Pre-employment Excel exam

[DavidRSA]

My wife who is an accounting grad is in the hiring process with a financial firm. The next step is to take a proficiency exam on excel and quickbooks.

I am helping her with the Excel portion. I am going through vlookups, pivot tables, basic macros. Any other suggestions as to topics which could come up on a basic proficiency test that I should cover with her? Has anyone taken such a test when applying for work in a bank or financial firm?

Any help will be much appreciated.

[Flyin Brian]

My wife who is an accounting grad is in the hiring process with a financial firm. The next step is to take a proficiency exam on excel and quickbooks.

I am helping her with the Excel portion. I am going through vlookups, pivot tables, basic macros. Any other suggestions as to topics which could come up on a basic proficiency test that I should cover with her? Has anyone taken such a test when applying for work in a bank or financial firm?

Any help will be much appreciated.

My wife is a controller and she said to make sure you go over the "IF" functions. Also she said to be sure she can create a loan amortization schedule; here is a brief tutorial from MS:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816643

[maddoggie13]

Ensure you are leaning excel 2007 and not 2003... There are many, many financial funtions in 2007.

[Down Range]

Check out some of the websites that offer continuing professional education (CPE) for CPAs. Almost all of them offer excel courses that are geared toward accountants.

Although it's fairly basic, I use conditional formulas and conditional formats quite a bit.

Best of luck to your wife in her job search!