Formatting Guidelines:

Element	Color	Notes
Hardcoded values	Blue	Represents manually entered data.
Input Boxes	Yellow	Indicates cells where user inputs are required.
Values Pulled from other sheets	Green	Shows data linked from other sheets or sources.
Calculations	Black	Denotes formula-based data.
Text	Mostly Black	Black for standard text, adjusted for contrast on dark backgrounds (e.g., table headings).

Formatting:

• Display Share Prices and EPS: upto two decimal places, because that’s how they are displayed by convention
• Share Count: We also usually use at least 1 decimal place, sometimes up to 2-3, to display the company’s share count.
• Valuation Multiples: Usually 1 decimal place for valuation multiples
• Percentages: One decimal place as well - even if the financial figures in the model have 0 decimal places

Plotting a Dynamic Stock Price Line on a Football Field:

Essentially we have to plot a scatter plot with stock price on one axis as all values, and on the other axis a large number for only one point, and zero for all the others. This is a standard trick to plot straight lines.

• In your data for the football field, add a new row for the stock price. For one axis (doesn’t matter x or y), add the stock price, for the other add a large number (like 1000/10,000) for the Min point and 0 for everything else.
• Next add the stock price data from above as a new cluster column/bar (depending upon how you are presenting the football field).
• Once plotted as a bar, go and manually edit the SERIES formula (excel automatically creates a series formula for each row/column plotted), to have x and y values:
  • X-values: The stock price range.
  • Y-values: 1000 and 0 values axis created above.
  • SERIES Formula: SERIES(name, x_values, y_values, plot_order)
    • name: Refers to the name of the data series. Can be a cell reference, range, or hard-coded text.
    • x_values: Specifies the range of data for the x-axis (categories or horizontal axis).
    • y_values: Specifies the range of data for the y-axis (values or vertical axis).
    • plot_order: Specifies the order in which the series appears in the chart (optional).
• Next, select the entire chart, and change the share price chart type to smooth scatter plot, and tick the scatter plot’s axis as secondary axis.
• Now the x-axis labels are messed up. So in “Select data” for the entire chart fix the x-axis to your regular labels.
• Hide/Delete the secondary axis (Hide option is better, get in the habit of using it -> Format pane select axis labels as none).
• Format the share price line as you wish.

Fixing the Dates Axis in a Stock Price/Volume Chart:

Problem: Have a fixed start date, end date and a small number of dates in between. While the data plotted is for the entire year. Solution: