Last-year change
By what percent did the cash flow change from year 3 to year 4? Round to one decimal.
Formula: =ROUND((B6-B5)/B5*100,1) → -37.5
Hands-on Excel exercises
Excel Skills for Financial Analysts
Practice Excel for financial analysts: NPV on a project cash flow, growth percentages, loan payments with PMT, and checked worked answers.
Financial analysts turn assumptions into decisions: is this project worth its upfront cost, how fast is revenue growing, what will the loan payment be? Employers testing for the role usually ask for exactly those building blocks, a net present value, a growth rate, a payment, plus evidence that you separate inputs from calculations and know what each result means.
The live sheet is a project cash flow with an outlay of 10,000 in year 0 followed by four inflows. Your task is the net present value at a 10 percent discount rate. NPV in a spreadsheet discounts the first value in its range by one full period, so the year 0 outlay stays outside the function and is added back. That quirk is a favorite interview probe, and you can confirm it by hand. The worked answers then compute the last-year change as a percentage, a monthly loan payment with PMT, and a plain payback check.
Practice stating assumptions beside every result: the rate, the timing, the sign convention. Keep inputs in labeled cells instead of burying 0.1 in a formula, and add a check that a hand calculation of one year matches. All figures here are fictional and for practice. The advanced skills page covers reconciling two sources and handling missing items.
Your turn
Your turn: in F2, calculate the net present value at 10 percent: the year 0 outlay plus the discounted years 1 to 4, rounded to two decimals.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Year | Cash flow | Loan input | Value | ||
| 2 | 0 | -10000 | Annual rate | 0.06 | ||
| 3 | 1 | 3500 | Months | 36 | ||
| 4 | 2 | 4200 | Amount | 10000 | ||
| 5 | 3 | 4800 | ||||
| 6 | 4 | 3000 |
Not yet solved.
Answer: =ROUND(B2+NPV(0.1,B3:B6),2)
Practice under a time limit
Try the free Sample mock exam with 4 tasks in 8 minutes, or browse the level and interview mock exams included with Pro + Exams.
Related exercises
Open a task in its lesson.
- In F3, count how many deals in Chicago are worth more than $1,000.
- In F2:F5, look up the item name for each SKU. If the SKU does not exist, show "Not in catalog".
- In F1, find the median revenue.
- In D2:D7, calculate the variance of actual from budget.
- In F6, calculate the month's share of the half-year revenue and turn on the "%" format.
- Fix D5: the number of units of juice sold.
Worked answers
Try the spreadsheet first, then compare your formula and result.
Monthly loan payment
Using the loan inputs in E2:E4 (annual rate, months, amount), what is the monthly payment, shown as a positive number rounded to cents?
Formula: =ROUND(-PMT(E2/12,E3,E4),2) → 304.22
Simple payback check
Return Recovered if the four inflows add up to more than the outlay, otherwise Not yet.
Formula: =IF(SUM(B3:B6)>-B2,"Recovered","Not yet") → Recovered
Frequently asked questions
Why is the year 0 outlay outside NPV?
Excel's NPV assumes the first value is one period away. A cash flow at time 0 should be added separately.
Why does PMT return a negative number?
Spreadsheets treat money paid out as negative. Negate it, or note the sign convention, when you want a positive payment.
How do I keep a model reviewable?
Put rates and periods in labeled input cells, reference them in formulas, and add a hand-checked total.
Is this investment advice?
No. The figures are fictional and the exercises teach spreadsheet technique only.