Most books on Microsoft Excel for accounting and finance serve primarily academic research purposes: they are relatively unstructured and dominated by discussions of rather esoteric and infrequently used applications. None addresses the growing need for an introduction to crucial data analytic skills (i.e., analysis of 'big data') and to the recent innovations by Microsoft Excel in this regard, including Power Query (data cleaning and management), Power Pivot (advanced pivot tables using databases) and Power BI (creating executive KPI dashboards).
In Financial Modeling for Decision Making: Using MS-Excel in Accounting and Finance, Ron Messer provides just such a practical, advanced-level guide to this essential program. Crucially, he focuses on using Excel in situations encountered by accounting and finance students and professionals, and he structures these in terms of the past, present and future in order to reflect a typical operating cycle, which includes initial planning, exercising control, and receiving feedback. Throughout this book, Messer discusses real-life applications of this important analytical tool, which has become the industry standard for spreadsheet software.
For its clear structure and emphasis on practical usage, Financial Modeling for Decision Making is essential reading for accounting and finance professionals, as well as accounting and finance students in post-secondary institutions.
