ACCOUNTING ANALYTICS WITH EXCEL & POWER BI TRAINING COURSE

Course Introduction

Accounting Analytics with Excel & Power BI Training Course is a comprehensive and practical professional programme designed to equip accountants, auditors, finance managers, financial analysts, financial controllers, management accountants, and business professionals with advanced skills in accounting data analytics, Microsoft Excel, Power BI, financial modelling, data visualization, and data-driven financial decision-making. The programme integrates advanced Excel functions, formulas, PivotTables, Power Query, Power Pivot, financial modelling, accounting analysis, and Microsoft Power BI to enable participants to transform large volumes of accounting and financial data into meaningful business intelligence. Participants will learn how to analyse general ledger transactions, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, revenue, expenses, budgets, cash flows, inventory, fixed assets, and financial statements using modern accounting analytics techniques.
The training provides extensive coverage of Excel for accounting, advanced formulas and functions, financial data cleaning, data validation, reconciliation, PivotTables, PivotCharts, Power Query, Power Pivot, data modelling, and automated reporting. Participants will learn how to develop accounting analysis models, perform budget-versus-actual analysis, financial ratio analysis, variance analysis, trend analysis, cash-flow analysis, profitability analysis, aging analysis, working capital analysis, and management reporting. The course then progresses into Power BI for accounting analytics, covering data extraction, transformation, data modelling, relationships, DAX measures, interactive dashboards, financial KPIs, risk indicators, and automated financial reporting.
Participants will develop practical skills in combining Excel and Power BI to create integrated accounting analytics solutions. They will learn how to import data from accounting software, ERP systems, Excel workbooks, CSV files, databases, and other financial information systems; clean and transform data using Power Query; build analytical data models; create financial measures using DAX; and develop interactive dashboards for management, finance, audit, and executive decision-making. Relevant general case studies will demonstrate the identification of duplicate payments, unusual transactions, budget variances, overdue receivables, supplier risks, cash-flow problems, revenue trends, expense anomalies, and profitability changes.
By the end of the training, participants will be able to independently use Excel and Power BI to analyse accounting information, automate financial reporting, develop management dashboards, identify financial trends and anomalies, and communicate financial insights effectively. The programme is suitable for organizations seeking to modernize accounting operations, improve financial reporting, strengthen financial controls, reduce manual reporting, and develop data-driven finance capabilities. The course can be customized for banks, government institutions, NGOs, corporations, insurance companies, audit firms, development organizations, manufacturing companies, and other entities using Excel, ERP systems, accounting software, databases, and financial management platforms.

Course Objectives

1. Understand the principles and applications of accounting data analytics using Excel and Power BI.
2. Apply advanced Excel formulas, functions, PivotTables, PivotCharts, and financial analysis tools to accounting data.
3. Clean, transform, validate, reconcile, and prepare accounting datasets using Excel Power Query.
4. Develop financial models for budgeting, forecasting, profitability, cash flow, working capital, and management reporting.
5. Analyse financial statements, general ledger transactions, revenue, expenses, receivables, payables, payroll, and other accounting data.
6. Build Power BI data models, relationships, calculated columns, measures, and DAX formulas for accounting analytics.
7. Develop interactive financial dashboards, KPIs, management reports, variance analysis, and financial performance visualizations.
8. Apply Excel and Power BI analytics to identify errors, anomalies, duplicate transactions, financial risks, and control weaknesses.
9. Automate recurring accounting reports, financial analysis, reconciliations, and management information.
10. Develop integrated Excel and Power BI accounting analytics solutions that support strategic financial decision-making.

Organization Benefits

1. Improves the quality, accuracy, and speed of accounting and financial analysis.
2. Reduces manual financial reporting through automated Excel and Power BI workflows.
3. Enables finance teams to analyse large volumes of accounting and transactional data.
4. Strengthens financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and management decision-making.
5. Improves identification of financial anomalies, duplicate transactions, errors, and control weaknesses.
6. Enhances management visibility through interactive financial dashboards and real-time or frequent reporting.
7. Strengthens audit analytics, internal controls, reconciliation, and financial monitoring.
8. Reduces reporting time and improves finance team productivity.
9. Improves communication of financial performance through clear data visualization and KPI reporting.
10. Builds sustainable organizational capacity in Excel, Power BI, accounting analytics, and digital finance.

Target Participants

The course is designed for Accountants, Chief Accountants, Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, Management Accountants, Financial Analysts, Auditors, Internal Auditors, External Auditors, Budget Officers, Treasury Officers, Revenue Officers, Accounts Payable Officers, Accounts Receivable Officers, Payroll Officers, Forensic Accountants, Risk Managers, Compliance Officers, Data Analysts, Business Analysts, ERP Specialists, Finance Transformation Professionals, and other professionals responsible for accounting, financial reporting, budgeting, financial analysis, audit, data analytics, and management reporting.

Course Outline

Module 1: Excel Foundations for Accounting Data Analytics

1. Excel accounting analytics environment, workbook structures, financial data organization, and accounting data preparation.
2. Advanced Excel formulas and functions including IF, SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, XLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, IFERROR, and logical functions.
3. Financial calculations, accounting schedules, reconciliations, working capital analysis, and transaction-level analysis.
4. Excel Tables, named ranges, data validation, conditional formatting, sorting, filtering, and structured financial datasets.
5. PivotTables, PivotCharts, slicers, grouping, drill-down analysis, and interactive accounting reports.
6. General Case Study: Analysing a general ledger and accounts payable dataset in Excel to identify unusual transactions, duplicate invoices, account variances, and supplier payment trends.

