Human Resources
Basic Excel Skills For Accountants
CWS2026344
100 Minutes
Jun 12,2026
10:00 AM PDT | 01:00 PM EDT
Overview
Many accounting professionals underutilize Excel’s robust features, often relying on manual processes that increase the risk of error and consume valuable time. In this comprehensive and engaging webinar, Excel expert David Ringstrom, CPA, demystifies the practical tools within Excel that can help accounting professionals streamline spreadsheet tasks, improve data accuracy, and work more efficiently. Using real-world examples, this session focuses on Excel fundamentals that support stronger and more reliable spreadsheet processes in everyday accounting work.
To reinforce learning, David demonstrates each technique twice. He first uses easy-to-follow PowerPoint slides with numbered steps and then shows the same process live in the Microsoft 365 version of Excel. He also highlights key differences in earlier versions, including Excel 2021, 2019, 2016, and prior releases, so attendees can apply what they learn regardless of their software version. Participants will also receive detailed handouts and a downloadable workbook featuring all examples from the presentation for convenient reference after the webinar.
Topics Typically Covered:
- Avoiding the need to create spreadsheets from scratch by using prebuilt templates or creating your own
- Eliminating repetitive formulas by using Excel’s Data Table feature
- Comparing Excel’s AGGREGATE function with the SUBTOTAL function
- Automating chart resizing by leveraging Excel tables
- Using the SUMIF function to total values based on specified criteria
- Enhancing the accuracy of pivot tables with Excel’s Table feature
- Quickly inserting totals in lists with Excel’s Subtotal tool
- Jump-starting new projects with free, built-in Excel templates
- Applying design techniques to improve the reliability of the SUM function
- Understanding how Excel Tables strengthen spreadsheet structure
- Recovering from damaged workbooks and knowing what steps to take
- Using the Quick Access Toolbar to filter data with a keystroke instead of multiple clicks
Your Benefits For Attending:
- Define the argument within Excel’s SUBTOTAL function that sums columns or rows.
- Identify which versions of Excel permit using slicers with both tables and pivot tables.
- Identify the command used to activate Quick Access Toolbar shortcuts.
By attending, you will gain practical, immediately usable Excel knowledge that can help you work faster, reduce spreadsheet errors, and improve the integrity of your accounting data. This webinar is especially valuable for professionals looking to strengthen spreadsheet efficiency with techniques they can apply right away.
You will leave this session with actionable knowledge to increase the speed, accuracy, and integrity of your spreadsheet work. This will help you save time and reduce costly errors in your accounting tasks.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Topics at a Glance
- Presenting with Microsoft 365 for Windows
- Section 1: Smarter Summing and Subtotals
- Creating Smarter SUM Formulas
- Preventing Double-Counting with SUBTOTAL
- Using the SUBTOTAL Feature
- Using the SUMIF Function
- Using the SUMIFS Function
- Section 2: Table Fundamentals and Filtering
- Transforming Static Lists into Dynamic Tables
- Adding a Total Row to an Excel Table
- Section 3: Analysis and Projection
- Filtering Excel Tables with Slicers
- Filtering Data with the AutoFilter Shortcut
- Section 4: Summarizing Data with Pivot Tables
- Using PivotTables with the Table Feature
- Eliminating Data Integrity Risks with Tables
- Section 5: Formatting and Layout Efficiency
- Creating Self-Expanding Charts
- Creating and Applying Cell Styles
- Section 6: Worksheet Navigation and Review
- Navigating Worksheets with Keyboard Shortcuts
- Restoring Full Screen View
- Section 7: Protecting and Maintaining Workbooks
- Creating a Locked-Cell Formatting Toggle Shortcut
- Protecting a Worksheet
- Repairing Damaged Workbooks
- Top 5 Takeaways
- Speaker Closing
- Presentation Closing
Index
- #N/A Error
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Autofilter
- Cell
- Cell Reference
- Charts
- Column
- Column Headings
- Data Table
- Dialog Box
- Filter
- Format
- Formula
- INDEX Function
- Keyboard Shortcut
- MATCH Function
- Microsoft 365
- PivotTable
- Quick Access Toolbar
- Ribbon
- Row
- Scroll Bar
- Slicer
- Spreadsheet
- Subtotal Feature
- SUM
- SUMIF
- SUMIFS
- Table
- Table Feature
- Total Row
- VLOOKUP
- Workbook
- Workbook
- Worksheets
- Wrap Text
- XLOOKUP
Key Terms
#N/A Error: Excel displays this error when a lookup function, such as VLOOKUP or MATCH, cannot return the requested information.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by humans or animals.
