Help: PitchBook Excel Plugin user guide (Windows)

The Excel Plugin is a feature included with your PitchBook license. After downloading, it provides various tools that enable you to utilize PitchBook data in Excel in a way that suits you.

Use this article for help on using the main features of the Excel Plugin. If you’re looking for information on installing the Excel Plugin, visit the link:

• PitchBook Excel Plugin installation guide
  

After installing the PitchBook Plugin, a new PitchBook tab will be available in your Excel menu. Tapping the tab will open a toolbar along the top of your worksheet that houses all the available tools.

You can use the Identifier feature from the toolbar to quickly find specific IDs for a company or deal that are used as references in formulas to pull data. Here’s how:

1. In the Identifier field, type a company name or ticker symbol (e.g., “aapl”).
2. Press Enter on your keyboard.
3. A pop-up window will appear with a list of matching companies (top section) and related deals (bottom section).

a. Click on the desired company in the top list.
b. Click Select to input the Company PBID associated with the selected ticker.

a. Click on one or more deals in the bottom list.
b. Click Select Deal(s) to input the Deal ID(s) of the selected deal(s).

As an alternative to the Identifier lookup, you can use PBMATCH formulas to pull data directly into your spreadsheet:

• =PBMATCHPBID(cell) – Use this to find the PBID for private companies (companies without a ticker).
• =PBMATCHSYMBOL(cell) – Use this to find the ticker symbol for public companies.

Example:
If you want to find Apple’s ticker symbol:

1. Type the company name (e.g., “Apple”) in a cell — here it’s in A2.
2. In a blank cell (e.g., B2), enter the formula:
   =PBMATCHSYMBOL(A2). This formula is used as Apple is a public company.
3. Press Enter, and the ticker (AAPL) will appear.

If you’re unsure which formula to use, we recommend using PBMATCHSYMBOL for public companies and PBMATCHPBID for private companies.

From the toolbar, you can use the Data Field feature to search for data points, view their definitions, and apply them directly to your Excel sheet. We will walk you through each step in the following sections.

1. In the Data Field box, type in a data point (e.g., “deals”).
2. Press Enter on your keyboard.
3. This will prompt the Data Glossary pop-up window to appear with a list of matching data points.
4. At the top of this window, the Exact Match checkbox is automatically selected to only display results that exactly match your search input. Deselect the Exact Match checkbox to expand your search and view any results related to your search input.

5. After searching for your data point using the Data Field box, choose the data point from the left panel of the Data Glossary window.

   If a definition exists, it will be displayed in the right panel. If there is no definition, you can click Request Definition on the right panel to ask for it to be added.

One important thing to note is that the Data Fields lookup only indicates whether we track the data point and its location in the Formula Builder. This feature is designed to assist you in navigating the extensive list of data points available in the PitchBook Excel Plugin.

Now that you know how to pull the relevant ID for entities of interest and where to locate data points, you’re ready to start using the Formula Builder.

Select Formula Builder from the toolbar along the top of your Excel sheet.

Each tab within the Formula Builder contains different groups of data, such as Financial Data, Market Data, Entities, and more. Use the Search field bar within each of these tabs to find the data point you are looking to pull.

For example, if you want to pull a brief description of your list of companies, you need to look for the formula in the Entities tab. The Entities tab has all the information about entities, such as companies or investors. Likewise, the Financial Data tab has all the formulas related to financial data points. You can use our Identifier and Data Field lookups, as described in the previous section , if you’re unsure where to find a formula in the Formula Builder.

Once you find the formula you want to use, add the entity (company, investor, etc.) you want to pull information for by doing the following:

• Manually enter the entity’s name in the text box.
• Search for the entity’s stock ticker or PBId.
• Reference a cell in your workbook that contains the PBId or ticker of the entity.

Using cell referencing is especially useful if you’re creating a template or working with a list.

1. Tell the Formula Builder what time period you want to pull data from. For example, to pull Total Revenue for the Fiscal Year of 2021.
2. Select FY from the Period dropdown in the Period type section.
3. Type “2021Y” in the Period box in the As of date section. The “Y” indicates that the data is for the Fiscal Year.
4. To pull data for a specific quarter, like Q3 of 2021: Write “2021Q3" instead.

Select which as-of-date logic you want to use by choosing an option from the Available as of  drop-down menu. You can choose from the following options: 

• Today – This setting pulls the formula based on the most up-to-date company financial reports that are currently available.
• For example, if you are pulling TTM Total Revenue for Amazon as of December 15, 2023, the TTM Total Revenue will be drawn from the Q3 2023 statement, even though Q3 financial statements were not available by December 15, 2023. 

