an operating model runs off its driver panel — units and price make the top line, and every cost under it traces back to the same four blue cells.
The commercial team just re-cut the volume and pricing plan and the deal team needs the five-year operating case before tomorrow morning. The actual year links in from the reporting pack and the driver panel is set — build the plan years off it: units, selling price, the top line, the two cost lines and EBITDA, mark the EBITDA line the way the deck reads it, and leave the margin memo underneath so the sponsor can see where the story goes.
Alt walks: tap Alt, release, then the letters in sequence — each key steps one ribbon menu. On a Mac, tap ⌥ and use the same letters (KeyTips, Excel 2024+).
Ctrl+1⌘1 on macOpen the Format Cells dialog
The master formatting dialog — number formats, alignment, borders in one place when a ribbon walk would take longer.
Ctrl+C⌘C on macCopy
Copy starts almost every hand-off — grab a finished block once, then place it in the summary, the deck, or next quarter’s column.
Ctrl+V⌘V on macPaste
Plain paste brings everything: values, formulas, formats. Reach for Paste Special when you only want part of it.
Ctrl+B⌘B on macBold
Bold marks structure: titles, total rows, anything the reviewer’s eye should land on first.
Alt h b p⌥ h b p on macTop border
Top border above a total row — the accounting ruling that says “this line sums the ones above.”
functions you'll type: SUM()
the par-setting sequence, straight through:
C4 =B4*(1+$B$15) · C5 =B5*(1+$B$16) · C7 =C4*C5 · C8 =-C4*$B$17 · C9 =-C7*$B$18 · C10 =SUM(C7:C9) · C12 =C10/C7 + ctrl+1 p · copy C4:C12 → paste C4:G12 · A10:G10 ctrl+b + alt h b p · ctrl+s