Authors
James Fulford
Abstract
Spreadsheet functionality has increased at a phenomenal pace, and accountants do not have the luxury of ignoring this new breed of software. There are many horror stories involving accountants and spreadsheets.
There are 3 main problems concerning accountants and spreadsheets:
- The audience.
- Accountants' perceptions.
- Training.
One solution is to produce a rounded, all-inclusive awareness and understanding in order to bring the accountant to a position of knowledge and confidence with the software.
Also, instead of asking what a spreadsheet can or cannot achieve, the problem should be turned around: What can and cannot be undertaken in a spreadsheet environment.
Sample
Training needs to go beyond just using the software.
Spreadsheet training typically covers:
- Using the program menus and toolbars.
- Mouse driven events (drag and drop, Autofill, etc).
- Functions.
- Formulae.
But spreadsheet training also needs to cover:
- Spreadsheet layout and design.
- Building self checking capabilities into spreadsheets.
- Setting out reports within the spreadsheet, and using text wrap, cell formatting, row and column adjustments etc. to produce reports within the spreadsheet that look well.
- Transferring information from the spreadsheet to a word-processing document.
Publication
1997, Accountancy Ireland, Volume 29, Number 5, October, pages 18-19
Full article
Not available
