No matter how many [specialized accounting tools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_accounting_software) there may exist nowadays, Microsoft Excel is still one of the best choices for keeping track of personal finances. It is easy to start with, incredibly flexible, and scales well to most accounting tasks a layperson might encounter in practice.

If you want to include cryptocurrencies to an Excel spreadsheet of your assets, you might discover a slight inconvenience - the prices of cryptocurrencies float like crazy all the time and updating them manually is a pain.

Fortunately, Excel makes it possible to add a custom function which will conveniently query the current exchange rates for you. Let me show you how to do it:

1. Go to *Developer ⇒ Visual Basic* in the Ribbon menu (or simply press **Alt+F11**).
<center>![ribbon.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY8SEQixrGpxE6mRE6XiDxdr64Uq126P2zvitSti3DMZd/image.png)</center>

2. The *Visual Basic for Applications* window will open. Right-click the "VBAProject", corresponding to your workbook, and choose *Insert ⇒ Module*:
<center>![module.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVU7LrbbA6y8zhBFuqcx8eKUCVGUZXneJhyDzU5GNBrap/image.png)</center>

3. Paste the following code into the newly opened module window:
    ```
    Public Function HttpGet(ByVal requestUrl As String) As String
        Set http = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")
        With http
            .Open "GET", requestUrl, True
            .Send ""
            .WaitForResponse
            HttpGet = .ResponseText
        End With
    End Function

    Public Function GetCryptoCurrencyPrice(ByVal name As String, Optional ByVal baseCurrency As String = "EUR", Optional ByVal cacheBuster As Object) As Double
        GetCryptoCurrencyPrice = -1#
        json = HttpGet("https://api.coinmarketcap.com/v1/ticker/" & name & "/?convert=" & baseCurrency)
        
        For Each Line In Split(json)
            If found Then
                GetCryptoCurrencyPrice = CDbl(Mid(Line, 2, Len(Line) - 3))
                Exit Function
            End If
            If Line = """price_" & LCase(baseCurrency) & """:" Then
                found = True
            End If
        Next
    End Function
    ```
    &nbsp;
4.  Close the *Visual Basic for Application* window (or press **Alt+F11**) to go back to the spreadsheet. 

You are now free to use the `GetCryptoCurrencyPrice` function in the worksheet, just like any other Excel function. It will query the current prices from the [coinmarketcap.com](https://coinmarketcap.com/) website. The function has three parameters:
 - The name of the cryptocurrency, as it is named on Coinmarketcap (e.g. Bitcoin is called `bitcoin`, Steem is `steem` and SBD is `steem-dollars`).
 - The name of the target currency ("EUR", "USD", "AUD", "RUB", "NOK", "SEK", etc). "BTC" also works.
 - An optional pointer to a cell, changing the value of which will trigger a new query.

Here is how you would use it within a typical table:
<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR8bh7hV4hXwthb71XjnXCPTs3Mv8imUBkvi3vWNuSMuY/image.png)</center>

Note that the empty cell `A1` is referenced in the formula so that we could trigger a query to refresh the price by simply modifying `A1` (just writing a random character and removing it, for example).

Now drag the newly created formula to fill the whole column, add the computations for the total value and voilà - your very own cryptocurrency portfolio management tool. Similar to, say, [Cryptofolio](http://cryptofolio.info/), but more flexible and not limited to cryptocurrencies (on the downside - it is not web-based and won't work on your phone).

<center>![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTXsnNxj2Mo4VDbceEHwUoffu3HUVniq5zzbYm95t1ZZX/image.png)</center>