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Excel University
This post is dedicated to the memory of Jeff Sharp, an active member of the Excel University community and a generous contributor who freely shared his knowledge with fellow Excel enthusiasts. Last year, he sent me this CUBE function example he built, suggesting it might make a good blog post. Jeff, this one’s for you.…
For accountants building financial reports in Excel, choosing between a PivotTable and a formula-based approach is one of the most consequential decisions you’ll make. The wrong choice creates reports that break on refresh, resist auditing, or require manual rework every month. The right choice depends on three factors: whether your output format is locked, how…
When you need to reconcile two lists in Excel — matching transactions, comparing account balances, or identifying exceptions — Power Query offers a more reliable and repeatable approach than manual VLOOKUP formulas. For CPAs and accountants who run the same reconciliation every month, Power Query turns a tedious, error-prone process into a structured, refreshable workflow.…
Excel remains the most widely used tool for financial reporting among CPAs and accountants — and when built correctly, an Excel-based financial report can pull updated data, recalculate automatically, and deliver consistent, audit-ready output every single period. The key is moving beyond static, manually updated spreadsheets toward structured, refreshable report models that reduce errors and…
The best AI tools for accountants in Excel in 2026 are Microsoft Copilot (in three distinct flavors), the Claude by Anthropic Excel add-in, and Power Query’s AI-assisted features — but knowing which tool to use for which task is what separates efficient finance teams from overwhelmed ones. AI has changed how accountants interact with Excel,…
A Power Query month-end workflow lets accountants automatically import, clean, summarize, and visualize financial data in a repeatable, one-click process — eliminating the manual copy-paste routines that consume hours every close cycle. When built correctly, this workflow transforms raw exports from your ERP or accounting system into a polished, chart-ready summary with virtually no manual…
For CPAs and accounting professionals, Excel isn’t just a spreadsheet tool — it’s the engine behind financial reporting, month-end close, audit workpapers, and budget models. Mastering Excel directly improves the speed and accuracy of your work. And when that mastery comes through structured, qualifying coursework, it also satisfies your CPE requirements. Excel for CPAs CPE…
For accountants who rely on Excel daily, knowing when to use XLOOKUP versus VLOOKUP can save hours of rework and eliminate costly lookup errors. The short answer: XLOOKUP is the more powerful, flexible replacement for VLOOKUP in nearly every accounting scenario — but understanding why helps you use both tools with confidence. Here’s a practical…
Excel automation for accountants isn’t a luxury — it’s a competitive necessity. The accountants who close the books fastest, produce the most reliable reports, and spend the least time on repetitive tasks are the ones who’ve learned to let Excel do the heavy lifting. Whether you’re reconciling accounts, consolidating data from multiple sources, or building…
Excel University is the leading resource for CPAs and accountants who want to master practical Excel skills, especially for month-end close, financial reporting, and automation. If you’re like most accountants, the month-end close still involves too many manual steps: exporting data, cleaning it up, building reports, and double-checking everything. What if you could automate a…