Excel Tips for Compensation Practitioners Weeks Data Validation and Protection

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1 Excel Tips for Compensation Practitioners Weeks Data Validation and Protection Week 29 Data Validation and Protection One of the essential roles we need to perform as compensation practitioners is validation or checking of data. For example, we need to ensure that the data submitted to and extracted from salary surveys is correct and in the right format, and that the data used for increases and incentive calculations is correct and up to date. This data validation can be done the long and arduous way, or one can use one of the many tools and formulae available in Excel to check data in a fraction of the time. I am always horrified when I see a client manually checking two lists of data to see if they match, when I know this could be done in seconds on Excel and with a far lower chance of error! During the next 7 weeks we will explore different methods of validating or checking data. We will start off with use of the data filter, the custom data filter and the advanced data filter (a little known feature which enables you to extract unique records). We will then look at conditional formatting, a wonderful tool that can also be used in pivot tables to highlight anomalies, and end with different techniques and formulae that can be used to check data, including the formula auditing toolbar. After that I will do a 3 week series on how to set dup data validation and protection in Excel forms or documents which other people are to complete. This is very helpful in limiting errors, ensuring consistency of the data, and preventing complex formulae from being accidentally erased, or hidden information from being viewed. Using the Data Filter Let s start with the data filter. The data filter is a very convenient tool in Excel for checking data, or for narrowing your data set down to data with particular values. Let s say that you are submitting the data in the screen shot below to a survey. The survey has specific codes that need to be used and rules about the formatting of the data. I have used a small number of employees and data fields for illustrative purposes here, but you would typically be submitting hundreds or thousands of lines of data, in which case the errors would not be obvious to the naked eye, and the data filter would be an essential tool. To put on the data filter, select the table of data, click in any of the headings. In Excel 2003, click Data, Filter, AutoFilter. In Excel 2007 click Data, then the Filter icon. In both 2003 and 2007, filter arrows will appear at the bottom of each heading as per the screen shot below. (Note that, to remove the data filter, you perform exactly the same actions.)

2 However, from this point onwards, the Data filter function works very differently in Excel 2007 to Excel So I will first explain how the filter works in 2003, and then in Excel 2003 Data Filter Once you have put on the data filter, you can click on the down arrow on any of the columns, see the example below for the Gender column. This will enable you to sort the data ascending or descending, select all the fields, the top 10 items or the top 10 percent of items (only applicable to numeric values), to do a custom data filter (which we will cover next week), to filter for any field in the column, or to select blanks or non blanks if there are blanks in the column.

3 One of the first things you could check for is if you have any blanks where there should be no blanks - for example, there should be no blanks under gender. To determine if there are any blanks, click on Blanks as per the filter window above. The table will now look like the screen shot below. You will only see rows with blanks in the gender column, and the arrow below gender will be light blue to indicate that it has a filter on it. You can correct the error by entering the correct gender in the column Select the arrow again, and click on All. Your table will now be back to the original data, but with the corrected gender. You can apply more than one filter at a time. For example, you could filter first on the job title column to select a specific job title, and then on the location code, to select a specific location. You will then have filtered down to only employees with that specific job title in that specific location. Excel 2007 Data Filter In Excel 2007, the data filter changes dependent on what data is in the column. If you filter on a numeric column without blanks or colour, as per the Annual Incentives column example below, the data filter offers the option to sort smallest to largest, or largest to smallest. It does not offer blanks as an option, and the Filter by Colour option is greyed out.

4 The biggest difference from Excel 2003, is that in 2003, you can either select All or one field at a time. In 2007, if you uncheck the Select All box, you can select more than one field to filter to. This is an excellent enhancement, as you often want to see more than one field at a time, and the only way to do this in 2003 is using the custom data filter, which we will cover next week also offers you a number filter, which offers you various options and takes you to the custom data filter. If you choose the sort by colour option in this filter, it takes you direct to the Custom Sort as there are no colours. In the Custom Sort, see the screen shot below, you can sort on any column in your table, you can sort by the values, cell colour, font colour or the cell icon if you have one (cell icons will be covered in Excel 2007 conditional formatting in Week 32), and you can sort A to Z, Z to A or using a custom list sort.

