[Anonymous]

So I have an interview next week. The job listing said that excel skills are a must and “will be tested”

What are the top 5 or 10 excel skills you think are most critical to know?

I’m pretty comfortable with excel, but not sure I use many of its advanced features terribly often. I usually look up formulas I’m not familiar with. Tell me which advanced skills you think are most used in the accounting field.

[Anonymous]

We also use macros every day at work as well as pivot tables. OR function is also a good one. Also defining a named range I think is pretty important. Hlookups are also good (don't use as much as vlookups though). We work in excel ALL day and use formulas any time we can to make our lives easier. We normally use Macros to parse data file but knowing how to manually parse might be good as well. Anyways, good luck on your interview!!

[smalltimeauditor]

My favorite is “Concatenate” when importing trial balances. So, knowing “Left”, “Right”, “Mid” are very useful.

B - Passed
A - Passed
R - Passed
F - Passed

[Anonymous]

Interesting thread. I also do not mean to take it off topic but would like to hear opinions on the best method to learn these skills. I know most undergraduate programs include a computer software course but I have my doubts that it will get this in-depth. I have looked at several online Excel courses but have been concerned that I would end up spending hundreds of dollars only to find it teaching the basics that I already know.

[Anonymous]

@bsharrah – I learned some of the basics from undergraduate courses but really learned it when I started using it every day for my job. This is the same for Accesss – I had taken a class on it but didn't get it at all. After two years of corporate F&A my brain is wired to think to use a database before Excel.

Its quite a conundrum because I see people get turned away from entry level jobs for not having these skills but they really haven't had a chance or environment to hone them.

[Newguy]

Udemy has a intermediate and advanced class for excel. Listed at $99 each, but they currently have a special for both classed for $35 total. Check it out.

https://www.udemy.com/advanced-excel/?dtcode=8ib9si8k

FAR - 11/29/2012(75)
BEC - 11/27/2012(73) - 2/11/2013(79)
AUD - 04/08/2013(82)
REG - 05/28/2013(86) - Done

[Author]

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