidelines.

1. Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
SETTING UP
EXCEL
for financial modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com

2. THERE IS NO
GREATNESS WHERE
THERE IS NOT
SIMPLICITY
LEO TOLSTOY

3. ABOUT THE FINANCIAL
MODELLING HANDBOOK
Financial modelling should be collaborative. Collaboration
reduces error, speeds up development time and lowers
cost. The Financial Modelling Handbook is a collaborative,
crowd-sourced guide to building better financial models
using the FAST Standard.
www.financialmodellinghandbook.com/contribute

4. Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
ANDREW
Andrew Berkley is Managing
Director and Lead Modelling
Instructor at F1F9. Andrew is a
Chartered Accountant with a
background in financial advisory
and business education.
financialmodellinghandbook.com

5. Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
SETTING UP
EXCEL
for financial modelling
The default settings in excel aren’t necessarily
the most useful for financial modelling.
In this guide we recommend a few simple
changes that will increase the efficiency of your
excel modelling.
DOWNLOAD THIS GUIDE

6. Financial Modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com
HANDBOOK
1. MOVE SELECTION AFTER ENTER
1
Untick “After pressing Enter,
move selection”.
This means that when you
enter or edit a formula, you
will no longer move down one
cell when you hit enter. This
saves an unnecessary
keystroke.
To access these settings:
Excel 2010: Office button  Excel options  Advanced
Excel 2013: File  Excel options  Advanced

7. Financial Modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com
HANDBOOK
2. EDIT DIRECTLY IN CELL
2
Untick “Allow editing directly
in cells”. This means that
formula editing is always done
in the formula bar.

8. Financial Modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com
HANDBOOK
3. HIDE THE RIBBON
3
4
3
The ribbon in Excel 2010 and 2013
takes up valuable screen space.
Right click on a blank area of the
ribbon to access the ribbon menu.
4
Tick “Collapse” the ribbon.
From now on the ribbon will only
appear when you need it.
Hit ‘Alt’ to access the menu and
then choose the command you
need, using the highlighted keys.

9. Financial Modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com
HANDBOOK
4. CALCULATION MODE
3
4
We recommend working in manual
calculation mode. This is to allow
modellers to maintain control over
when a model calculates - generally
wishing to be ‘looking at something of
interest’ (i.e. an output) to see the
impact of the recalculation.
3
File  Excel options  Formulas
4
Select ‘Manual’ calculation model

10. Financial Modelling
HANDBOOK
4. CALCULATION MODE
Calculation mode settings affect the entire
environment, not just individual workbooks.
The setting is stored with each individual workbook
you save. The setting Excel then chooses for its initial
position during any instance of an Excel environment,
is the setting defined in the first workbook loaded by
that instance.
financialmodellinghandbook.com

11. Financial Modelling
financialmodellinghandbook.com
HANDBOOK.
5. SHOW DEVELOPER TAB
5
5
VBA / Macro options and tools are
‘hidden’ by default. Enabling the
‘Developer tab’ un-hides these
options.
5
File  Excel options  Formulas
6
Tick “Developer”