Work In Progress (Historical) Formula in Excel

Work In Progress (Historical) is a powerful Excel formula provided by MarketXLS that helps you retrieve the cost of partially finished goods within a company’s manufacturing process. This value includes labor, raw materials, and overhead costs that are not yet converted into a finished product. By integrating this formula into your workflow, you gain deeper insights into a company’s operational efficiency over various time periods.

Understanding Work In Progress (Historical)

• Purpose and Use Cases
  The Work In Progress (Historical) formula is designed to provide the historical cost of unfinished goods in manufacturing. Analysts and investors use this metric to evaluate a company’s production efficiency, cost management, and growth over specific years or quarters.

• Key Benefits

  • Quickly fetch quarter-by-quarter or year-by-year WIP data.
  • Assess cost fluctuations and production bottlenecks.
  • Combine with other fundamental metrics for comprehensive analysis.

• When to Use
  Use this formula to monitor work-in-progress trends, identify potential decreases or increases in production costs, or compare multiple companies’ manufacturing efficiency.

Syntax and Parameters

Use the formula in Excel as shown below:

=hf_Work_in_Progress(Symbol, year, [quarter], [TTM])

?? Note: If the symbol is invalid or data is unavailable, the formula will return "NA".

? Pro Tip: You can reference cells for these parameters or directly input them as strings.

Return Value Details

• Returns a numeric value representing the total cost of unfinished goods in the specified time frame.
• If there’s no valid data or the symbol is invalid, the formula returns "NA".

Examples and Usage

Below are a few scenarios illustrating how to use the Work In Progress (Historical) formula in Excel:

1. Basic Usage by Year

   =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", 2022)

   Fetches the WIP for Microsoft for the year 2022.

2. By Year and Quarter

   =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", 2022, 2)

   Retrieves the WIP for Microsoft for the second quarter of 2022.

3. Trailing Twelve Months (TTM)

   =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", 2022, 3, "TTM")

   Returns the trailing twelve months WIP starting from the third quarter of 2022.

4. Relative Year and Quarter References

   • Last Quarter (lq)

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "lq")

   • Last Quarter minus one

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "lq-1")

   • Last Year (ly)

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "ly")

   • Last Year minus one

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "ly-1")

   • Last 12 Months (lt)

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "lt")

   • Previous Last 12 Months (lt-1)

     =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "lt-1")

Date Input Formats

If you store the year or period in a cell, reference it directly or convert it as needed:

• Cell reference:

  =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", A1)

• Direct date (the function will extract the year from this string, if applicable):

  =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", "2024-03-15")

• Excel date function:

  =hf_Work_in_Progress("MSFT", TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-dd"))

?? Note: Ensure the date string or cell reference translates correctly to a valid year for accurate results.

Common Questions

1. What happens if I enter an invalid symbol?

The formula will return "NA" if the symbol is invalid or not recognized by MarketXLS.

2. Can I analyze the data for cryptocurrencies or indices?

Yes, you can use various inputs for Symbol, such as "BTCUSD:DEFAULT" for Bitcoin or "^SPX" for the S&P 500 index.

3. How do I interpret the returned value?

The returned figure is the monetary value of all unfinished goods in the production process. Compare it across different periods to analyze cost and production trends.

4. What if I need advanced metrics, such as revenue growth or other fundamental ratios?

MarketXLS offers additional historical fundamental formulas, including:

• Revenue (Historical)
• Cost of Revenue (Historical)
• Gross Profit (Historical)
• R & D Expenses (Historical)
• Selling General and Administrative Expense (Historical)

You can combine these formulas to get a comprehensive view of the company’s performance.

5. Are there any performance considerations?

Under typical usage, this formula retrieves data quickly. However, if you’re pulling data for multiple symbols and extended periods simultaneously, performance may vary based on your internet connection and MarketXLS plan limits.

? Pro Tip: To speed up calculations in large workbooks, consider updating data in batches or using Excel’s manual calculation mode until you’re ready to finalize.