Automating Excel-Based Financial Statements (Completed)

In this insightful session, Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, shows you step-by-step how to create dynamic accounting reports for any month of the year on a single worksheet. As an alternative to building cumbersome worksheets for each month of the year, David explains how to use Excel functions, such as VLOOKUP, OFFSET, and SUM, to quickly create accounting reports that can be toggled to any reporting period with only two mouse clicks. In addition, he outlines how to export data from your accounting package, improve the integrity of your spreadsheets, and incorporate Check Figures and Alarms into you work.

David demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in Excel 2019. He draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2016, 2013, or 2010 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

• Updating the financial report to use data for a new calendar or fiscal year
• Using the LEFT and VALUE functions to separate account numbers from account names when necessary
• Building and exporting a twelve-month Profit & Loss report from QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop as a model for what to look for when exporting from other applications
• Using the SUMIFS function to sum values for a single account or a range of account numbers
• Determining if your version of Excel is perpetually licensed or part of the Office 365 platform, which periodically adds new features to Excel
• Creating a workbook with just two worksheets that will present data for any month of the year
• Using Conditional Formatting to draw attention to reports that don't balance to the source data
• Seeing how to use the Trusted Document feature in Excel 2010 and later to suppress the Data Connection security prompt
• Discovering how to incorporate Check Figures and Alarms into your work
• Creating an in-cell list by way of Excel's Data Validation feature
• Using the Query Wizard within Microsoft Query to choose the relevant columns from your accounting report export

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