Auditing Excel Spreadsheets (Completed)

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2020
Instructor: David H. Ringstrom
Begin Time:  9:00am Pacific Time
10:00am Mountain Time
11:00am Central Time
12:00pm Eastern Time
CPE Credit:  2 hours for CPAs

In this illuminating session, Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, shares techniques you can use to verify the integrity of even the most complicated Excel workbooks. David demonstrates Excel’s formula auditing and error-checking tools, as well as how to verify which cells contain formulas versus values. In addition, David explains how to: find buried worksheets; access password-protected workbooks; use the Conditional Formatting feature to identify duplicates in a list; monitor even minor changes to your workbooks; hide, display, and locate cells that contain comments; and much more.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Office 365 version of Excel. David draws your attention to any differences in the older versions of Excel (2019, 2016, 2013, and earlier) during the presentation as well as in his detailed handouts. David also provides an Excel workbook that includes most of the examples he uses during the webcast.

Office 365 is a subscription-based product that provides new-feature updates as often as monthly. Conversely, the perpetual licensed versions of Excel have feature sets that don’t change. Perpetual licensed versions have year numbers, such as Excel 2019, Excel 2016, and so on.

Who Should Attend
Practitioners who review spreadsheets created by others, or who wish to improve the integrity of their own spreadsheets

Topics Covered

  • Determining whether it's safe to edit or delete a cell by way of the Trace Dependents feature
  • Understanding the purpose and nuances of Excel's Personal Macro Workbook
  • Printing a list of all cell comments on a worksheet or printing visible comments
  • Bringing Excel's green error-checking prompts under control by managing the underlying rules
  • Removing Conditional Formatting when it's no longer needed within a spreadsheet
  • Adding a macro to Excel that adds the ability to display any formula in a cell comment
  • Selecting all formulas within a worksheet with just two mouse clicks
  • Auditing portions of a formula by using the F9 key to temporarily convert part of a formula to a value
  • Auditing the data source behind pivot tables in Excel spreadsheets
  • Identifying other cells a formula relies on by way of the Trace Precedents feature
  • Identifying duplicates in a list using Conditional Formatting

Learning Objectives

  • Recognize if a file has links to other workbooks or not and remove unwanted links
  • Identify how to add, review, and print worksheet comments with ease
  • Recognize and apply Excel tools and techniques that allow you to evaluate portions of a formula or entire formulas

Level
Intermediate

Instructional Method
Group: Internet-based

NASBA Field of Study
Computer Software & Applications (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
A basic of understanding of Excel.

Advance Preparation
None

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