The TODAY function in excel is used to return the current date of the user whilst the NOW function returns both current date and time. The good thing about using these functions are that they are updated with the current date and time regardless of when you open the worksheet. Let’s start with the Excel Today Function below:
Today’s Function
It may seem that the TODAY function is useless in financial modeling, but it really isn’t if it is combined with a static date. We will touch on this later, but let’s show you how it works.
Now, how can we use this function in real life modeling scenarios? Assume we are in a company’s financial planning & Analysis unit that prepares rolling monthly forecasts. By specifying the start date of the budget, we can use the Today function to return the Month to Date (MTD) and Month to Go (MTG) before Pasting as values in our headers. Let’s see an example below:
In our Month to Date section, we subtracted the Model start date of 1st of April 2022 from Today’s date and divided it by 30 to calculate the number of actual months that have elapsed. Since it is a 12-month budgeting period, we have 3 more months to Go. Now, we can set up our headings for the rolling forecast exercise:
Now Function
The NOW function is similar to the TODAY Function; the only difference is that the NOW function returns the current time alongside the current date. The time and date are automatically updated whenever the sheet is recalculated.
Return the Current Time Only
By subtracting the TODAY function from the NOW function, you can return the current time:
Static Date & Time
Using a combination of keys, you can output any of the current date only, current time only or both the current date and current time as a static value. Please note, however, that these results won’t automatically update when you open or recalculate the sheet. Let’s see these combinations below:
Current Date as static value
To output the current date as a static value, use the keyboard combination Ctrl + ;
Current Time as static value
To output the current time as a static value, use the keyboard combination: Ctrl + SHIFT + ;
Current Date & Time as static values
To output the current date and time as static values, you would need to combine both combinations we discussed above. First press the combination Ctrl + ; then press space and press the combination Ctrl + SHIFT + ;