5 If you filter on a non numeric column with blanks and colour, as per the gender column screen shot below, you will also have the option to select Blanks, or if you uncheck the Blanks box, to select Non Blanks. As I made one of the cells in the gender column yellow, and one of the fonts red and one blue, Excel gives the option to filter by any of these cell or font colours. This is a very useful feature if

6 you have used colour to highlight specific anomalies in your data or specific types of data. You can also sort by colour, either using an automatic Excel colour sort, or choosing one of your colours to go on top. The screen shot below shows the data filtered based on red font colour in the gender column. Note that, when the data is filtered, the down arrow changes to a filter sign, unlike in 2003, where the arrow changes to blue. Finally, in 2007 on a non numeric column, you can use the text filters option this offers you various options and takes you to the custom data filter, which we will cover next week. To conclude on data filters, one of the best features of the data filter is that, when you filter to a specific row or rows, whatever you do to the data only applies to those rows. You can bold the rows, make them a different colour, delete them or copy paste formulae down the selection. You can copy them elsewhere, and you will only copy the filtered rows. If for example, you filtered to qualification level 5, and made the rows yellow, when you filtered back to All, only those rows would be yellow. This is a very effective way of highlighting specific fields or anomalies in your data.

7 Week 30 Using the Custom Data Filter Last week we covered the use of the standard data filter in Excel 2003 and Excel This week we will look at the custom data filter, and the number and text filters in 2007, which lead to the custom data filter. The custom data filter is even more powerful than the data filter, as it enables you to filter down to values that meet specific criteria. For example, using the same data set as from last week, say that, for this survey, the codes for qualification level range from 1 to 7. You can check if you have any codes greater than 7 or less than 1 in your qualification level column. To do this in Excel 2003, click on the arrow under Qual Level. Click Custom, then in the Custom AutoFilter box see below, for the first condition, select is less than, and in the box on the right hand side type in 1. Check the Or box. For the second condition, select is greater than, and in the box on the right hand side, type in 7. Click OK. In Excel 2007, click on the arrow under Qual Level, then select Number Filters see below. (If you were in a non numeric column, you would select Text Filters). Click on Less Than, and you will be taken to a Custom AutoFilter window identical to that shown above. The only difference is that, instead of a blank box, the first criterion will already be completed as is less than. Complete it in the same way as outlined above, with is less than 1 at the top, checking the Or box, and putting is greater than 7 at the bottom.

8 The data will now filter down to the 8 value in row 16, which can be checked and corrected. Similarly you could look for ages that are over 65 or less than 18, your employment age range, and you would find two examples in the data. By doing these types of checks, you can ensure that you have picked up errors in your data and that you are submitting quality data to the survey, or using correct data for your own internal calculations. You can select either one or two conditions in the Custom AutoFilter, and join them with an and clause if both conditions must apply, or an or clause if only one of the conditions can apply. Note that Excel 2007 offers you several useful additional numeric filter options that are not available in Firstly you can filter down to those values that are above the average or below the average of the column. This would be very useful if you first filtered to a specific job category or grade, as you could then determine which employees were below the average in that category, and might require higher increases or market adjustments. Secondly, you can select the Between value, which will take you to the following already completed Custom AutoFilter window. You then just need to enter your values and you will filter down to all data that is between these levels.

9 When working with survey data, a particularly useful option in the Text Filters or the Custom AutoFilter is the Contains option. I always download survey data into a spreadsheet, with job title, job description, job specifications, modal grade and the survey compensation data in separate columns. When I need to find survey job data, I filter in the job title column for job titles that, for example, contain the word Marketing, Human Resources, Accountant or Engineer, dependent on what I am looking for. I then apply a second filter on the grade column or salary column to further refine the search. This way I can for example find all the Engineer positions in a specific grade or salary range. Next week we will look at using the advanced data filter option, the pivot table or the remove duplicates icon (in Excel 2007 only), to find unique values in a data set.

10 Week 31 Extracting Unique Records We often need to extract unique records from a list of data. For example we may wish to obtain a list of all the job titles that exist in the organisation, but there are many people on the payroll with the same job title. There are two ways to find unique records in Excel 2003, the first using the advanced data filter, and the second using a pivot table. In addition Excel 2007 has a feature called Remove Duplicates which does this for you. Let s work with the same set of data we used in Week 29 to demonstrate the data filter, but only up to the Job Title column see screen shot below To use the advanced data filter, first copy paste the heading of the column for which you want to find unique records, in this case, Job Title, into an adjacent column, as per the example above. Next select the data, in this case the job title data including the heading in column D. In Excel 2003, click Data Filter, Advanced Filter. In Excel 2007, click Data, and in the Sort and Filter group, click on Advanced. The table of data that you have selected will appear next to List range see the screen shot below.

