Seminar In-Depth

Course Description

Recent research reveals that nearly 75% of North American companies use Excel as their primary budgeting and forecasting tool. This course is designed to provide participants with the Excel knowledge and skills necessary to prepare budgets and forecasts more efficiently and with greater accuracy. It provides real world examples developed by accountants for accountants in the following six major topic areas: collaboration and workbook security, integrating and manipulating data from external sources, consolidating budgetary data, summarizing and analyzing data with PivotTables, forecasting revenues and expenses using linear regression and other techniques, and understanding and applying capital budgeting principles. If you use Excel in budgeting and forecasting, you need this course. Participants will have access to sample data files.

This course includes coverage of features found in Excel 2003, 2007, and 2010.

“One of the better seminars I have attended – learned many useful tools.” R.D. PA

“Thanks! I learned a lot that will be applicable in the real world.” B.Y., CPA HI

Course Information

CPE Credit: Recommended for 4 hours Accounting and 4 hours Business Management and Organization

Instructional delivery method: Group-live demo and discussion using color computer projection – NOT a hands-on course

Prerequisites: Fundamental knowledge of Excel operations

Program level: Intermediate

Advanced preparation: None

Designed for: Accountants who use Excel and want to save time and improve the quality of their budgets and forecasts

Who should attend: Users who prepare budgets and forecasts using Excel

Course Highlights

• Describe the processes and benefits associated with creating and using Excel Templates – including Budget Templates – and securing Excel workbooks and worksheets with techniques such as Encryption, Information Rights Management, and Digital Signatures
• Describe processes for obtaining budget data and collaborating with others in the budget process including Sharing Workbooks, Accessing Excel's Audit Trail, Merging Workbooks, Controlling and Validating User Input, Collaborating with others on the Web, and Querying Data from the Web
• Define and describe various Excel techniques for interacting with the accounting system, such as Office Data Connections, Importing Text Files, Manipulating Accounting Data Imported from Various Software Applications, Importing Access Data, and Open Database Connectivity
• Identify situations in which various Excel techniques such as Using Data Tables for Sensitivity Analysis, Working with Excel's Goal Seek Function, Using Solver to Maximize Scarce Resources, Working with Scenario Manager, Forecasting with Regression Analysis, and Analyzing Risk with Monte Caro Simulations are appropriate and describe how to execute each of these techniques
• Describe how to use Excel in Capital Budgeting situations, including Excel's Present Value and Internal Rate of Return functions and various methods by which Excel computes depreciation
• Describe Excel techniques useful in preparing proforma financial statements, including the Watch Window, VLOOKUP, Linking Workbooks, and Accommodating Formulas with Circular References
• List three Excel techniques for consolidating budget data and describe how to use each of these techniques to solve consolidation issues; describe how to use Conditional Formatting to identify trends and significant budget variances

Dates & Locations