If you're a landlord with more than a couple of properties to manage, then you'll no doubt be familiar with Microsoft Excel. For years I've been using this popular and easily accessible piece of software to manage tenants, contact information, maintenance progress and balance sheets. Of course there are other tools and apps available, but I've always been a fan of the apparent simplicity of Excel and the ease with which I can move files across operating systems, and even access and edit them on mobile devices. 

Despite having used the software for several years, I only recently discovered that there were a few things I could be doing differently, and that a simple switch of approach or function in Excel could have saved me hours and hours of manually inputting data. So, to help out fellow readers, I've put together a list of a few handy tips and tricks for saving yourself some time in Microsoft Excel: 

Quick Selections
I can't tell you how many times I've clicked and scrolled to select everything in a sheet, before I discovered you can use CTRL + A to quickly select all. Similarly, I didn't realise you could click in any cell, and then press CTRL + SHIFT + DOWN (or UP, LEFT or RIGHT) to select the rows or columns adjacent. 

Extend Formula
I often use formulas or calculations in my balance sheets to stop me having to add things up manually, and I thought I was doing pretty well with saving myself some time. What I didn't realise however is that once you have a formula in a cell, you can use the cell handle (the small black square in the bottom corner) to simply drag across as many cells as you want the formula to apply to. 

Filter
If you're lucky enough to have lots of properties (and therefore unlucky enought to have huge Excel sheets to manage), you can find things quickly and easily using the filter function. Go Data > Filter to add them, and you'll notice arrows appear in the column headers. Now click one of these arrows and you can filter the data in lots of different ways, including alphabetically, numerically, by colour or whatever manual filter you'd like to apply. 

Flash Fill
Probably the one that's saved me the most time, you can actually avoid retyping the same information over and over by using the flash fill. Simply type out what you want in the first cell, and then hit CTRL + E to fill the rest of the column. It works in lots of different ways too, and Excel uses an internal logic to work out what you want in the rest of the cells (meaning it doesn't have to be the exact same information in each one). 

Hopefully that's saved you all at least a little bit of time in Excel - if you'd like some more tips, check out this stunning Excel at Excel infographic, or head over to Microsoft's own Excel Support page.