a page pasted from the other convention brings its subtotal with it — flipping the figures without re-laying the sum leaves you further from right than you started.
One plan year on this page came in from a deck that runs costs positive. This tab runs them negative, so that year’s cost lines, its total and its EBIT are all wrong — and the EBIT line itself was written to subtract, which was right for the deck it came from and is wrong here. Find the year, put its costs back on the house convention, re-lay EBIT as a line that adds straight through, and finish with the margin the page is read for.
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+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.
Alt e s m⌥ e s m on macPaste Special — multiply in place by the copied value
Paste-multiply scales or sign-flips a block at once — costs typed positive become negative in one pass.
Ctrl+R⌘R on macFill right from the cell to the left
Same as fill down, but across — one quarter’s formula becomes the whole year in two keystrokes.
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.”
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.
functions you'll type: SUM()
the par-setting sequence, straight through:
copy the helper B13 · select the broken year’s three cost cells · alt e s → Multiply ↵ · seed B9 =SUM(B4:B7) · select B9:F9 · ctrl+r · ctrl+b · alt h b p · seed B11 =EBIT/revenue · ctrl+r · ctrl+1 → % · ctrl+s