Module 2: Excel Power Query and Advanced Accounting Data Preparation

1. Introduction to Power Query for accounting data extraction, transformation, cleansing, and automated reporting.
2. Importing accounting data from Excel, CSV files, accounting software, ERP systems, databases, and financial management platforms.
3. Data cleansing, duplicate removal, missing values, inconsistent formats, data types, error handling, and financial data validation.
4. Merging and appending accounting datasets including general ledger, suppliers, invoices, payments, customers, and budgets.
5. Automated reconciliation, data refresh, query management, transformation workflows, and audit-ready accounting datasets.
6. General Case Study: Combining monthly accounts payable files and supplier master data using Power Query to create a standardized dataset for financial analysis and reconciliation.

Module 3: Financial Modelling and Advanced Accounting Analytics with Excel

1. Financial statement analysis, income statement analysis, balance sheet analysis, cash-flow analysis, and key financial ratios.
2. Budget-versus-actual analysis, variance analysis, cost analysis, revenue analysis, expense analysis, and financial performance measurement.
3. Accounts receivable aging, accounts payable aging, working capital analysis, cash conversion cycle, and liquidity analysis.
4. Profitability analysis, customer profitability, product profitability, cost-centre analysis, and management accounting analytics.
5. Financial forecasting, scenario analysis, sensitivity analysis, budgeting models, cash-flow forecasting, and financial planning.
6. General Case Study: Developing an Excel financial model to analyse revenue, expenses, profitability, working capital, cash flow, budget variances, and future financial scenarios.

Module 4: Power BI for Accounting Data Analytics and Data Modelling

1. Introduction to Power BI for accounting, finance, management reporting, business intelligence, and financial data visualization.
2. Connecting Power BI to Excel, CSV, ERP systems, accounting software, databases, and other financial data sources.
3. Power Query in Power BI for financial data cleansing, transformation, integration, validation, and automated refresh.
4. Power BI data modelling, fact and dimension tables, relationships, data structures, and accounting analytics models.
5. Creating calculated columns, measures, financial KPIs, DAX calculations, and accounting-specific analytical metrics.
6. General Case Study: Building a Power BI accounting data model connecting general ledger, invoices, suppliers, customers, payments, and budget data for integrated financial analysis.

Module 5: Power BI Financial Dashboards, KPIs and Management Reporting

1. Designing interactive Power BI dashboards for financial performance, accounting operations, audit, risk, and management reporting.
2. Developing financial KPIs for revenue, expenses, profitability, liquidity, receivables, payables, cash flow, and budget performance.
3. Creating variance dashboards, trend analysis, aging reports, financial ratios, profitability reports, and executive financial scorecards.
4. Using charts, tables, cards, slicers, filters, drill-through, drill-down, tooltips, and interactive visualization techniques.
5. Publishing, refreshing, securing, sharing, and maintaining Power BI financial reports and dashboards.
6. General Case Study: Developing an executive Power BI financial dashboard showing revenue performance, expenses, profitability, cash flow, receivables, payables, and budget variances.

Module 6: Integrated Excel & Power BI Accounting Analytics and Automation

1. Integrating Excel and Power BI to create comprehensive accounting data analytics and financial reporting solutions.
2. Automating recurring accounting reports, reconciliations, financial analysis, budget reports, aging reports, and management information.
3. Applying analytics to detect duplicate payments, unusual transactions, financial anomalies, revenue leakage, and control exceptions.
4. Developing automated financial dashboards, exception reports, alerts, KPIs, risk indicators, and continuous accounting monitoring.
5. Establishing accounting analytics governance covering data quality, security, access controls, documentation, validation, and reporting standards.
6. General Case Study: Developing an end-to-end Excel and Power BI accounting analytics solution covering data extraction, cleansing, reconciliation, financial analysis, anomaly detection, visualization, automated reporting, and management decision-making.

General Information

1. Customized Training: All our courses can be tailored to meet the specific needs of participants.
2. Language Proficiency: Participants should have a good command of the English language.
3. Comprehensive Learning: Our training includes well-structured presentations, practical exercises, web-based tutorials, and collaborative group work. Our facilitators are seasoned experts with over a decade of experience.
4. Certification: Upon successful completion of training, participants will receive a certificate from Foscore Development Center (FDC-K).
5. Training Locations: Training sessions are conducted at Foscore Development Center (FDC-K) centers. We also offer options for in-house and online training, customized to the client's schedule.
6. Flexible Duration: Course durations are adaptable, and content can be adjusted to fit the required number of days.
7. Onsite Training Inclusions: The course fee for onsite training covers facilitation, training materials, two coffee breaks, a buffet lunch, and a Certificate of Successful Completion. Participants are responsible for their travel expenses, airport transfers, visa applications, dinners, health/accident insurance, and personal expenses.
8. Additional Services: Accommodation, pickup services, flight booking, and visa processing arrangements are available upon request at discounted rates.
9. Equipment: Tablets and laptops can be provided to participants at an additional cost.
10. Post-Training Support: We offer one year of free consultation and coaching after the course.
11. Group Discounts: Register as a group of more than two and enjoy a discount ranging from 10% to 50%.
12. Payment Terms: Payment should be made before the commencement of the training or as mutually agreed upon, to the Foscore Development Center account. This ensures better preparation for your training.
13. Contact Us: For any inquiries, please reach out to us at training@fdc-k.org or call us at +254712260031.
14. Website: Visit our website at www.fdc-k.org for more information.