5 Common Excel Beginner Mistakes. Have You Made Any Of Them?

After all, to err is human?
How many mistakes have you made in Excel?

Even being one of the best administrative tools ever created, Excel can also be a brief “nightmare”, especially for beginners who try to use formulas and functions in the tool.

As one of today’s most complete systems, Excel offers a vast number of options for all types of entrepreneurs.

From the neighborhood bakery to the New York multi-market fund, Excel is one of the best tools when it comes to data analysis and management.

But it’s not all flowers. Even though Excel is not such a complex tool, it has some “cat’s leaps” that only an intermediate or advanced user knows how to use.

This is why, even with all its functions, many people still fail to use Excel at work. Some mistakes while typing or creating formulas can drive a person crazy, especially if he/she works with a lot of numbers.

But don’t worry, we are here to help you. We have gathered some of the top mistakes Excel beginners make to prevent you from doing something wrong when submitting your spreadsheets.

Well, that said, let’s go:

One of the most common mistakes – Not closing the parentheses.
The mistake that is worth a million dollars.

There you are, typing and correcting spreadsheets all day long. After correcting and sending a few dozen balance sheets you end up getting more tired than usual and don’t realize that, because you are on automatic, you forgot to close the parentheses in some lines.

This tends to happen much more with beginners, because they are not used to the level of work. Make sure that all the parentheses are closed along each line.

Oh and don’t forget to proofread your spreadsheets. This way you ensure that all formulas are correct.

Missing #VALUE, #NUM, and #NAME.
These are perhaps one of the most familiar mistakes made by Excel users. After all, who has never experienced this before, cast the first stone!

Adding text with a number, typing the number in the wrong format, and writing a formula with a spelling error.

Fortunately all of these can be avoided by proofreading your spreadsheets. Try to do everything more slowly, even if it takes you longer.

This ensures that no supervisor of yours will deal with any error caused by your lack of attention.

One of the most common mistakes: Using breaks incorrectly.
Another error that is caused by inattention is when you choose wrong or use the incorrect symbol when selecting the desired range.

The correct way is to use the : (colon) and not the – (dash) when selecting ballots.

Don’t forget that the : (colon) stands for FROM/TO:

EXAMPLE: SOMA(A2:A9) = Sum from A2 to A9.
The semicolon, on the other hand, means AND:

EXAMPLE: SUM(A2;A9) = Add A2 and A9.
Formatting the numbers wrong.
This is very common when you are using Excel for the first time.

Some people tend to use the dollar sign ($) and the comma when they are typing in some forms, thus causing the error.

Do not use $2,000 in formulas, but only the number 2000.

Now that you know how to avoid the main mistakes, how about getting to know the best spreadsheets on the market?

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