Spreadsheet Templates

Sometimes, you don't want, or 0:00 don't have time to create a new spreadsheet from scratch. 0:02 Thankfully, there are many starter spreadsheet templates that help 0:05 you collect and analyze data for 0:08 different situations, without having to build out an entire new spreadsheet. 0:10 There are lots of spreadsheet templates available online that you can find using 0:15 search engines. 0:18 Also, Google Sheets has templates available. 0:20 To use the Sheets templates, you open up a new sheet, as you see on your screen here, 0:23 then you go to the File menu, select New, 0:29 and then go down to the bottom and click From template. 0:32 Then you get taken to a section that has general templates available to all users. 0:37 Note that you can also create templates for your organization. 0:43 We don't have any. 0:46 But here we are, and 0:48 there's several different example templates that we can choose from. 0:50 So let's look at the expense report template. 0:55 I click on it and here we have the template. 1:01 So I can enter my company name, 1:04 Smells Like Bacon Inc. 1:07 Our street is 123 Street. 1:13 It's a weird address, I know. 1:16 And then let's say we're based in Lake Tahoe, 1:18 CA, and we're from the Bay Area so we have a 415 number. 1:24 You get the deal, you can customize it to your needs. 1:31 So that's one example template that Google provides. 1:40 Let's look at another. 1:43 From template, again I'm following the same process and 1:46 let's look at what their travel planner template looks like. 1:52 See the trip title at the top, let's say we're going to Paris. 1:57 Paris Summer 2020. 2:02 And we can insert some rows, so I'm gonna click 2:07 the row here, insert above, insert above. 2:12 Let's say we're going with Andrew, Nick. 2:17 Wow, look at that. 2:22 What happened there? 2:23 So the formatting was messed up, and 2:31 what I did to get around that is I just copied the rows and pasted them in. 2:33 Let's say we're going with Andrew, Alena, Craig, and Ben. 2:38 And the dates are July 2:44 7th through August 7th. 2:49 We're taking a long trip. 2:56 And Paris, France, so I'm gonna copy these. 2:58 Remember, I can use my keyboard shortcuts, copy and 3:06 then Shift+Cmd+Down, and then paste. 3:10 But the main point is that there's a lot of templates available 3:15 through Google Sheets specifically, or you can search on a search 3:20 engine to find some templates that are available from other sources as well. 3:25 Similar to coding frameworks, templates can save you a lot of time. 3:29 Don't be shy to look for example templates. 3:34 More importantly, remember that the company you work for 3:36 might have preferred formatting for certain types of spreadsheets. 3:40 Make sure to check and see if there are templates your colleagues and 3:43 boss would prefer that you use. 3:46 Indeed, presenting your data in a format that's familiar to your coworkers will 3:48 reduce friction when sharing information with them. 3:52 Sometimes a template simply won't do though, and 3:55 it makes more sense to start from scratch. 3:58 The more advanced you get with spreadsheets and the better you get at 4:00 building them, sometimes it's just easier to start from scratch. 4:03 For example, in my first years as an analyst, 4:07 I would often rely on templates when building earnings and transaction models. 4:10 However by my second year, I preferred to build my own, 4:14 as it helped me understand the data I was analyzing better. 4:17