Maximize Excel: Intro to Macros Part 1 (Video) (Course Id 2792)

• Who is this course for?
  This course is designed for professionals seeking Continuing Professional Education (CPE), particularly CPAs or accountants who want to improve their efficiency using Microsoft Excel.

• What is this course about or what problem does this course solve?
  This course teaches participants how to automate repetitive Excel tasks using macros by demonstrating how to record, edit, manage, and safely use macros to streamline everyday spreadsheet work.

• How can the knowledge from this course be used?
  The knowledge from this course can be used to automate multi-step tasks in Excel—such as formatting spreadsheets and preparing exported reports—while also enabling users to create shortcuts and store reusable macros for future work.

• Why is this course important to a CPA or Accountant?
  This course is important because it helps CPAs and accountants increase productivity and accuracy in spreadsheet-based workflows by automating repetitive tasks commonly encountered in financial reporting and data preparation.

• When is this course relevant or timely?
  This course is relevant whenever professionals regularly work with Excel and need to improve efficiency by automating repetitive processes within their spreadsheets.

• How is a course like this consumed or used?
  This course is delivered as a video-based QAS self-study course where participants watch demonstrations, review the provided materials, and complete a final exam with a passing score of at least 70% to earn CPE credit.

Macros allow you to automate repetitive Excel tasks without writing code by hand. In this practical session, David Ringstrom, CPA and author of Excel for Dummies, demonstrates how to record, edit, manage, and safely use Excel macros to streamline everyday work. You’ll learn how the macro recorder works, when to use relative references, how to store macros in the Personal Macro Workbook, and how to automate multi-step cleanup tasks such as formatting and preparing exported reports. The session also covers macro security, saving macro-enabled files, and creating one-click shortcuts for running macros efficiently.

David H. Ringstrom, CPA, has more than 30 years of experience as a spreadsheet and accounting software consultant and speaker. He has presented over 2,500 live webinars and is the author or co-author of ten books, including “Microsoft 365 Excel All-in-One for Dummies”, “Microsoft 365 Excel for Dummies”, “Exploring Microsoft Excel’s Hidden Treasures”, and “QuickBooks Online for Dummies”.

In his webinars, David demonstrates every technique twice: first on a PowerPoint slide with numbered steps, and then live in Excel for Microsoft 365 for Windows. He highlights any differences in Excel 2024, 2021, or 2019 during the presentation and in his detailed handouts. Attendees also receive an Excel workbook containing most of the examples he uses, making it easy to follow along and apply the techniques later. David additionally supports Excel for Mac users by answering their follow-up questions via email.

Video - NASBA QAS - NASBA Registry - 2792

Course Learning Objectives

• Recall the file format that results in discarding macros from your workbook when you save.
• Identify which non-alphanumeric character can be used within a macro's name.
• Recall the Excel menu that contains the Record Macro command.

Chapter 1 - Maximize Excel: Intro to Macros Part 1

Chapter 1 Review Questions

Key Terms