Basic Excel Skills for Accountants: Improve Productivity & Reporting

Overview

Many accounting professionals are unaware of Excel features and functions that improve spreadsheet accuracy and efficiency. In this presentation, author and Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, contrasts the SUM, SUBTOTAL, SUMIF, and SUMIFS functions, along with the Subtotal feature. You'll also learn how to use the Table feature to streamline sifting through lists of data, create self-expanding charts, and PivotTables that have much better integrity.

David is the author of “Microsoft Excel 365 for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and has written or co-authored six other books. He demonstrates every technique at least twice: first, on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and second, in the subscription-based Excel for Microsoft 365. David draws your attention to any differences in Excel 2021, 2019 or 2016 during the presentation and in his detailed handouts. The handouts include an Excel workbook with most of the examples he uses during his demonstrations.

Excel for Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based product that receives periodic feature updates. Conversely, perpetually licensed versions have year numbers in their names and do not receive any feature updates.

Areas Covered

·      Resolving issues in workbooks that can slow things down by way of the Check Performance command in Microsoft 365.

·      Learning how the Table feature empowers you to improve the integrity of Excel spreadsheets.

·      Inserting totals into lists with a few mouse clicks by way of Excel’s Subtotal feature.

·      Removing the Table feature from a worksheet if it’s no longer needed.

·      Using the SUM function to drill through two or more worksheets.

·      Unearthing the key step in being able to format subtotaled cells without affecting hidden rows.

·      Using the Group command to interactively hide/unhide columns (and/or rows) within Excel worksheets.

·      Identify how to improve the integrity of SUM-based formulas in Excel.

·      State the location of the Group and Ungroup commands within Excel's menu.

·      Recall the menu in Excel where the Table feature resides.

·      Preserving key formulas by applying hide and protect features.

·      Using the SUMIFS function to sum values based on multiple criteria.

·      Learning a simple design technique that greatly improves the integrity of Excel’s SUM function.

·      Toggling the locked status of a worksheet cell on or off by way of a custom shortcut.

·      Customizing table styles in Excel.