9.2 Color Conventions and Formatting

Font color is the audit contract

Quick Answer: The CFI-aligned convention taught in FMVA is blue font = hardcoded inputs, black font = formulas on the same sheet, and green font = cross-sheet links. Do not claim a unique unpublished RGB. Pair font color with a global units marker, a custom number format for positives / negatives / zeros, and consistent labels. Yellow fill on inputs is a common extra; font color is what FMVA drills.

CFI's Financial Modeling Guidelines course includes font types and colors as a named topic, alongside units markers, custom number formats, capitalization, and aligning units with periods. On a timed Excel case, color is how you answer: "Is this 8% a driver I may type, or a formula I must not overwrite?"

The trio below is the industry / CFI-aligned convention used in FMVA courses. Firms vary RGB values. This guide does not publish a CFI-secret hex code, because CFI does not require you to memorize one.

Blue is reserved for cells a user is allowed to edit. Historical actuals that you typed (10,000 of 2024A revenue) are blue. Forecast drivers you typed (8%, 60% COGS, 500 of capex) are blue. A 1, 12, or 365 that is a structural constant inside a formula (months in a year) is not an "input" in the Assumptions sense; CFI-style models still prefer to keep even those in a labeled input when they might change (a 360-day vs 365-day year convention).

Black means: this cell is a calculation, and its precedents are on this sheet. If you F2 a black cell, you should not see another sheet name.

Green means: this cell's formula leaves the sheet. IS tax =D40*Assumptions!C20 is green even though D40 is on the IS. The presence of a cross-sheet reference is enough. Green is the flag that a reviewer must also open Assumptions (or use a second window — Chapter 6).

Some shops add red font for links to another workbook. Treat that as a common industry extension, not as an extra FMVA-required RGB. FMVA cases are almost always a single workbook. If you see red, ask whether an external file is even allowed on exam day; do not chase a linked file you cannot open.

Yellow fill on input cells is widespread in banking templates in addition to blue font. It is a useful extra, not a substitute. A black-and-white printout and a hurried Show-Formulas pass still need the font signal. If you only fill yellow and leave the font black, Go To Special → Constants still finds the inputs, but a human scanning the IS will miss the typed 10,800 in a sea of black.

Worked color pass on Apex 2025E tax

Assumptions!C20 holds 25% (blue). IS!D40 holds EBT 1,628 (black if it is =D38-D39 from EBIT and interest on the IS). IS!D42 tax is =D40*Assumptions!C20 → 407. That tax cell is green. If someone formats D42 blue, a later user will type 21% over the formula and the live tax rate on Assumptions will no longer drive the P&L.

Exam trap: coloring a formula blue does not make it an input. Overwriting it does. Goal Seek (Chapter 8) must change a blue input, never a green or black calculation.

Number formats: positives, negatives, and zeros

Color tells you what kind of cell you are in. Number format tells you how to read the number.

CFI's course calls out custom number formats and a global units marker. For a $000s three-statement model, a practical custom format is:

#,##0;(#,##0);"–"

Why the dash for zero: a literal 0 in a corkscrew can look like a completed formula when the cell is actually blank, or look like a blank when the cell is a true zero. The dash says "this calculated to zero." A blank says "nobody built this line."

Percent drivers use a percent format (0.0% or 0.00%), stored as 0.08 not the text 8%. Texted percents blow up =C12*(1+D13) into #VALUE! or concatenate. Ratio lines (COGS %, EBIT margin) should look like 60.0% and 16.0%, not 0.6.

Per-share outputs (later valuation chapters) usually need two or three decimals (0.00). Mixing #,##0 on equity value and 0.00 on shares is correct; mixing them on the same P&L block is noise.

Aligning units and periods is a formatting rule, not only a layout rule. If column D is FY2025, every number in column D is an annual 2025 amount in the same unit. Do not drop a monthly run-rate into D without labeling a separate monthly section.

Global units marker

Put $000s (or $ millions) in a visible header cell on Assumptions — Apex uses Assumptions!B2 — and green-link that label onto the header of IS, BS, CF, and Checks. Every printed page and every exam screenshot then answers "thousands or millions?" without hunting.

Apex revenue is 10,000 thousands = $10.0 million. Capex is 500 thousands = $0.5 million. If a case file types revenue as 10 (meaning millions) and capex as 500 (meaning thousands), NI looks fine until cash goes absurd. The units marker is the first thing you read; it is also a Checks-sheet item in 9.3.

Exam trap: changing a format does not change the value. Formatting 10,000 as $0.0,,"m" may display 10.0m; the cell is still 10,000. A formula that divides by 1,000 again will understate revenue by 1,000×.

Labels, fonts, capitalization, and transparency

CFI's transparency topic is the reason for color and format: a reviewer should see how a number was made.

Consistent labeling: the stub that is "Net PP&E" on the BS is "Net PP&E" on the corkscrew and on the CF investing section — not "Fixed assets," "PPE, net," and "PP and E" in three places. Inconsistent labels are how XLOOKUP (Chapter 7) misses a line and how you fail a cash tie by linking the wrong row.

Capitalization: pick a style and keep it. CFI-style stubs are typically title or sentence case (Revenue, Cost of goods sold, Net income), not a wall of ALL CAPS and not random net income vs Net Income. ALL CAPS is reserved, if at all, for section headers.

Font types: one family (Calibri or the file's standard), one size for numbers, bold for totals and section headers. Do not mix decorative fonts. Do not use font size as a substitute for color (tiny blue is still an input; large black is still a formula).

Indentation (or a column of group labels) shows hierarchy: Revenue, then COGS, then Gross profit bold. Excel row grouping (Chapter 6) can collapse the COGS detail; it must not hide the input block.

Transparency also means showing the corkscrew instead of a single opaque closing-balance formula, and showing tax as EBT × tax rate instead of a typed 367. Apex 2024A tax 367 is 1,468 × 25%. If you type 367 in blue on the IS, the model will not move when the tax rate changes to 21%, and the cell is lying about being a calculation.

Print settings belong with formatting because a stakeholder who prints the IS must see years, units, and the color legend. Set print area to the statement, repeat the header row (years + $000s) on each page, and landscape a wide forecast. CFI's guidelines course includes print preview for this reason: a model that only works on a 27-inch screen is not transparent.

What not to format as a substitute for structure

• Merged cells across C:F so the title looks centered — fills, data tables, and Ctrl+Shift+Arrow break.
• White font on white cells to "hide" a plug — a classic anti-transparency trick; Checks should show the plug.
• Conditional formatting as the only error flag — color-blind review and printouts miss it; use a numeric 1/0 on Checks as well (9.3).
• Named ranges for every line — CFI's course includes removing names when they hide location; a green =Assumptions!C20 is more auditable than =TaxRate if nobody can find TaxRate. A few names for true key drivers are fine; a thicket is not.
• Macros that recolor the sheet on open — avoid macros in this model style.

On exam day, a 30-second color audit is: Go To Special → Constants on the IS. The only constants should be zeros, 1/−1 switches you intended, or a missed blue input that should have been on Assumptions. If 8% lights up on the IS, you found the guidelines error before the balance sheet did.