Automate journals, ledgers, trial balances, closing, departments, and financial statements with advanced Excel formulas.
Take your accounting and Excel skills to the next level by building an automated accounting and financial reporting system directly in Excel.
In this hands-on course, we will use Excel to construct and automate the accounting cycle from the ground up. Rather than simply entering numbers into finished reports, we will build the underlying system that moves accounting data from journal entries through the general ledger, trial balance, departmental reports, and ultimately the financial statements.
We will begin with the foundational structure of an accounting system, including the chart of accounts, account numbers, account types, departments, and standardized formatting. From there, we will create journal-style source data and use Excel formulas to dynamically generate the reports that accountants normally expect from accounting software.
A major focus of the course is automation. We will use advanced Excel tools, including dynamic FILTER formulas, lookup formulas, conditional aggregation, date criteria, and structured reporting techniques to reduce manual data entry and allow reports to update automatically when the underlying accounting data changes.
We will automate the general ledger from journal data and use the resulting information to construct an automated trial balance. We will then expand the system to include departmental reporting, allowing the same accounting data to be analyzed and presented across different departments or classes without maintaining separate sets of records.
The course also explores two important ways of thinking about accounting information. First, we will follow the traditional accounting flow:
Journal → General Ledger → Trial Balance → Financial Statements
This structure provides an important audit trail and makes it easier to understand how accounting information moves through the system.
We will then compare that traditional structure with a more database-oriented approach in which a master transaction table acts as a single source of truth. From that common source, multiple accounting reports can be generated dynamically. This provides a practical introduction to the way accounting information systems and database-driven accounting software organize and report financial information.
We will also examine the differences between sorting, filtering, and pivoting accounting data and consider how these different approaches can be used to answer different reporting questions.
Another major component of the course is the accounting closing process. We will distinguish between permanent and temporary accounts and build reporting logic that responds to changing date ranges. Instead of treating closing as a hidden year-end procedure, we will use Excel to make the process visible and dynamic, allowing the system to recognize reporting periods and properly account for temporary account activity and retained earnings.
Finally, we will use the automated trial balance to construct dynamic financial statements, including the balance sheet and income statement. As dates, transactions, accounts, and departments change, the reporting system can update along with them.
Throughout the course, Excel serves as more than a spreadsheet. It becomes a transparent accounting information system in which we can see the formulas, relationships, classifications, dates, and data structures that produce the final accounting reports.
By building the system ourselves, we strengthen two skill sets at the same time: our understanding of the accounting cycle and our ability to use advanced Excel tools to organize, automate, analyze, and report accounting information.
The result is a practical accounting and Excel course focused on automation, financial reporting, accounting information systems, and the mechanics behind the reports produced by modern accounting software.
CPA, CGMA, M.S. Tax, CPI
Through working with students from many different schools, Mr. Steele has learned best practices for helping people understand accounting fast. Learning new skills and finding the best way to share knowledge with people who can benefit from it is a passion of his. Mr. Steele has experience working as a practicing Certified Public Accountant (CPA), an accounting and business instructor, and curriculum developer. He has enjoyed putting together quality tools to improve learning and has been teaching, making instructional resources, and building curriculum since 2009. He has been a practicing CPA since 2005. Mr. Steele is a practicing CPA, has a Certified Post-Secondary Instructor (CPI) credential, a Master of Science in taxation from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in accounting from The University of California Santa Barbara, and a Global Management Accounting Designation (CGMA) from The American Institute of CPA (AICPA). Mr. Steele has also authored five books that can be found on Amazon or in audiobook format on Audible. He has developed bestselling courses in accounting topics including financial accounting and QuickBooks accounting software. In addition to working as an accountant, teaching, and developing courses Mr. Steele has helped create an accounting website at accountinginstruction, a YouTube channel called Accounting Instruction, Help, and How Too, and has developed supplemental resources including a Facebook Page, Twitter Page, and Podcasts that can be found on I-tunes, Stitcher, or Soundcloud. Mr. Steele's teaching philosophy is to make content applicable, understandable, and accessible. Adult learners are looking for application when they learn new skills. In other words, learners want to be able to apply skills in the real world to help their lives. Mr. Steele’s formal accounting education, practical work experience, and substantial teaching experience allow him to create a curriculum that combines traditional accounting education with practical knowledge and application. He accomplishes the goals of making accounting useful and applicable by combining theory with real-world software like Excel and QuickBooks. Many courses teach QuickBooks data entry or Excel functions but are not providing the real value learners want. Real value is a result of learning technical skills like applications, in conjunction with specific goals, like accounting goals, including being able to interpret the performance of a business. Mr. Steele makes knowledge understandable by breaking down complex concepts into smaller units with specific objectives and using step by step learning processes to understand each unit. Many accounting textbooks cram way too much information into a course, making it impossible to understand any unit fully. By breaking the content down into digestible chunks, we can move forward much faster. Mr. Steele also makes use of color association in both presentations and Excel worksheets, a learning tool often overlooked in the accounting field, but one that can vastly improve the speed and comprehension of learning accounting concepts. The material is also made understandable through the application of concepts learned. Courses will typically demonstrate the accounting concepts and then provide an Excel worksheet or practice problems to work through the concepts covered. The practice problems will be accompanied by an instructional video to work through the problem in step by step format. Excel worksheets will be preformatted, usually including an answer tab that shows the completed problem, and a practice tab where learners can complete the problem along with a step by step presentation video. Mr. Steele makes learning accounting accessible by making use of technology and partnering with teaching platforms that have a vision of spreading knowledge like CPDformula.
