Excel Tips

AI is reshaping business workflows, including how we use Excel.

Copilot — Microsoft's AI-powered assistant — can help finance professionals work more efficiently in Excel, from generating spreadsheets and explaining unfamiliar workbooks to writing VBA code.

However, like any AI tool, human oversight is vital.

Find out where Copilot can save you time and how to use AI more reliably in Excel.

In this episode, discover how to:

• Find Copilot in Excel and place it in the home ribbon

• Use Copilot's edit, planning and chat modes in Excel

• Apply personalisation rules and workbook-specific instructions

• Ask Copilot to explain formulas, analyse workbooks and identify data outliers

• Check AI-generated formulas and validate spreadsheet outputs

• Understand Copilot's limitations based on outputs and probabilities

Tune in now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

There is a useful companion video to go with this episode of Excel Tips.

And you can read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

Loving this content?

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance, and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Excel's core strength is working with numbers. And we love how it makes our data work more efficiently.

However, what happens when the data is words?

Python in Excel closes that gap, allowing you to analyse short-form feedback such as customer surveys, employee comments, training feedback and help desk responses.

This episode explains how sentiment analysis works and how to combine Python with Excel formulas to create a practical feedback analysis workflow.

You will learn:

• How sentiment analysis can help analyse large volumes of written feedback

• How Python in Excel gives Excel capabilities it does not have natively

• How VADER scores negative, neutral, positive and overall sentiment

• How to turn raw sentiment scores into useful descriptions with XLOOKUP

• How spill ranges, LET, DROP, HSTACK and VSTACK extend the analysis

• Where sentiment analysis can struggle, including sarcasm, irony and jargon

• Why human judgement is still needed to interpret and act on feedback

Tune in now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

There is a useful companion video to go with this episode of Excel Tips.

And you can read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

Loving this content?

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance, and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Can you make Excel reporting more interactive? Yes, you can.

And it's all to do with dynamic arrays.

In the second of this two-part series, discover how to create dynamic Excel charts this time using financial year calculations and checkboxes.

This is useful for finance pros because the techniques allow users more control.

You will learn:

• How to convert calendar year calculations into financial years
• How to use checkboxes to control ascending or descending chart order
• How checkboxes can figure out which metrics appear on a chart
• How PIVOTBY creates two-dimensional reports for chart data
• How FILTER, HSTACK and VSTACK can combine chart components
• How formatted tables allow charts to update when new monthly data is added
• How to build safeguards for accidentally deleted checkboxes

Tune in now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

There is a useful companion video to go with this episode of Excel Tips.

And you can read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

Loving this content?

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Wouldn't it be useful to learn how to build interactive Excel charts that respond automatically to user input using dynamic arrays?

This expert-led episode introduces the core techniques behind flexible charting in Excel, with practical examples.

Key takeaways:

• Create charts that automatically adjust the number of months displayed

• Use SEQUENCE to build flexible dynamic array calculations

• Combine data for charts with the HSTACK function

• Find the latest reporting period using MAX and EOMONTH

• Extract and summarise data with INDEX, MATCH and GROUPBY

• Fix a common dynamic array date bug using a simple formula adjustment

• Learn why helper cells make complex formulas easier to understand

This is the first episode in a two-part series on interactive Excel charts, with the next instalment in September covering more advanced reporting techniques, including financial year reporting.

Tune in now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

There is a useful companion video to go with this episode of Excel Tips.

And you can read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

Loving this content?

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance, and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

From trial balances to profit and loss statements, reporting sits at the centre of modern finance.

This episode explores how finance professionals can use DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) formulas and Power Pivot to build more powerful accounting reports in Excel.

Learn how to create scalable, maintainable reporting models using Excel's data model, while applying techniques that can also be used in Power BI.

Some of the key learnings:

• Understand the relationship between Power Pivot and DAX

• Build accounting reports using multiple related tables

• Overcome financial year limitations in pivot tables

• Correct debit and credit sign issues in trial balances

• Test and validate DAX measures using pivot tables

• Use AI to write, explain and review DAX formulas

Listen now to improve your Excel skills.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying YouTube video of this episode.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK, including this story that explains DAX in further detail.