11 Next you need to select the Criteria range, which are the criteria you will use to filter the data. The criteria range must consist of one or more headings identical to those that are in your table, with the criteria you want to filter on below these headings. For example, you could put the heading Job Title, and beneath this Cash Office Supervisor. When you applied the advanced filter, you would then filter to all Cash Office Supervisors. However this can be done more easily using the normal data filter. The real value of the advanced data filter is in its ability to filter to unique records. To obtain the unique records, do not put any criteria below the heading Job Title, and for your Criteria Range, select cells F5:F6, containing the heading Job Title in cell F5 and the blank cell below it. Effectively what you are telling Excel is to filter on job title, but not to use any criteria, in other words to take all the job titles. Check the button for Copy to another location and check the box for Unique records only. Then select a cell for Excel to copy the unique records into. Click OK. In column H you will now have only the unique job titles, as per the screen shot below. Alternatively you can filter the list in place, but I find greater value in placing the unique records in a different column.

12 A second way to find unique records is to create a pivot table from your table of data see Week 23 for how to create a pivot table, putting job title into the row area and the data area. You will create a pivot table as per the example below. This will give you unique job titles and indicate how many employees have that job title. You can then copy the job titles in the pivot row area to another location, using the Copy, Paste, Values option, to create a table of unique job titles.

13 The third way to extract unique records is only available in Excel To use this method, select your data, in this case the job titles. Click Data, then the Remove Duplicates icon in the Data Tools group. In the Remove Duplicates window see below, check the box for My data has headers if you have included the heading, then click OK. Excel will remove the duplicate values, leaving you with unique records. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to obtain unique records, but is not available in Excel To illustrate the value of extracting unique records in survey work, let me give you a personal example. Each year I submit survey data for a client, with 35,000 employees, to a specific salary survey. I have a table where I have previously matched up the organisation s job titles to the survey s job titles. First I extract current organisation salary data, insert a column for the survey job title match, and do a Vlookup to this table (see Week 9 for Vlookups) to match each employee job title to the survey job title.

14 Most of the job titles match, but each year there are some new job titles, or changed titles, that do not have a survey match, and these yield a #N/A value on the Vlookup. I use the standard data filter see Week 29 - to filter to the #N/A values, and copy paste these job titles to another location. Within this list there are many duplications of employees with the same job title, so I use the advanced data filter to filter these to unique job titles only, and I now have a list of new or changed job titles that need matching to the survey. I match these, based on the job descriptions, and add them into my table of organisation / survey job matches. No more not applicables, and all the new job titles are matched to the survey. Next week we will look at conditional formatting, a wonderful tool for highlighting anomalies in your data.

15 Week 32 Conditional Formatting Excel provides a very useful tool, called conditional formatting, which enables you to highlight data that meets certain criteria. The tool is interactive, so, if the data changes, the data highlighted will change too. Let s work with the same set of data as in Weeks 29 to 31, but with some market data added in, and assume that you want to highlight any market index (comparison to market with the market = 100) of less than 80 or over 120. Select the Market Index values from cell J6 to J25. As with the data filter, conditional formatting works very differently in Excel 2003 and Excel So I will first describe how to apply it in 2003, then discuss the additional options available in Excel 2003 In Excel 2003, click Format, Conditional Formatting. The window below will appear.

16 For Condition 1, in the second white box, click on the down arrow and change between to less than, and in the third white box, type in 80. Click the Format box. In the Format window, see below, select how you want the highlighted data to appear. I have chosen to highlight the data in bold red font. But you could put in a different border or pattern (colour shading). Shading works well if you want to print the report with the conditional formatting in black and white. Colour is very effective for viewing on screen of if you are printing in colour. When you have selected the format, click OK. Next click the Add >> box see screen shot below. Then enter Condition 2, see below, in the same way as you did Condition 1. Change the between to greater than, enter 120 in the white box on the right, and format in the desired way. I have formatted as bold, blue see below. Click OK. Note that you can set a maximum of 3 conditions, but generally do not require more than two.

17 Your table will now have the data highlighted as you specified, as per the screen shot below.

18 Excel 2007 Using the same set of data, the Market Index values from cell J6 to J25, in Excel 2007 click Home, Conditional Formatting. You will then see the menu options below. You can put in identical formatting to that described in the Excel 2003 section above. To do this, next to Highlight Cells Rules, click Less Than. In the Less Than window, see below, in the box on the left type 80. In the right hand box, click the down arrow and select one of the formats offered or Custom Format. If you have selected Custom Format, in the Format cells screen, which is almost identical to the 2003 one shown earlier, format the font as bold red. Click OK, then OK again. Repeat the procedure using Highlight Cells Rules, but this time using Greater Than, typing in 120 and formatting as bold blue. Your data will then look like the example shown above for Excel However, unlike 2003, you are not limited to 3 conditions.

