Accountants spend countless hours with Excel. Many of us spend more time with the software than we do with our own loved ones. But loads of us don’t actually know what we’re doing.
Most of us pick things up as we go. We might accidentally discover a shortcut, or a colleague might show you a funny video on their computer but as they’re tabbing out they do something so amazing on their open spreadsheet that you realise you’ve wasted hours of your life.
So, in the spirit of saving time, reducing mouse mileage and showing up your closest colleagues, here are five Excel shortcuts that every accountant should know.
🪟 Open the same workbook twice (Alt + W + N)
This is one of those shortcuts that sounds boring until you use it. Press Alt + W + N, and Excel opens a second window showing the same workbook.
This means you can have your trial balance open on one screen and your workings on another. Or the assumptions tab on one monitor and the output on another. Or the current month and prior month side by side. Or– well, you get the idea.
Before discovering this shortcut, accountants can waste hours clicking between tabs – hours that can be better spent doing something unproductive and unprofitable.
Once you know it exists, it's difficult to go back.
🔍 Find where a formula came from (Ctrl + [)
Ever inherited a spreadsheet containing a formula that references somewhere in the blocky, celly wilderness? Perhaps a formula links to another sheet, that links to another sheet, that links to another workbook, which was created by someone who now lives in a commune in southern Spain?
Maybe it’s not that exact scenario, but if you encounter something similar, instead of manually hunting for the source cell, click the formula and press Ctrl + [, and Excel jumps directly to the precedent cell.
It's a fantastic shortcut for reviewing models, checking calculations and understanding somebody else's logic, or past-you's logic – selfish, ignorant past-you. It’s also particularly useful when you're reviewing a workbook built by someone who appears to have been paid by the tab.
🎯 Select only visible cells (Alt + ;)
Anyone who works with filtered data should stop reading and learn this shortcut immediately. Actually, I guess you need to carry on reading to learn the shortcut. So, carry on as you were!
The shortcut is:
- Filter a list.
- Select the visible rows.
- Press Alt +
- Excel selects only the visible cells.
This matters because without it, Excel has a hilarious habit of including hidden rows in whatever you do next. You think you're updating 20 records, but Excel thinks you're updating 40,000. Using this shortcut, you avoid accidentally destroying your entire ledger.
📋 Click the total in the status bar
This isn't technically a shortcut, but it deserves a place on the list:
- Highlight a range of numbers.
- Look at the bottom-right corner of Excel where it displays the sum.
- Now click the number.
That's it. Excel copies the total straight to your clipboard. You may know this one already, but for those that don’t, we’ve done the Excel equivalent of allowing them to see colours for the first time.
↔️ Select huge data ranges instantly (Ctrl + Shift + Arrow)
If your current method of selecting large datasets involves dragging your mouse down thousands of rows and hoping for the best, there is a better way. It might not seem like it, but there is!
Place your cursor in the dataset and press Ctrl + Shift + ↓. Excel immediately selects everything down to the end of the data range.
You can do the same with:
- Ctrl + Shift + ↑
- Ctrl + Shift + ←
- Ctrl + Shift + →
It's simple, fast and dramatically reduces the amount of scrolling Excel, giving you more time to scroll through your phone instead. Wow!
🎖 Honourable mentions
A few other shortcuts that deserve recognition:
- Ctrl + Shift + L – turn filters on or off.
- Ctrl + T – convert a range into a proper Excel table.
- F2 – edit the active cell without touching the mouse.
- F4 – repeat the last action, or lock cell references when writing formulas.
- Ctrl + Pg Up / Pg Down – move between worksheets.
- Ctrl + ~ – display all formulas in a workbook.
- Alt + = – insert an AutoSum formula.
- Ctrl + 1 – open the Format Cells menu.
- Alt + H + O + I – auto-fit column widths.
🧠 Final thoughts
Every accountant has an Excel shortcut they discover embarrassingly late. Sometimes, it can feel like someone explaining to you that dandelions are both the yellow flower and the fluffy seedbomb, and you’re 31 years old.
But all that matters now is that you know it, and that maybe you’ve learned it in the safe haven of this edition of the Briefcase, rather than from a colleague who can barely get the words "you didn’t know this?” out between their incredulous scoffs.
However you’ve learned it, move with your head held high. You are very good at using Excel quickly.
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