Automating Excel-Based Financial Statements (Completed)

In this session, Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, shows you step-by-step how to create dynamic accounting reports for any month of the year on just one worksheet. While Excel users often build worksheets for each month of the year, such worksheets can be cumbersome to revise. As an alternative, David explains how to use Excel functions, including VLOOKUP, OFFSET, and SUM, to quickly create accounting reports that can toggle to any reporting period with only two mouse clicks. He also outlines how to export data from your accounting package, improve the integrity of your spreadsheets, incorporate Check Figures and Alarms into you work, and more.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in Excel 2016. He draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2013, 2010, or 2007 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.

Who Should Attend
Practitioners who would benefit by creating and working with monthly financial statements in a more efficient and effective manner.

Topics Covered

• Improve the integrity of spreadsheets with Excel's VLOOKUP function
• See how to use the Trusted Document feature in Excel 2010 and later to suppress the Data Connection security prompt
• Discover how to incorporate Check Figures and Alarms into your work
• Use Conditional Formatting to draw attention to reports that don't balance to the source data
• Learn why, in many cases, you should export reports intended for spreadsheet analysis to a .CSV file instead of an Excel workbook
• Create an in-cell list by way of Excel's Data Validation feature
• Learn a simple design technique that greatly improves the integrity of Excel's SUM function
• Use Excel's OFFSET function to dynamically reference data from one or more accounting periods

Learning Objectives

• Define how to create accounting reports for any month of the year on a single worksheet
• Identify and apply Conditional Formatting to draw attention to reports that don't balance to the source data
• Recognize how to export data from an accounting package to create a "set-and-forget" link to accounting data in Excel

Level
Intermediate

Instructional Method
Group: Internet-based

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

Program Prerequisites
Experience Working with Excel Spreadsheets.

Advance Preparation
None