19 In 2007, you can also use any of the other options offered. The Top/Bottom Rules allow you to highlight the top or bottom 10 items, the top or bottom 10% or those above or below average. If you go to data bars, colour scales or icon sets, and hover your mouse over any of the options offered on the right, Excel will show you what that option will look like if you select it. See the example below for green data bars. All of these option either apply shading or icons to highlight your data. The data bars apply a bar graph to each cell, the colour scales shade the cell and the icon sets insert an icon, all based on the value in the cell. For example, the 3 traffic light icon option inserts a red traffic light for data in the bottom 1/3 of your data set, a yellow traffic light for the middle 1/3 and a green traffic light for the top 1/3. You can if you want apply data bars, colour scales and icon sets all at the same time, although it does start to look a little messy! A very nice feature is that, once you have applied shading or icons to the cell, you can filter or sort on the icon or shading. To conclude, I find conditional formatting particularly effective when presenting data to a client, manager or board for approval. I often highlight jobs, as in this example, with low or high comparative ratios or market indices to point out where there are areas of concern that need to be addressed. The beauty of the formatting is that it is interactive. In some cases, after discussion, we have changed the job match, the market index is now no longer an anomaly, and the highlighting disappears. Recently I was presenting market comparisons to the CEO of a small organisation, and he said just show me the reds - this provided great focus for the discussion. Conditional formatting can also be used to tremendous effect in a pivot table. Just select your data in the pivot table and apply the conditional formatting in exactly the same way as outlined. The great value of using conditional formatting in the pivot is that, each time you refresh the pivot, the data highlighted will change based on the updated values.

20 Week 33 Conditional Formatting based on Formulae Last week we looked at how to apply conditional formatting based on the data in the cell. This week we will explore how to apply the formatting based on a formula, i.e. based on data in other cells. When you set conditional formatting based on the data in the cell, you can set the formatting for a whole column of data at one time. However, when you base the formatting on a formula, you must set the formatting for one cell at a time, and then copy the formatting down the worksheet. Let s work again with last week s data, where we put conditional formatting on to the market index column, so that our table looked like this. Let s say that you now decide you want to highlight not just the market index of employees that are paid more than 20% above or below market, but also the job titles of these employees. This will mean that, when you present the data, the job titles that are concerns will also stand out. In order to do this, click on the first job title, Manager-Perishables in cell D6. In Excel 2003 click Format, Conditional Formatting. In the window, see below, underneath Condition 1, click on the down arrow and change Cell value is to Formula is. In the single white box, click on cell J6, where your first market index is. The cell will show as $J$6. Remove the dollar signs by pressing the F4 key three times or simply delete them. This makes the cell relative rather than absolute, so that, as you apply the formatting down the spreadsheet, the cell J6 will change to J7, J8 etc. After the J6 type <80, the same condition that is in the market index column. Then click on the Format box to set the formatting as desired. I have set it to bold red to match the formatting in the market index column.

21 Next click the Add>> sign, and for Condition 2, repeat the same steps, but setting the formula this time as =J6>120, and setting the format to bold blue to match the market index column, as per the screen shot below. Click OK. Effectively what you have done is to set the job title formatting, based on what is in the market index column. In Excel 2007, click Home, Conditional Formatting, Highlight Cells Rules, More Rules. In the New Formatting Rule window, see below, click on Use a formula to determine which cells to format. Then, in the white box, type =J6<80, exactly as we did for Condition 1 in Excel Click Format, and set the format to bold red. Click OK, OK.

22 Repeat from: click Home, Conditional Formatting, but this time type =J6>120, and set the formatting as bold blue. Click OK, OK. Either using 2003 or 2007, you will now have set the conditional formatting, but only for the first job title cell. You still need to copy this formatting down the job title column. To do this, ensure that you are still clicked on cell D6. Click the format painter brush icon, in the standard toolbar in 2003, or in the Clipboard group under Home in 2007 see the icon below - once. Then select cells D7 to D25 with your mouse. When you let the mouse go, the format will be painted to these cells, and those jobs with a market index of below 80 will be bold red, and those with a market index of greater than 120 will be bold blue, as per the screen shot below.

