Student Success Story: Michael

What was life like before you joined Excel University?

My name is Michael, and I work as an accountant for Davis & Hodgdon CPAs in Vermont. I was struggling with the organization of my worksheets, efficiency with formulas and not being able to get one formula to transfer through another. 

This affected me professionally and personally. The lack of efficiency meant there was not enough time in the day to get everything done. I ended up dragging on projects longer than necessary.

What has changed since you joined Excel University?

Gaining efficiency is always a positive, and I was able to achieve that with Excel University. I am now able to use VLOOKUP to get the account numbers in quickly without having to type them in manually.

I can also use SUMIFS to find different things and this has definitely helped me to classify different accounts and projects where a client might have multiple accounts posted to one project. 

The simple increases in efficiency have helped me the most, along with the design of some workbooks and being able to add in subtotals or rounding. I have been able to make it all a little nicer and cleaner than before.

What makes Excel University better than searching Google or YouTube?

Jeff takes you through step by step and gives you multiple different ways to figure stuff out. What I think makes Excel University a lot better than looking up stuff on Google is learning the function in depth.

For example, with the SUMIFS function, we have used it repeatedly in different scenarios and gone deeply into how it works.

When you search on Google or Youtube, you might look at one post that shows only one way a task can be completed. 

Excel University shows you five or six different ways you can use it within the same workbook or worksheet. This makes it easy to apply your new skills to all the projects you are working on.

What is one of your favorite time-saving techniques?

Previously I would use VLOOKUP in the trial balance, and it took me up to 30 minutes, depending on how big the chart of accounts was. Now it only takes 5 or 10 minutes if I am hitting VLOOKUP correctly. 

I might make a mistake here or there, but I just go back in and add it up a little bit differently, and get the results. It definitely takes me a lot less time importing those trial balances than before.

Would you recommend Excel University?

I would say anyone coming to work every day and using Excel would benefit from Excel University. Whether you are in finance or marketing or another role, if you are using Excel you should take the class. 

Excel University will help you to be more proficient and concise. If you are a person who designs worksheets for your coworkers to use it is going to help you make them clearer. 

There is a lot of value in making everyone's job a little bit easier at the end of the day.