Autofilter: The basic Excel filter (also known as the Excel Autofilter) allows you to view specific rows in an Excel spreadsheet while hiding the other rows. When the Excel autofilter is added to the header row of a spreadsheet, a drop-down menu appears in each cell of the header row.
Cell: In spreadsheet applications, a cell is a box in which you can enter a single piece of data. The data is usually text, a numeric value, or a formula. The entire spreadsheet is composed of rows and columns of cells.
Cell Reference: A cell reference refers to a cell or a range of cells on a worksheet and can be used in a formula so that Microsoft Office Excel can find the values or data that you want that formula to calculate. There are three types: Relative, Absolute, and Mixed
Chart: In Microsoft Excel, a chart is often called a graph. It is a visual representation of data from a worksheet that can bring more understanding to the data than just looking at the numbers. A chart is a powerful tool that allows you to visually display data in a variety of different chart formats such as Bar, Column, Pie, Line, Area, Doughnut, Scatter, Surface, or Radar charts.
Column: A column is a vertical series of cells in a chart, table, or spreadsheet in Excel.
Column Headings : The column heading or column header is the gray-colored row containing the letters (A, B, C, etc.) used to identify each column in the worksheet. The column header is located above row 1 in the worksheet.
Data Table: Data tables are defined as a range of cells that are used for testing and analyzing outcomes on a large scale. It is a way to see how altering the values in a formula affect the results. Data tables can store the results of multiple scenarios in your spreadsheet, and saves you time in calculating multiple formulas.
Dialog Box: A dialog box in Excel is a screen where you input information and make choices about different aspects of the current worksheet or its content, such as data, charts, and graphic images.
Filter: The Filter feature in Excel allows you to show or hide rows within a list of data by making selections from drop-down lists. The Filter feature is available on the Data tab of all versions of Excel as well under the Sort & Filter command on the Home menu.
Format: When we format cells in Excel, we change the appearance of a number without changing the number itself. We can apply a number format (0.8, $0.80, 80%, etc) or other formatting (alignment, font, border, etc). By default, Excel uses the General format (no specific number format) for numbers.
Formula: A formula is an expression which calculates the value of a cell.
INDEX Function: The INDEX function can be used to return data from within a given range based on a row and/or column number that you specify.
Keyboard Shortcut: A keyboard shortcut is a series of one or several keys that invoke a software program to perform a preprogrammed action. This action may be part of the standard functionality of the operating system or application program, or it may have been written by the user in a scripting language.
MATCH Function: The MATCH function searches a prescribed range for specified criteria and returns a column or row number if a match is found. MATCH can be used with other functions that require a column or row number.
Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line.
Pivot Table: A report creation tool in Excel that enables you to quickly summarize lists of data into summary reports by clicking checkboxes and dragging fields onscreen.
Quick Access Toolbar: A customizable shortcut toolbar that appears above the ribbon in Office 2007 and later.
Ribbon: The "ribbon" is the strip of buttons and icons located above the work area that was first introduced in Excel 2007. The ribbon replaces the menus and toolbars found in earlier versions of Excel. Above the ribbon are a number of tabs, such as Home, Insert, and Page Layout.
Row: A row is the range of cells that go across (horizontal) the spreadsheet/worksheet. Rows are identified by numbers e.g. row 1, row 5. Examples of use. A row might contain the headings of a table e.g. product ID, product name, price, number sold.
