Excel Proficiency: Advanced Lookup Functions

Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, explains helpful ways you can improve the integrity of your spreadsheets using Excel’s lookup functions. While many users rely on VLOOKUP to return data from other locations in a worksheet, that’s not always the most efficient approach. In this comprehensive presentation, David reveals alternatives to VLOOKUP, including the HLOOKUP, INDEX and MATCH, SUMIF, SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, IFNA, MAXIFS, and OFFSET functions.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in Excel 2016. He draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2013, 2010, or 2007 during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the webcast. 

• Apply a variety of lookup functions in order to work more efficiently in Excel.
• Recognize why the INDEX and MATCH combination often is superior to VLOOKUP or HLOOKUP.
• Apply the SUMIF and SUMIFS functions.
• Learn how to execute horizontal matches with the HLOOKUP function.
• Identify how to improve the integrity of your worksheets by restricting others from entering date changes.
• Learn how to view two spreadsheets from the same workbook simultaneously.

• Restricting users to enter dates within a given range or before/after a given date.
• Learning about the MINIFS function available in certain versions of Excel 2016.
• Using the SUMIF function to summarize data based on a single criterion.
• Discovering the capabilities of the SUMPRODUCT function.
• Saving time when aggregating data from multiple worksheets with Excel’s INDIRECT function.
• Learning how VLOOKUP stops looking after it finds an initial match within a list.
• Seeing how the HLOOKUP function enables you to perform horizontal matches.
• Using Excel’s OFFSET function to dynamically reference data from one or more accounting periods.
• Learning why the INDEX and MATCH combination often is superior to VLOOKUP or HLOOKUP.
• Learning about the IFNA function available in Excel 2013 and later.
• Seeing how to view two worksheets from within the same workbook at the same time.
• Learning about the MAXIFS function available in certain versions of Excel 2016.

• Learning to use a variety of lookup functions allows users to work more efficiently in Excel.
• David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in Excel 2016.
• David draws participants’ attention to any differences in Excel 2013, 2010, or 2007 during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts.
• David’s detailed handouts, with numbered steps, serve as reference material you can utilize going forward.
• David provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the session.

• CPAs and Accountants
• Marketing and Management Consultants
• Bankers
• CFOs
• Controllers
• Financial Planners and Consultants
• Business Professionals
• Business Analysts
• Bookkeepers
• Excel Users

David H. Ringstrom is a CPA and owner of Accounting Advisors, Inc., an Atlanta-based spreadsheet consulting firm that he started in 1991. David speaks at conferences and presents dozens of webinars annually on Excel and other topics. He has written numerous articles on spreadsheets, some of which have been published internationally. He has served as the technical editor for other 30 books on accounting software, and is the Tech Editor-at-Large for Accounting WEB and Going Concern. David offers Excel training and consulting services nationwide.