• Referenced Date (the calendar date referenced) – This setting pulls the formula based on only company financial reports that were available by the Period you entered.
• For example, if you are pulling TTM Total Revenue for Amazon as of December 15, 2023, the TTM Total Revenue will be drawn from the Q2 2020 statement, since Q3 financials had not yet been released. When you use the Referenced Date option, you can also adjust TTM to TTM+1 to yield financials that were filed after the period of interest. 

Next, select a report type from the Report type dropdown. Most of the time, you will want to ensure that the Report type is set to give you the “Latest available” data. 

You can show your data in Units, Thousands, Millions, or Billions. You can also choose to display your data in either our six preset currencies or the Native Currency of the companies you’re pulling data from.

Once you have your formula, you are ready to insert it into your worksheet.

1. Click the Add Formula button to insert your formula. If applicable, point out which direction you want your data to be listed in the Insert values section before pressing the Add Formula button.
2. If you have a list of PBIDs or Ticker Symbols being referenced by cell, you can drag the bottom right corner of the cell where you inserted the formula to pull the data for all the entities at once. Your data will appear in the place you specified in your worksheet. 
   

The Template Library contains a comprehensive collection of fully developed tearsheets, comparative analysis models, charts, and additional resources. These templates simplify the setup process, eliminating the need for you to build any formulas from scratch.

Within the templates, pre-existing formulas reference cells using the PitchBook identifier (PBId), the name, or the ticker of the entity for which you require data. 

The Template Library is located in the PitchBook toolbar at the top of your Excel sheet.

• Click on Template Library or the arrow to open a window listing all templates created by PitchBook.
• Select Open Template Library to view PitchBook’s extensive list of ready-to-use templates.
• Once a template is selected, it opens in a new Excel window, ready for customization.

After opening a template, cells highlighted in yellow indicate that you can edit them according to your own specifications. A crucial field to edit is the identifier cell, which specifies the company, investor, deal, or another entity for which you seek information. Identifier cells accept PitchBook Identifiers (PBIds), names, and tickers.

Alternatively, upload any of your previous templates from the Template Library and continue to build out your sheets using with PitchBook data.

1. To do that, tap Template Library from your Excel toolbar and choose Upload Template.

2. Apply a template name, privacy settings, description and then select Browse to find your template.

Strengthen your presentation by creating multi-axis charts with the Chart Builder in the PitchBook Excel Plugin. This tool allows you to generate company indices, view company valuations over time, and benchmark stock price history.

To get started, click on the Chart Builder button in the top PitchBook ribbon of the Excel Plugin. A window will open on the right of the page where you enter your chart criteria.

The Chart Settings window will open, allowing you to apply basic settings to customize the chart to how you want it. Below we have defined each setting.
 

• Chart Data Type 1 – Select a metric from the drop-down option to apply to your chart. 
• Chart Data Type 2 – Select a second metric to apply to your chart allowing you to bring more information into one visual. The chart metrics include:
  
  • Stock Price History
  • EV/TTM Revenue 
  • EV/ NTM Revenue 
  • EV/NTM EBITDA 
  • EV/TTM EBITDA 
  • Price/NTM Earnings
  • Price/TTM Earnings
  • Price/TTM Sales
  • Price/NTM Sales
  • Price/TTM Tangible Book Value.
• Currency – Select the currency you’d like the data displayed in.
• Date – Select the date range of the data for the chart.
• Period – Select a period in years or date range for the chart.
• Frequency – Select an interval for the data points.

1. One way to add companies to your chart is by selecting Add at the bottom of the Chart Builder Menu and choosing the Company option.  A new Company section will show in the Chart Builder.

2. In the Name section, type either the name, PBid, or the stock symbol of up to 15 companies you would like in your chart and press Enter.

3. Pressing the red X on the company name allows you to delete the company from being included in your stock price history chart.

4. When adding company securities to this chart, you can select whether you wish to add only a company’s primary share class or not.

4. Tap Load Chart to see the company’s stock price over time. The chart will open on a new tab of your Excel workbook. You also have the option to see the company’s stock price compared to an index.

The chart builder in the Excel Plugin has a number of other features to utilize. These features are accessed by tapping Add at the bottom of the chart builder window.

• Custom Index - As well as adding companies individually, the tool offers the Custom Index chart option. This option groups your chosen companies into weighted lines against an index.
  
• Custom Index from Saved List - When building your custom index, you have the option to add the companies individually as shown above or you can upload a previously saved list from the PitchBook platform to create your custom index.
  
• Adding an Index - Type in the name of the index you would like to benchmark your companies against.

If you would like to edit your chart, right click on the chart from your Excel worksheet and select Edit Chart, which will open the chart builder from which you can update the criteria of your chart.

To understand how this feature fits into a broader workflow, check out PitchBook Pioneer’s course – Public Comps Analysis.