SUBTOTAL: A worksheet function that allows you to sum, average, count, and other otherwise analyze data on just the visible cells within a given range.
SUM: Microsoft Excel defines SUM as a formula that “Adds all the numbers in a range of cells”. This definition clearly points that Sum function has a job to add numbers and the arguments can be supplied using combinations of both numbers and range of cells. =SUM The SUM function is a built-in function in Excel that is categorized as a Math/Trig Function. It can be used as a worksheet function (WS) in Excel. As a worksheet function, the SUM function can be entered as part of a formula in a cell of a worksheet.
SUMIF: A look-up function in Excel that allows you to add up numbers based upon a criterion that you specify. Unlike VLOOKUP, the SUMIF function can add up two or more values and returns zero (instead of #N/A) if no match is found.
SUMIFS: A look-up function in Excel that allows you to add up numbers based upon up to 127 criteria that you specify. Unlike VLOOKUP, the SUMIFS function can add up two or more values and returns zero (instead of #N/A) if no match is found.
Slicer: You can insert slicers in Excel to quickly and easily filter pivot tables. Slicers were introduced in Excel 2010, and they make it easy to change multiple pivot tables with a single click
Spreadsheet: Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. Excel forms part of the Microsoft Office suite of software.
Subtotal Feature: Available on the Data tab or menu of all versions of Excel, the Subtotal feature can be used to automatically insert totals within a list of data in a Excel spreadsheet.
Table: A table is an arrangement of data in rows and columns, or possibly in a more complex structure. Tables are widely used in communication, research, and data analysis. Tables appear in print media, handwritten notes, computer software, architectural ornamentation, traffic signs, and many other places.
Table Feature : The Table feature in Excel 2007 and later is an improvement on the List feature in Excel 2003 and earlier. The Table feature provides enhancements that make it much easier to analyze lists of data.
Total Row: A Total row appears below the data where each column has access to several automatic formulas. The default selection for the Total Row is none, meaning no function is selected when you first turn on the Total Row on your Table.
VLOOKUP: An Excel worksheet function that allows you to look up data from a list by specifying criteria, cell coordinates for the list, column number from which to return data, and an indication as to whether you want an exact or approximate match.
Workbook: In Microsoft Excel a workbook is a collection of one or more spreadsheets, also called worksheets, in a single file.
Worksheets: A worksheet is a collection of cells where you keep and manipulate the data. Each Excel workbook can contain multiple worksheets.
Wrap Text: Wrap Text is a feature that wraps the text within a cell. Wrap Text can be turned off by highlighting the cell and clicking the Wrap Text button again.
XLOOKUP: The XLOOKUP function searches a range or an array, and returns an item corresponding to the first match it finds. If a match doesn't exist, then XLOOKUP can return the closest (approximate) match. Where a valid match is not found, return the [if_not_found] text you supply.
David H Ringstrom
David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is a nationally recognized Microsoft Excel expert. He is the president and owner of Accounting Advisors, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia. David founded Accounting Advisors in 1991 as a consulting-services business, later he began teaching continuing education classes as well. His mission since is to offer quality training and consulting services on Microsoft Excel via live webcasts, on-demand self-study webcasts, and in-house engagements. David has taught hundreds of webinars on Excel and other topics, in addition to speaking at conferences and in-house engagements. More than 24 providers, located throughout the country as well as overseas, now look to David for their Excel and accounting software training needs. More than 24 providers, located throughout the country as well as overseas, now look to David for their Excel and accounting software training needs.
David’s Excel courses cover the gamut of the software’s features and functions to provide CPAs as well as accounting and financial professionals the knowledge they need to work more efficiently and effectively in Excel. David is known for saying, “Either you work Excel, or it works you.” Based on this belief, he focuses on teaching users what they don’t know but should know about Excel.
His comprehensive yet easy to understand presentations cover Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, and 2010. David’s webcasts are fast-paced, and he welcomes attendees’ questions. In addition, his detailed handouts and slides serve as handy reference tools students can fall back on after participating in his webcasts or taking his self-study courses.