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]

Excel Tips Summer Season Encore presentation from October 2025

In this episode of Excel Tips, we explore the latest Excel updates that can help to boost productivity and simplify workflows for finance and accounting professionals.

Listeners will learn:

• How to use TRIMRANGE for flexible range selection

• What's new with pivot table formatting and an exciting update on auto-refresh

• How the TRANSLATE function works for multilingual data

• The simplified syntax for BYROW and BYCOL functions

• How three new Regex (regular expressions) functions can use patterns to identify data.

Packed with practical insights, this episode helps you explore Excel's latest upgrades to save time, improve analysis and elevate decision-making.

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.

The companion video and Excel file will go into more detail to demonstrate these techniques.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

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

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips episodes? 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]

Handy new Excel features are added regularly – but some "older" functions are still particularly useful to your workflows.

Smart power users know these older functions and their value – which is why this episode highlights some of the overlooked Excel features that are still valuable to your spreadsheet work today.

Tips include:

• How multiple windows make it easier to copy and compare

• How the grouping feature works well with rows and columns

• How auto outline and subtotals automate structure and hierarchy in datasets

• Techniques for selecting visible cells to avoid errors during copying

• How custom lists save time and support non-alphabetic sorting

This is a practical guide for anyone looking to sharpen their Excel capability, streamline reporting and improve their workflow efficiency.

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.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

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.

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]

Did you know that you can transform the way you can build models, reports and schedules with custom functions?

This episode guides you on how they make complex calculations cleaner and easier to maintain. You'll also learn practical ways to document, test and reuse these functions for consistent results.

In this episode, an Excel expert will:

• Explain how to create custom functions using the LAMBDA function

• Outline how the LET function works

• Demonstrate creating a loan schedule "mega formula"

• Cover useful functions like HSTACK and VSTACK

Perfect for accountants, analysts and finance professionals ready to take Excel mastery to the next level.

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]

In this episode of Excel Tips, we explore the latest Excel updates that can help to boost productivity and simplify workflows for finance and accounting professionals.

Listeners will learn:

• How to use TRIMRANGE for flexible range selection

• What's new with pivot table formatting and an exciting update on auto-refresh

• How the TRANSLATE function works for multilingual data

• The simplified syntax for BYROW and BYCOL functions

• How three new Regex (regular expressions) functions can use patterns to identify data.

Packed with practical insights, this episode helps you explore Excel's latest upgrades to save time, improve analysis and elevate decision-making.

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.

The companion video and Excel file will go into more detail to demonstrate these techniques.

Read more of Neale's Excel articles on INTHEBLACK.

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

Would you like to listen to more Excel Tips episodes? 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]