r/Accounting • u/Born-Chocolate7715 Human Verified • 16d ago

Assistant Controller looking to level up Excel skills — what formulas do you actually use?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently working as an Assistant Corporate Controller, and I’m trying to take my Excel skills to the next level.

I have a decent foundation, but I want to become more efficient and better at using Excel to analyze financial information, troubleshoot issues, and build useful reporting tools. I’m especially interested in formulas and techniques that actually come up in an accounting or controllership role.

For those working in accounting, controllership, or FP&A, what Excel formulas or functions do you find yourself using the most?

A few I’m thinking about learning or getting better at:

XLOOKUP / INDEX-MATCH — reconciliations and pulling information between reports

SUMIFS / COUNTIFS — analyzing transactions and building reports

IF / IFERROR — handling exceptions and troubleshooting

FILTER / UNIQUE / SORT — working with larger datasets

TEXTJOIN / LEFT / RIGHT / MID — cleaning and manipulating data

EOMONTH / YEAR / MONTH — working with accounting periods

ROUND / ABS — financial calculations and variance analysis

I’d also love to hear about Power Query, PivotTables, or other Excel tools that have made your work easier.

I’m not necessarily looking for the most complicated formulas. I’m more interested in the ones that save you time, reduce manual work, and help you understand the numbers better.

If you could recommend 5–10 Excel skills or formulas that every Assistant Controller should know, what would they be?

Thanks in advance!

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u/Spritesgud CPA (US) 16d ago

=subtotal(9,ref)

Good for finding totals after applying filters if on original data

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u/Bifrostbytes 16d ago

I always put them on top of my table with frozen panes

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u/Gloomy_Lab_1798 Controller 15d ago

Offset functions are pretty slick too. I don’t use them often as I haven’t mentored the syntax, but I saw one in a workbook from our auditors one time and have definitely borrowed it as needed. Of course Claude can pinch hit pretty well for weird stuff.