23 You could do the same formatting for the employee names or any other column in the data, but you will have to edit the conditional formatting formula if you format paint it across columns, as the J6 in the formula will change to I6, if you paint it to the left, or to K6 if you paint it to the right. The format painter brush is an incredibly useful tool in Excel. You can select a column, a row, a table, or the whole worksheet, click the format painter brush, then click on the top left hand cell of the area to which you want to apply the formatting. It is by far the quickest way to format data. Another little known tip about the format painter brush is that, if you want to apply the formatting to clusters of cells, that are not adjacent to each other, double click the format painter brush, then select the cells that you want to apply it to, let go the mouse, select the next cluster etc. When you have finished, press the Escape key. This is very handy if, for example, you are wanting to set the formatting the same for every second or third column or row in a table. To remove conditional formatting, in Excel 2003 in the conditional formatting window, click the Delete box, then tick the boxes for the conditions that you want to remove, and click OK see the example below. To remove the formatting in Excel 2007, click Home, Conditional Formatting, Clear Rules, and then either choose to Clear Rules from Selected Cells (you need to have pre-selected these) or from the entire sheet.

24 Finally, in Excel 2007, there is also a very useful function under Conditional Formatting called Manage Rules it is the last option in the Conditional Formatting window. If you click on this you can view the existing rules, and add, edit or delete any of the rules that are applicable in each of your worksheets in the workbook, see the example below. This is a very easy and convenient way to find out what rules are applicable in the worksheet and to edit them if necessary.

25 Week 34 Techniques for checking data There are a number of techniques in Excel that are very useful for checking data or comparing sets of data that should match. In the next two columns, we will look at some of the techniques that can be used to check the impact of changes to data, check the validity of data and check if sets of data match. Let s start off with formula auditing. Using the Formula Auditing Toolbar / Formula Auditing Group Excel 2003 has a toolbar called the Formula Auditing toolbar. You can access this by clicking View, Toolbars, Formula Auditing. You will then see the following toolbar, shown together with the worksheet used in last week s conditional formatting column. In Excel 2007, you can access the icons in this toolbar by clicking Home. The icons are in the Formula Auditing group see below. The icons in the formula auditing toolbar or group enable you to trace the precedents and more valuably the dependents of a cell. To illustrate, click on cell H6, which contains Annual Total Cash for the first employee. Then click on the first set of arrows, Trace Precedents. You will see,

26 as per the screen shot below, that the arrows indicate which other cells are being used in the formula of cell H6. This gives a useful visual picture, but you could determine this by looking at the formula. To remove the arrows, click on the fifth set of arrows in the 2003 toolbar, or in Excel 2007 the Remove Arrows icon. What is far more valuable than this is the Trace Dependents function, which indicates which cells are dependent on the value in the cell currently selected. This can be accessed by clicking on cell H6 again, then clicking the third set of arrows in the 2003 toolbar or, in Excel 2007, the Trace Dependents icon. This will yield the following picture. Now you can see that the annual total cash amount is being used in cell J6, the Market Index. You therefore know that, if you change or delete this figure, it will also affect cell J6, and any other formulae that are dependent on J6. This is particularly valuable, if you are trying to decipher someone else s complex spreadsheet, or sometimes even your own that you developed a long time ago! Where I find it most useful of all is when I have updated an Excel file with new data, and want to know if it is safe to delete an old table or worksheet in the file. I always first check whether there are any dependents, and if not, then I know it is safe to delete it. The Trace Dependents function will even show you if the formula is being used in another worksheet, provided that that sheet is part of the workbook or is open. You will get a small spreadsheet picture at the end of the arrow. Double click on the arrow, and it will show you which sheet and which cell/s in that sheet are using the formula, as per the example below.

27 When you have finished with the auditing process, click the fifth set of arrows in the 2003 toolbar or, in Excel 2007, the Remove Arrows icon to remove all the arrows. In Excel 2003 close the toolbar by clicking on the cross on the top right of the toolbar. Using the Data Filter and Conditional Formatting to Check Data (See Weeks 29 to 33) Probably the most powerful techniques for checking data are the data filter, the custom data filter and conditional formatting. I use the data filter and the custom data filter extensively to check the integrity of data. You can use them to check for blanks, for non blanks, to check for incorrect codes, or to check for any values outside of an accepted range. You can also use conditional formatting to check for low or high values and to highlight these. Checking against previous data Another excellent way to determine the validity of a data set is to compare average salaries per job title, grade or other category against last year s data. To do this, calculate the average salaries of this year s and last year s data using a pivot table (Week 23) or Sub-totals, which will be covered in a later column. Use a Vlookup (Week 9) on job title or grade to pull in last year s average salaries for the same categories. Compare these using a formula - This year s average / Last year s average 1. In the example below, in cell E6, you would put the formula = D6/C6-1. Click the percentage icon to format this as a percentage, and copy this down the worksheet. Then use the custom data filter (Week 30) to filter to, or use conditional formatting (Week 32) to highlight very high or low values or to look for negative values. This will very quickly show you where there are anomalies in the data set that require investigation. In the example below, I have set a conditional format to show percentages higher than 10% or below 0% in bold font with yellow shading.

