Excel Test for Finance Roles
10 questions · 15 minutes · Budgets, loans and growth
Finance screens test whether you can work a budget-vs-actual sheet and handle time-value-of-money maths without a calculator. This test covers both, on four small sheets. Type a formula in the highlighted cell and press Enter.
Other tests: general practice test · data analyst test
What the finance test covers
- Budget vs actual: SUMIFS by type and quarter, total variance, variance percentage and counting lines over budget.
- Lookups and flags: a two-condition lookup and an IF flag for overspend.
- Time value of money: PMT for a monthly loan payment and NPV for an investment.
- Growth: year-over-year growth and CAGR.
Brush up with the percentage formula guide, SUMIFS practice and the subtraction formula guide.
Frequently asked questions
What does the finance Excel test cover?
Ten tasks: SUMIFS on a budget, total and percentage variance, counting over-budget lines, an IF flag, a two-condition lookup, PMT for a loan payment, NPV, year-over-year growth and CAGR.
Who is this test for?
Candidates for financial analyst, FP&A, accounting and finance associate roles, where Excel screens focus on budgets, variances and time-value-of-money functions.
Why does my NPV answer come out wrong?
Excel's NPV treats the first value as one period away. Leave the year 0 cash flow out of the range and add it separately: NPV(rate, years 1 to 4) plus year 0.
Do I need a financial calculator?
No. Everything is done with Excel formulas in the sheet, and any formula that returns the right value counts.