Microsoft Excel Essentials for Accounting & Finance

Name: Microsoft Excel Essentials for Accounting & Finance
Rating: 4.3 (3 reviews)

Your beginner's tips-and-tricks guide to optimizing Microsoft Excel early on in your Accounting & Finance career.

Created byNick Carneval, CMA, FPAC, FMAA

Last updated 4/2025

English

What you'll learn

Understand the basic structure and menus of a Microsoft Excel workbook
Format the presentation of a Microsoft Excel worksheet (color, font, alignment)
Create and work with data arrays and data tables, including the use of the sort and filter feature
Copy and paste data to ensure proper formatting and prevention of errors
Code basic to moderate data cleaning and lookup functions in Microsoft Excel
Code Functions: UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, ROUND, TRIM, LEN, EXACT, RIGHT, LEFT, MID, CONCAT, SUM, COUNT, SUMIF, COUNTIF, INDEX, MATCH, VLOOKUP

Course content

8 sections • 37 lectures • 3h 43m total length

Introduction to the Course9:20
In this introductory module to the course, we will review why the course was created, what we will be learning, and how this applies to Accounting & Finance professionals.
Menus6:14
This module covers the Microsoft Excel menu options, including Home, New, Open, Save, and Print
Workbooks vs Worksheets12:13
This module covers the difference between a Microsoft Excel Workbook and Worksheet, and how they encompass the data in Excel.

Introduction to the Excel Ribbon6:30
Home Tab: Font5:19
This sub-module will cover how to format your data fonts in a worksheet.
Home Tab: Alignment8:15
This sub-module will cover how to change the alignment of the data in your cells of the worksheet.
Home Tab: Number7:03
This sub-module covers the number section of the Home tab, which allows the user to change the presentation of the data based on whether the data is qualitative or quantitative.
Home Tab: Styles8:50
This sub-module covers the styles section of the Home tab, which allows the user to select pre-formatted cell styles with specific colors and fonts. We also go through an example utilizing a series of features on the Home tab to create an accounting t-chart template.
Conclusion to the Excel Ribbon7:36

Introduction to Data Arrays and Data Tables1:32
Data Arrays vs Data Tables8:35
This sub-module will cover the concept of a data array and how to make the data array more dynamic using the "Table" feature.
Sort and Filter Tool12:33
This sub-module covers how to use the sort and filter tool to manipulate the presentation of your dataset.
Keystrokes, Conclusion to Data Arrays9:43
This sub-module concludes our section on data arrays and data tables and features an added lesson on how to perform tasks in Microsoft Excel using your keyboard.

Introduction to Copy and Paste2:39
Copy and Paste - Basic3:09
Copy and Paste as Values5:22
This sub-module covers how to copy and paste data without changing the formatting of the cells that are pasted over.
Copy and Paste - Formulas7:41
This sub-module covers how to use the Copy and Paste Formulas tool to input pre-coded formulas into other cells of the dataset.
Copy and Paste - Operations9:05
This sub-module covers how to perform a math operation (add, subtract, multiply, divide) when pasting copied data.
Copy and Paste - Transpose4:32
This sub-module covers a Copy and Paste tool that will change the axis that the data is presented on (horizontal order to vertical order) while maintaining the sequence of data that is pasted.
Conclusion to Copy and Paste1:31

Introduction to Data Cleansing3:37
Ensuring Consistency in Data Presentation7:58
This sub-module covers data cleansing functions that return a consistent presentation of data from the dataset.

Functions: UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, ROUND
Data Collection Functions8:31
This sub-module covers data cleansing functions that return specified strings of data from your dataset.

Functions: RIGHT, LEFT, MID, CONCAT
Data Outlier Functions9:38
This sub-module covers data cleansing functions that identify outliers in your dataset.

Functions: TRIM, LEN, EXACT
Data Outlier Ribbon Tools7:54
This sub-module covers 2 ribbon tools that identify and remove outliers from your dataset.

Introduction to IF Statements2:57
SUM and COUNT5:32
This sub-module covers the SUM and COUNT function syntax to build a foundation before using them in Operating-IF statements.
SUMIF4:00
This sub-module covers the Operation-IF SUMIF function.
COUNTIF3:11
This sub-module covers the Operation-IF COUNTIF function.
IF Statements8:16
This sub-module concludes the section with an overview of syntax of an IF Statement.

Introduction to INDEX and MATCH1:39
INDEX and MATCH2:34
This sub-module covers the INDEX and MATCH function syntax to build a foundation before combining them in the INDEX(MATCH) lookup function.
INDEX(MATCH)5:38
This sub-module combines the INDEX and MATCH syntax to create a dynamic lookup function.
Conclusion to the Course!1:20
This final module concludes and recaps what we learned throughout the Microsoft Excel Essentials for Accounting & Finance course.

Requirements

None to basic Microsoft Excel experience required. Computer with Microsoft Excel access required.

Description

This course is for Accounting & Finance professionals that want to overcome the Microsoft Excel knowledge gap to optimize their workflow early in their career. This will build a foundation for you as this course focuses on basic to moderate fundamentals and technical skills that can be used every day and can advance your career by giving you the tools to perform your work more efficiently. Real world Accounting & Finance examples will be used as we form the connection between the modules of this course and how they can be used in your professional life, as well as how they have already impacted other professionals in the Accounting & Finance world!

Being a course more tailored to Excel beginners at a basic proficiency level, this course will cover topics like the basic meaning of an "Excel Workbook" or "Excel Worksheet", the different menus that make up a workbook, formatting your data, tips for working with large datasets, and basic to moderate tools and functions for workflow.

Concepts Covered: Formatting and Data Presentation, Data Cleansing, Arrays vs Tables, Keystrokes (working with your keyboard instead of mouse), IF Statement Logic, Error Prevention

Basic Functions: UPPER, LOWER, PROPER, ROUND, TRIM, LEN, EXACT, RIGHT, LEFT, MID, CONCAT, SUM, COUNT

Moderate/Advanced Functions: SUMIF, COUNTIF, INDEX, MATCH, INDEX(MATCH), VLOOKUP

Tools: Sort and Filter, Copy & Paste (Basic, Values, Formulas, Operations, Transpose), Delete Duplicate Values, Conditional Formatting

Who this course is for:

This course is intended for new and upcoming Accounting & Finance professionals who will use Microsoft Excel on a daily basis in their professional life, utilizing this course as a foundation to build fundamental skills that will streamline their work early in their career.

Microsoft Excel Essentials for Accounting & Finance

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction, Menus, and Workbooks vs Worksheets3 lectures • 28min

Ribbon: Home Tab6 lectures • 44min

Data Arrays and Data Tables4 lectures • 32min

Copy and Paste Tools7 lectures • 34min

Data Cleaning5 lectures • 38min

IF and Operation-IF Statements5 lectures • 24min

VLOOKUP3 lectures • 13min

INDEX(MATCH)4 lectures • 11min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: