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Courses/Office Productivity/MS Excel

Excel University Lesson 405: Automating Accounting Workbooks with Excel

Streamline your monthly close, budgeting, and financial reporting with advanced Excel techniques.

Created byJeff Lenningworkspace_premium
IntermediateUpdated Sep 22, 2026
Excel University Lesson 405: Automating Accounting Workbooks with Excel

What You'll Learn

check_circleApply advanced lookup functions to automate recurring journal entries
check_circleConstruct dynamic budget templates that support multiple allocation methods
check_circleDevelop automated financial work papers for depreciation and loan amortization
check_circleDesign summary reports that consolidate data from multiple source worksheets
check_circleImplement error-checking and validation techniques to ensure workbook integrity

About This Course

This course provides a practical approach to building recurring-use Excel workbooks for essential accounting and finance tasks. It covers the development of automated journal entry logs, subscription revenue recognition, deferred rent schedules, and corporate expense allocations. Additionally, it addresses the creation of budget templates with flexible methods and the construction of common financial work papers including depreciation schedules, loan amortization, and ratio analysis. The material focuses on using consistent formulas, dynamic ranges, and lookup functions to ensure workbooks remain easy to maintain and update across future periods.

Topics Covered

  • Monthly journal entry automation
  • Subscription revenue deferral calculations
  • Straight-line deferred rent adjustments
  • Corporate expense allocation methods
  • Payroll accrual and overhead estimation
  • Flexible budget template design
  • Loan amortization and depreciation schedules
  • Financial ratio analysis and reporting

Your Instructor

Jeff Lenning
Jeff Lenning

CPA and Microsoft Certified Trainer

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star1,163 reviews

In his live CPE training sessions, Jeff Lenning CPA has shown thousands of CPAs and accounting professionals across the country how to use Excel to streamline their work and become more efficient. Several publications have featured his Excel articles, including the Journal of Accountancy and California CPA Magazine. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Jeff began his career in the audit practice at Arthur Andersen’s Orange County office. He was a senior financial analyst at Gateway computers and the accounting manager at Interpore Cross International. In 2000, he founded Click Consulting Inc., a technology-consulting firm that specializes in Excel training, consulting, development, and personal coaching. He is a past president of the CalCPA OCLB Chapter, the former chair of the California CPA State Technology Committee, co-chair of the California CPA OCLB Chapter Technology Committee, a board member of the California CPA OCLB Chapter, on the California Society of CPAs Council, and an instructor for the AICPA and the California CPA Education Foundation. A Microsoft Office Certified Excel Expert, he is a nationally recognized speaker and trainer. He was recently recognized with the California CPA Education Foundation's Award for Instructor Excellence.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.

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