Publications

Microsoft recently released Office 2016, and with it, the next version of my favorite program—which is, of course, Excel. The user interface is about the same as 2013 and you’ll feel right at home. Microsoft focused on expanding Excel’s data visualization capabilities by introducing several new chart types and on Excel’s ability to import and transform…

If you haven’t checked out Excel’s conditional formatting feature recently, you’re missing out on some nice enhancements. The feature formats a cell based on its value. Excel continuously monitors the cell value and updates the formatting as the cell value changes. Conditional formatting has traditionally been limited to basic cell formatting such as fill and…

There are often several ways in Excel to accomplish any goal. For example, when building reports, we can use formulas or PivotTable. When building a formula-based report, we typically set up the report labels as desired and then write Excel formulas to compute the amount values and subtotals. This is a terrific approach when we…

Have you ever had two lists in Excel and wondered what items on one list appear on the other? For example, you’ve exported a check register from your accounting system and downloaded activity from your bank’s website, and you simply wanted to know which checks cleared the bank. That is, which checks on the checklist…

How do you know your workbook is accurate? This question is important because it’s our responsibility to ensure that data flows properly through the workbook, with numbers that tie out, and with reports that are internally consistent. One way to help ensure workbook accuracy is by creating a worksheet within the workbook dedicated to this…

Excel 2013 Highlights The next version of my most favorite program is here—it’s finally here! Excel 2013 is available, and I’m excited to review some of the highlights. Microsoft clearly invested a lot of time into this product. Here are just a few of the things you’ll notice about Excel 2013.   Microsoft Kept the…

Did you know Excel has a built-in web browser with a special feature other browsers don’t? The Excel browser visually identifies and allows you to select web tables, and then import them into Excel in a structured way. The best thing is that once you have imported a table, you can refresh the data range…

Many CPA firms install several years of tax preparation software on their desktop computers, in addition to perhaps a few different versions of QuickBooks. This often prevents firms from easily upgrading to new hardware because the prior year programs may not run well on new operating systems and it’s a hassle to find all of…

Microsoft released Excel 2010 about a year ago and, while you may have upgraded by now, you may be like me. Sometimes I’ll upgrade an application, but not take the time to learn about its new features. So I continue doing my work on the “DILLY” method—you know, Do It Like Last Year. But each…

Two enhancements introduced in Excel 2007 may have slipped past you: multiple condition sum with SUMIFS and Tables (not Pivot Tables). It’s my hunch that once you discover them, you’ll fall in love with them the way I have. Please note: this Author’s version contains additional screenshots and info. For the Published version, please visit…