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29 Week 35 Checking sets of data against each other Continuing with our two column series on checking data, we will look this week at how to check two sets of data that should match against one another, and how to check two sets of data to determine if they contain the same or different records. Checking two different data sets that should match A good way to check data is to take data from two different sources, that should match, and check whether the data does match. You can use formulae to highlight where the data does not match. In the example below, first value total cash in column H using a formula, adding the data in columns E, F and G together. Then use a Vlookup on employee number to bring annual total cash data into column I from another source, perhaps the payroll or HR database. In cell J6, enter the following formula, =I6 =H6. This will yield a TRUE, if they are equal, or a FALSE if they are not equal. Copy this formula down the worksheet, then use a data filter to look for FALSE values, and determine why they are false. Another way to check for differences is to put the following formula into cell K6, =IF(I6=H6,"",I6- H6), and copy this down the worksheet. Effectively this formula says if the data in I6 is the same as the data in H6, give me a blank, else give me the difference between I6 and H6. The advantage of using the if formula, rather than just I6-H6, is that you will not get any 0 values, and you will therefore only see where there are errors in one or other of the data sets. You can also filter on this column to non blanks to see the differences. This formula will also show you how large the difference is, and this often gives you a clue as to the nature of the error. For example, in row 18, the difference is 1800, which is the allowance amount in the rows above, indicating that the allowance should probably have been applied to this job as well.

30 Checking two sets of data to determine if they contain the same records Often you have two lists of data, e.g. employees, and you want to determine if the records in the two lists are the same. If they contain the same employees, it is then easy to combine the two sets of data. You can simply sort them by employee number, then copy paste the data you require from one set of data to the other or link the two data sets. However, if the one list has employees that are not on the other list, you need to use a Vlookup using employee number to combine the data. Let s say that you have two sets of data as follows on two different spreadsheets. The first spreadsheet is called Basic Salary, the second Commission. The first set of data contains your employee numbers, names and basic salary data for March. The second set contains employee numbers, names and commission payments for the first quarter. Both sets of data have 20 records. You need to determine if the employee numbers on your first sheet are the same as the employee numbers in the commission sheet.

31 To do this, add in either of the following formulae to the Basic Salary sheet, next to cell D6. The first formula uses the Vlookup to check to see if the employee number exists in the commission sheet. If not, it will yield a #N/A. The second formula uses in addition the ISNA formula, discussed in Week 12. It checks to see if the employee number exists in the commission sheet, and, if it does not, puts in a comment, Not on commission sheet. Formula 1 in cell E6: =VLOOKUP(B6,Commission!$B$6:$B$25,1,FALSE) Formula 2 in cell F6: =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B6,Commission!$B$6:$B$25,1,FALSE)),"Not on commission sheet",vlookup(b6,commission!$b$6:$b$25,1,false)) You can then copy these down the sheet, and you will see, as per the screen shot below, that there are two employees in the March payroll sheet, who are not on the commission sheet.

32 If the employee numbers had been the same, you could have read the March commission data directly into the Basic Salary sheet by putting a formula into cell G6 of this sheet, =Commission!F6, then copying this down the worksheet. Because they are not the same, you will need to use a Vlookup formula to read the March commission into the sheet. This formula would read: =VLOOKUP(B6,Commission!$B$6:$F$25,5,FALSE)

33 Week 36 Setting Up Data Validation from a List When you design forms or documents for other people to complete, you want the data entered to be as consistent as possible. This is particularly important if you are using the data for Vlookup formulae, or If formulae or in data filters. For example, you may require a Yes or No answer in a cell, and be using this in an If formula. It is then very important that the answer is always a full Yes and not a Y, as otherwise your formula will not work. Let s say that you have designed a form in Excel, see below, for new employee data. This is to be completed by HR specialists for all new employees. The data is entered in column C. Obviously a typical form would require much more data than this. I have just given a sample of data required here. In this form, you want the following validation checks on the data. a) Division must be one of 7 divisions. b) Grade must be one of 7 grades. Based on the grade entered, a pay range will appear in cells F5 to F7. c) Appointment salary will be checked to ensure that it is within the grade pay range. d) Marital status must be one of four options. e) No. of dependants should be a whole number, and must be between 0 and 10. f) Date of birth must be a valid date.