Loving this content?

Don't forget to subscribe to EXCEL TIPS and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community.

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Excel macros are far from obsolete. And here's why.

This episode explores why VBAs (Visual Basic for Applications) still play an important role in workflow efficiency for accountants and finance professionals.

Key learnings:

• Why macros still matter in modern Excel workflows

• How VBA compares with Power Query

• The limits of Power Query for in-situ data fixes

• How AI can help write and debug VBA code

• How to automate data cleansing tasks in Excel

• Why VBA is a useful entry point into programming

• How to store macros in the personal macro workbook

• Ways to run macros from the quick access toolbar

Listen now to help level up your Excel skills with macros.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying YouTube video of this episode.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

Loving this content?

Don't forget to subscribe to EXCEL TIPS and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community.

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest?

Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Most finance professionals have made this mistake at least once.

You open last month's file, update the numbers, hit save, and only then realise you should have saved it as this month's version of the file.

This is where templates can help.

In this episode, explore how Excel templates solve that problem while also improving consistency across your reporting.

Main learnings:

• How Excel templates prevent accidental file overwrites

• The difference between workbook, sheet and task-based templates

• Where to find and manage built-in and personal templates

• How to create blank templates with pre-set formats and settings

• Using templates to embed headers, footers and branding

• Managing template storage, including system and shared folders

• How to apply templates across teams for consistency and control

Tune in now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying video - https://youtu.be/RJdT6FF-w58

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

Loving this content? Don't forget to subscribe to EXCEL TIPS and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community.

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

What if you could simplify Excel date calculations with one powerful custom function?

Well, this episode explains how.

You'll learn:

• How to handle different date increments including days, weeks and months in one function

• Using the SWITCH function to create a lookup table

• How the LAMBDA function can be deployed

• Best practice tips for this custom function

Listen now to improve your Excel skills.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying video for this episode.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

Loving this content? Don't forget to subscribe to EXCEL TIPS and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community.

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

Messy, unstructured data.

It slows reporting, creates errors, and tests everyone's patience. Right?

This episode breaks down how the new Regular Expressions (REGEX) work and how they help you find patterns in unstructured text, from email addresses to dates and hidden white space.

You will learn:

• what REGEX is and why it matters for accountants and analysts

• how to use REGEXEXTRACT, REGEXTEST and REGEXREPLACE

• when to combine REGEXTEST with FILTER for smarter analysis

• how REGEX now works inside XLOOKUP and XMATCH

• ways to manage white space and non-standard characters

• why building a reusable pattern library will save time.

Programmers have been using REGEX patterns for decades, but they've only just come to Excel.

The good news is Excel's new REGEX functions give finance teams a practical way to take back control.

Listen now to help improve your Excel skills.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying YouTube video of this episode.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

Loving this content?

Don't forget to subscribe to EXCEL TIPS and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community.

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]

You may know The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as a cornerstone of modern business thinking.

But what happens when those same principles from this book are applied to one of the most widely used tools in finance: Excel?

In this episode, we explore how the seven habits framework can be applied by accountants and finance professionals to design and build Excel models.

The focus is practical and grounded in real work, with key learnings including:

• How asking better questions leads to stronger Excel models

• Why planning and prioritisation matter before building anything

• Designing reports first and working back to the data

• Building proactive features that reduce errors and improve usability

• Using automation and AI thoughtfully to support the process

The episode also looks at where Excel fits alongside tools such as Power BI, and why judgement and planning still matter even as AI becomes more capable.

Listen now.

Host: Neale Blackwood CPA. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Microsoft Excel educator and is the author of more than 200 INTHEBLACK articles as well as a book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants.

For more, check out the accompanying YouTube video of this episode.

Loving this content?

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips and other CPA Australia podcasts like INTHEBLACK and With Interest? Head to CPA Australia's YouTube channel.

And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

You can find a CPA at our custom portal on the CPA Australia website.

CPA Australia publishes four podcasts, providing commentary and thought leadership across business, finance, and accounting:

With Interest

INTHEBLACK

Excel Tips

INTHEBLACK Out Loud

Search for them in your podcast platform.

You can email the podcast team at [email protected]