Advanced Excel for Management Accountants

Makes you completely re-think the way you work in Excel. Business Controller Viasat AB

What is this course all about?

Advanced Excel for Management Accountants and Finance Managers looks at the end-to-
end process of creating flexible, robust and user-friendly financial models. Our approach is
about going back to basics to the core concepts underpinning the entire programme, to
understand its brain and the underlying premises. Then, to deepen the understanding of the
theory, we run a series of exercises integral to the practice of advanced financial modelling
techniques

This course has been written by Jon von der Heyden, who has many years experience in
management accounting roles. Jon can relate to the typical demands and challenges that
you as an accountant deal with every day; the tight month-end deadlines, cumbersome
finance systems, planning complex business models; and continuous change. Jon will present
this course and he will lead you on a journey and show you the many excellent tools Excel
offers and he will demonstrate how these tools helped him overcome many of the challenges
he faced as a management accountant.

This is an intensive hands-on two-day course. The course includes textbooks, a range of
structured exercise files, code snippets that can be implemented to improve your finance
models and a couple of useful free Excel utilities.

All textbooks and exercise files are supplied in electronic formats for take-away purposes and
the textbooks contain a variety of links to online tutorials for continued learning.

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MODULE ONE Design Concepts & Considerations
o Spreadsheet design fundamentals & best-practise methods.
o Setting up your Excel environment (default workbooks, sheets and setting up reusable
elements).
o Preparing financial templates and using templates.
o Implementing styles in your models.
o Protecting workbooks, worksheets and formulae; as well as techniques to conceal
confidential data.

MODULE TWO Importing and Maintaining External Data

o Learn how to link data from external sources (finance systems, databases, text files and
other Excel files) without using formulae.
o Implement Query Tables and manage Query Table connections and discuss internal
processes to discover more efficient means of data sharing.
o Advanced Query Tables using MS Query to aggregate, filter and sort data prior to import.
Save time by storing complex rules in the query definition.
o Observe an introduction to Microsoft Power Query.
o Use conventional Pivot Tables, External Data Pivot Tables and observe an introduction
to Microsoft PowerPivot.
o Use of dynamic Table objects, the unique formula syntax and a study of the advantages
that Table objects yield over conventional data tables.

MODULE THREE Summarising Data and Reporting Results via Pivot Tables
o Lean about the different ways of structuring and analysing Pivot Tables; and methods to
style the tables so that they are presentable.
o Discover Pivot Table formula capabilities and aggregate data in you Pivot Tables using
calculated items, fields and sets.
o Implement Slicers to filter Pivot Table results and employ hierarchal Slicer filters to display an
Income Statement for different parts of the business/organisation.
o Drill into figures of interest to understand the underlying transactional detail.

Excel Design Solutions Ltd Page |2 Mill View Gun Rd

http://exceldesignsolutions.com Blackboys, Uckfield
Twitter: @UnlockExcel East Sussex
TN22 5JY
MODULE FOUR Advanced Formula Creation in Excel
o Discover how worksheet functions actually work and explore a collection of useful
functions.
o Learn how and when to utilise Names. Make formula creation easier and more intuitive to
analyse.
o Optimise calculations in large complex models by understanding Excels recalculation
algorithm and by designing your models with this in mind.
o Learn what coercion means and how we can utilise it to calculate complex expressions
avoiding unnecessary function calls, improve calculation speed and reduce the risk of
workbook corruption.
o Implement an alternative approach to boolean logic using digital values and improve
formula efficiency and ease of understanding what the formula does.
o Implement binary lookups (VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, MATCH and LOOKUP) and improve lookup
performance by an average of 400%. Also discover a variety of other useful applications of
binary searches (e.g. quick and easy debtor/creditor aging).
o Improve model flexibility and speed up calculations by implementing Dynamic (Named)
Ranges for formula references, pivot tables and charts.
o Learn how to write array formulae and how they work which often fulfil complex
requirements otherwise thought impossible or requiring VBA.
o Build a complete Income Statement using a formula-based approach; and utilise
dependent dropdowns to aggregate results at different levels of the business/organisation.
o Discover an improved way of creating forecast templates for distribution to
business/finance stakeholders.

MODULE FIVE Trouble-Shooting, Validating and Securing Your Excel Data

o Learn a structured approach to breaking-down and understanding complex formulas.
Discover the various tools, when to use them, and other relatively unknown debugging
techniques.
o Incorporate Data Validation in your spreadsheets to eliminate incorrect data inputs, and
other useful applications of data validation functionality.

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http://exceldesignsolutions.com Blackboys, Uckfield
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TN22 5JY
o Locate and handle formula errors; and discover the value of unhandled formula errors such
as #N/A.
o Utilise worksheet and workbook protection.
o Implement balancing checks and flags using conditional formatting and number
formatting, and implement an approach that allows for easy error tracking. No more messy
rogue rec tables!

MODULE SIX Utilise VBA to Enhance Native Excel Functionality and Implement a
Solution to Extract Variances of Interest
o Implement code to create lists of names in a workbook and associated descriptions.
o Enable Custom Views with Worksheet Protection turned on.
o Implement code to extract financial variances (budget v actuals and forecast v actuals),
according to conditions, and distribute for commentary.

MODULE SEVEN Financial Reporting (Statements & Dashboards)

o Understand the concepts of good charting principles and learn how to determine the
appropriate chart type best suited to represent the data.
o Implement interactive charts using Pivot Charts. Enable the viewer to pick and choose
different categories, swap series and drill into areas of interest.
o Create mix chart types and use a secondary axis.
o Link multiple charts (and/or Pivot Tables) to common Slicer controls.

MODULE EIGHT Question & Answer Time

o Attendees are encouraged to ask questions throughout all modules, but you are also
encouraged to bring real problems to address as a group.
o Review the various online resources to further ones Excel learning.
o Receive a demonstration of some of the free take-away tools.

Excel Design Solutions Ltd Page |4 Mill View Gun Rd

http://exceldesignsolutions.com Blackboys, Uckfield
Twitter: @UnlockExcel East Sussex
TN22 5JY