34 Let s start with the first validation check on Division. You want to ensure that the division entered is one of 7 divisions, and provide a drop down list with these divisions. To do this, first create the divisions in a separate spreadsheet in the file - see below, where I have put the validation lists and pay ranges in one sheet. Next, name the list of divisions as divisions. To do this, select the divisions from B6 to B12. In the name box to the left of the formula bar, replace the column and row number, B6, with the word divisions. Press enter. See Week 11 for detail on how to name ranges. It is important to name the validation list, as this enables you to place it in a separate spreadsheet and use it in the data validation. Otherwise you have to keep the list in the same spreadsheet as your form, and hide it. Because it is hidden, you often forget that it is there, and while adjusting your form, accidentally delete rows or insert rows in the list. It is also much easier to maintain the validation list if it is in a separate spreadsheet. Go back to your employee details form. In cell C6, in Excel 2003 click Data, Validation. In Excel 2007 click Data, then select Data Validation from the Data Tools group. In the Data Validation Settings window, see below, click on the arrow under Allow: and select List. Under Source: type = divisions (this being the name of your divisions range).

35 Next click the Input Message tab, see below, and under Input message: type, Please select a division from the drop down list or whatever text you wish people to see when they click on the cell. Next click the Error Alert tab, as per the next screen shot, and under Error message:, type A division must be selected from the drop down list, or whatever text you wish people to see if they do not choose from the drop down list and enter incorrect data. Under Style:, choose Stop if you want people not to be able to enter any other data, or Warning, or Information. The last two will

36 allow them to proceed with incorrect data. In our case we want to stop people entering the incorrect division, as we want the divisions to be consistent. You can also if you want enter a Title for your error message. In our case we will leave title blank. Next press OK. You have now set up the data validation for cell C6. When you click on cell C6, it will give you the input message, and when you click on the down arrow, you will see the list of divisions as per the screen shot below. If you do not choose one of these, or enter text that is not the same as one of these, you will be stopped with the error message.

37 Next week we will continue with this same employee details form, showing how to enter other types of validation and how to obtain the pay range from the grade entered.

38 Week 37 Setting Up Other Types of Data Validation Last week we showed how to set up data validation for an employee details form field based on a list. We will continue with other types of data validation this week. Let s take the form from last week see below. In our example, the organisation uses grades 1 to 7, so we need to ensure that the grade entered in cell C8 is a whole number between 1 and 7. To do this, click on cell C8, then in Excel 2003 click Data, Validation, or in Excel 2007, click Data, Data Validation. In the Data Validation Settings window, see below, click on the arrow under Allow: and select Whole Number. Click on the arrow under Data: and select between. Under Minimum: enter 1, and under Maximum: enter 7. Note the many other options available under Allow: and Data:. In the Input Message window, type something like: Please enter a grade between 1 and 7, and in the Error Alert window, type something like: You must enter a grade between 1 and 7. Click OK. You have now set up the data validation for cell C8.

39 When you click on cell C8, it will give you the input message, and will only allow you to enter a whole number between 1 and 7. If you do enter anything else, you will be stopped with the error message. Next you need to link the pay range in cells F5 to F8 to the grade entered and the pay ranges set up in the Validation Lists sheet, see below. To make the formula easier, first name the pay range data in cells F6 to I12 as pay_ranges. To do this, select the data from F6 to I12. In the name box to the left of the formula bar, replace the

40 column and row number, F6, with the word pay_ranges. Press enter. See Week 11 for detail on how to name ranges. Go back to the employee details form. In cell F5, next to Minimum, enter the following formula: =IF($C$8="","",VLOOKUP($C$8,pay_ranges,2)). Drag this formula down to cell F6 and edit the 2 in the Vlookup to a 3 as follows: =IF($C$8="","",VLOOKUP($C$8,pay_ranges,3,)) Drag this formula down to cell F7 and edit the 3 in the Vlookup to a 4 as follows: =IF($C$8="","",VLOOKUP($C$8,pay_ranges,4,)) This formula will put in a blank, the, if there is no grade entered. If there is a grade entered, it will look up this grade in the pay ranges table. The first formula will look across 2 columns to get the minimum, the second formula 3 columns to get the midpoint, and the third formula 4 columns to get the maximum. You do not need to put FALSE at the end, as the data is in ascending order, and the data validation means that no other grade can be entered other than the grades in the pay ranges table. Now you can set up data validation for the Appointment Salary field in C9 to ensure that it is within the pay range. To do this, click on cell C9, then in Excel 2003 click Data, Validation or in Excel 2007, click Data, Data Validation. In the Data Validation Settings window, see below, click on the arrow under Allow: and select Whole Number. Click on the arrow under Data: and select between. Under Minimum: enter =F5, and under Maximum: enter =F7. These are the cells containing the pay range minimum and maximum. Leave the Input Message window blank, and in the Error Alert window, see below, change Style to Warning, and put in the message, Appointment salary is outside the pay range. This warns that the salary is outside of the pay range, but allows this, as there may be instances where an

