Excel Formula Auditing Tools Guide With a Practice Workbook
Learn to trace and check formulas.
The Open buttons send the prompt text as currently shown below to that site only when you click. Fill in the placeholders first.
Teach me to audit formulas in Excel so I can audit my own files. My skill level and workbook type: [SKILL_AND_WORKBOOK]. Errors I have met: [ERRORS_MET]. Explain Trace Precedents and Dependents, Show Formulas, Evaluate Formula, error checking rules, the Watch Window and Go To Special for constants and formulas [VERIFY names; features change between releases, so keep claims modest]. Describe a practice workbook cell by cell: a sales table in A1:C6 with units and prices; totals in D2:D6; a grand total in D7 that stops at D5; a tax cell with the rate typed inside the formula; a percentage that uses a relative reference where it should be absolute; a text number in B4; and a circular reference between two cells. For each of the six errors give the symptom, the tool that finds it and the fix, with an answer key. Add a table of error values (#REF!, #VALUE!, #N/A, #DIV/0!, #NAME?) with the usual meaning and first check, a ten-step routine for checking a workbook before sending it, and a one-page cheat sheet. For practice, a colleague has 15 minutes to find all six errors and records which tool found each; the debrief question is which errors would not be found by looking at the numbers alone. Add three prevention habits: build from inputs to outputs, check totals two ways, and keep every assumption in a labelled cell. Include a five-question self-test.
Fill in before use
Optional: type your details and the prompt above updates. Nothing is saved or sent.
Replace each bracketed placeholder with your own details, then paste into Any AI or another assistant.