41 appointment needs to be made outside of the normal pay range. Click OK. You have now set up the data validation for cell C9 to warn if the appointment salary is outside of the grade pay range. Next set up the data validation for the remaining cells see below. Set Marital Status as a choice from the marital status list in the Validation Lists sheet, as per the instructions last week. Set No. of dependants as a whole number between 1 and 10, or whatever number you deem suitable as a maximum. Marital Status No. of dependants Date of birth Set Date of Birth up as a date field, choosing a suitable start and end date. You can make the end date = today() as per the example below, or an earlier date. However you will have to remember to change the date ranges each year if you have set them to allow ages between 16 and 65 for example. If you change a data validation field, and this data validation applies to more than one cell, just check the box see below for Apply these changes to all other cells with the same settings.

42 Once you have completed the data validation, you will have a great form that captures data in a consistent way, and ensures that it is within acceptable parameters. Next week we will look at how to protect the document you have worked so hard to set up!

43 Week 38 Setting up Data Protection During the last two weeks we showed how to set up data validation for an employee details form see below. This week we will look at how to protect the form to ensure consistency and prevent users deleting your formulae or settings, how to hide supporting sheets that you don t want users to see, and how to protect the workbook, so that these sheets cannot be unhidden or deleted. In the worksheet you want to protect, you first need to establish which cells you will allow users to enter data into. You select these cells, which for this form, would be cells C4 to C12. You then right click, select Format Cells, click the Protection tab, see below, and uncheck the box for Locked. The Hidden box should also remain unchecked. Click OK. You will now have unprotected these cells, so that data can be entered into them.

44 Next, in Excel 2003 click Tools, Protection, Protect Sheet. In Excel 2007 click Review, Protect Sheet. In the Protect Sheet window, see below, type in a password. You will be asked to repeat this. Either just leave the Select locked cells and Select unlocked cells boxes checked, or check any of the other areas to allow users to for example format cells, columns or rows. Generally, if you are wanting users to enter data into a document, it is best to leave just the first two boxes checked and also possibly the Use Autofilter option (scroll down to see this option) if you have a data filter in your worksheet.

45 Once you have set the data protection, if a user tries to enter data in or edit any cell that has not been unprotected, they will get the following message in Excel Or this message in Excel You can also hide your formulae, for example the pay range formulae in cells F5 to F7 by doing the following. Select the cells, right click, select Format Cells, then click the Protection tab, see below, and check the box for Locked and Hidden. Click OK.

46 Once you have protected the sheet, these cells will appear blank until someone enters a grade and then they will magically transform themselves into pay ranges! This looks very impressive to the user. With a form, you generally don t want users to see your supporting sheets with the validation lists etc. To hide these, select the sheet or sheets. Select more than one sheet by holding down the control key and clicking each sheet in turn. Or select the first sheet, hold down the shift key, then select the last sheet, and you will then have selected all the sheets in between as well. Next, in Excel 2003, click Format, Sheet, Hide. In Excel 2007, while pointing with your mouse at the sheet tabs, right click and click Hide. To unhide them, in Excel 2003 click Format, Sheet, Unhide, and select the sheet you want to unhide. In Excel 2007, point at the sheet tabs, right click, and click unhide, then select the sheet you want to unhide. Note that you can hide many sheets at once, but you can only unhide one sheet at a time. However the very useful add in menu option, ASAP-Utilities, which can be downloaded from does allow you to unhide more than one sheet at a time and also to protect or unprotect multiple sheets at once. Once you have hidden your supporting sheets, protect the whole workbook by clicking in Excel 2003 Tools, Protection, Protect Workbook, or in Excel 2007, Review, Protect Workbook. Leave the Structure box checked see below, and put in a password. Now users will not be able to insert, delete, move, copy, re-name, hide or unhide work sheets in the workbook.

47 To unprotect the worksheet or the workbook, in Excel 2003 click Tools, Protection, Unprotect Sheet or Unprotect Workbook and enter your password. In Excel 2007 click Review, Unprotect Sheet or Unprotect Workbook, and enter your password.